Top 20 Most Read Hotel Tech Stories of 2019
From emerging technology to customer experience to executive visionaries to digital transformation and more, Hospitality Technology takes a pause to recap the headlines that have surfaced to the top of the reading list for the 2019 year. Starting with the twentieth most-read article and working our way down to number one, here is what our readers were interested in this year:
20. Why One Hotel Lets Guests Test Technology Before They Buy
Hoteliers are constantly looking for new ways to interact with guests, engender loyalty, and offer an experience that makes their hotel stand out as unique, fun and different. Hotel Nia, a new 250-room Autograph Collection hotel located in the heart of Silicon Valley, recently introduced a new guest technology program that aims to accomplish all three of those initiatives. It has partnered with b8ta, a new kind of retail store designed for discovering, trying, and buying new innovative products.
19. Enhancing Guest Experiences with Unified Communications and Video Security
Today’s guests gravitate to retail and hospitality organizations that can deliver safe, seamless and streamlined experiences. Delivering on those expectations requires retailers and hospitality organizations to ensure well-coordinated employee communication, intelligent use of video security and effective use of self-learning video analytics.
18. Cyber Security Experts Weigh In on Marriott/Starwood Data Breach
While some might be shocked by the scale of this data breach, many security experts were not. In fact, the hospitality industry regularly falls behind other industries when it comes to data protection. Here, Hospitality Technology spoke with a range of cybersecurity experts and a lawyer to ascertain their opinions.
17. HT Roadmap: 4 Steps to Creating a Network of the Future
To get networks where they need to be, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality organizations need to chart a path from today’s outdated infrastructure to tomorrow’s agile, scalable platform. To provide guidance and best practices for doing so, HT talks to operators, industry consultants and technology providers to provide a blueprint for successful execution of the network of the future.
16. DoorDash and Wyndham Rewards Partner to Offer Hotel Guests On-Demand Food Access
DoorDash, an on-demand destination for door-to-door delivery in more than 4,000 cities in the United States and Canada, and Wyndham Rewards®, the loyalty program of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, launched a new partnership, powering on-property delivery service to more than 3,700 hotels across the nation and offering guests access to DoorDash’s industry-leading selection of restaurants.
15. Meeting the Threat in 2019: Cybersecurity for the Hospitality Sector
Facing a changing regulatory landscape designed to heighten responsibility by threatening fines, many hospitality companies are reconsidering their cybersecurity infrastructure. Megan Berkowitz, Writer for MGR Communications explains how to prepare for the future of cybersecurity.
14. How Your Hotel's Pricing Strategy Can Affect Profitability
Efficient hotel pricing strategy is a must-have for today’s hoteliers to increase their overall profitability. Hotel revenue managers should understand various aspects including distribution mix, demand forecast, competition pricing and consumers’ buying trends, etc. to manage pricing more effectively and to increase hotel profit.
13. FOH vs BOH: The Great Divide No Longer Exists
In their respective roles, FOH had their job to do with the dining public, and BOH had their culinary magic to create in the kitchen. Though dependent on one another to achieve their shared goals, both worked independently, only catching quick glimpses of each other during the mad rush of dinner and lunch hours.
12. Powering High-Touch with High-Tech
Technology and the luxury hotel experience may often seem to have an uneasy relationship. Upscale brands pride themselves on high-touch, but the realization has come that this cannot come at the expense of high-tech. Even the most white-glove of establishments know that antiquated digital touchpoints can quickly impact a guest’s sentiment and perception of a brand.
11. SPECIAL REPORT: Empowering the Modern Hotel Experience
In this Special Report, HT dives into what trends and technologies are key factors in next-gen customer experience satisfaction and will call out research to show where areas of opportunity still remain for hotels to gain competitive edge.
10. 2019 Hotel Accounting Trends Are All About the A's
Faced with greater demands in 2019, hoteliers will be forced to find new forms of automation to speed up financial processes and improve visibility on the back-end, while enticing guests to utilize mobile apps through enhanced personalization on the front-end.
9. Best Western Hotels & Resorts Acquires AutoClerk
The sale, finalized on July 31, 2019, marks a major investment in Best Western’s distribution strategy, at a time when the landscape has become increasingly complex. Current systems infrastructure complicates hotel ecosystems.
8. The State of IoT in Hospitality
With more and more individuals adopting connected devices at home, what consumers expect to be a part of the guest experience at hotels and restaurants has changed dramatically. Data reveals that hotel operators recognize this fact as 18% profess they are planning rollouts and upgrades to IoT platforms, double what it was in 2017, according to Hospitality Technology’s 2018 Lodging Technology Study.
7. Digital Disruption in Hospitality: Seven Top Technology Applications
Hospitality is one of the most underserved industries in terms of digital enablement. A recent study conducted by Avaya, found that 33% of hotels have not upgraded their phone system in more than five years and only 50% can communicate with guests outside of phone and email. Avaya sees this as a significant opportunity for the industry to grow revenue and improve customer experience.
6. Transformative Tech on a Global Scale
Eight years ago, Marco Trecroce was appointed as the first Chief Information Officer for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the world’s leading luxury. In an exclusive interview, Hospitality Technology spoke to Trecroce to distill the key pillars of the Four Seasons IT transformation.
5. 4 Trends Influencing Payment Innovation in Hotels
Hospitality Technology and Sertifi partnered with hotel technology executives and thought leaders to explore major themes in payment technology and discuss how to make the future of payments today's reality.
4. 2019 Customer Engagement Technology Study
The effective deployment of technology is now judged against multiple factors including: does it successfully delight customers, increase efficiency, inspire loyalty, and generate profits. Hospitality Technology examines the evolution and adoption of customer engagement technologies across hotels and restaurants.
3. Hospitality Technology’s 2019 Hotel Visionary Award Winners
HT magazine proudly announced the winners of the 2019 Hotel Visionary Awards. The Hotel Visionary awards honor hotel companies for outstanding achievement, vision and leadership in technological innovation.
2. At IHG, All Roads Lead Back to Concerto
During InterContinental Hotels Group Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call on February 19, CEO Keith Barr spoke to investors about its new Guest Reservation System and its cloud-based technology platform IHG Concerto.
1. Hotels Gear Up for the Age of Augmented Authenticity
In the 2019 Lodging Technology Study, hotels are gearing up for the age of augmented authenticity by focusing on data and digital engagement, which offer the opportunity for hotels to lead by finding a balance in powering the genuine service.