Why MACH Architecture Is the Winning formula for a New World of Hospitality
The hospitality industry has reached a tipping point. Digital disruption and the pandemic have created a perfect storm, forcing the industry to reinvent itself, pivoting to meet drastically changing guest demands.
Not too long ago it was easy for creators of property management software to identify their customer – there was usually only one. Whether that be hotels or student accommodations, their set up was fairly simple and it was the software that set the parameters of what was possible.
But as the landscape has changed, the closed environment of a legacy PMS is simply not flexible enough to keep up. If the past few years are anything to go by, hospitality brands will need to innovate even further to stay ahead of the game – and they’ll need next generation technology to help them do it.
MACH stands for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless and it is endlessly customizable. It's like a chameleon, capable of transforming itself to fit any scenario. It offers unparalleled flexibility, enabling operators to have the best of all worlds whilst building a tech stack. They can mix and match the best third-party solutions on the market, combine them with their own unique features, and have a core property management platform that seamlessly adapts to the latest generation of tools. It’s hybrid and futureproof — the opposite of legacy and traditional software.
As hospitality businesses venture into uncharted territories, diversifying like never before, countless operators are scrambling to harness the freedom granted by the MACH principles, opening the door to a world of possibilities.
Let’s take Raus, for example, a luxury outdoor hospitality brand offering remote getaways in countryside cabins. The challenges Raus faces are totally different from a traditional hotel set-up. They need a seamless user experience that mirrors the one they’d receive in a modern apartment or hotel setting. They have a multi-property infrastructure where no two locations or properties are the same – with different amenities and different services. To use a legacy property management system built for a traditional midscale hotel business would be totally impractical, if not impossible. Raus needed the freedom to create the tools that work for them and the ability to build a totally unique guest experience. In short, they need what’s being called ‘composable hospitality’ — a property management platform that can be endlessly customized.
Operators over the world are looking for a solution that will allow them to diversify or enhance their guest experience in an ever-changing landscape. For us, most surprising of all have been approaches from airport parking lots, senior living assets, glamping pods and, even a dog hotel. These are of course vastly different businesses, but they all have one thing in common – they need a flexible solution to managing their properties.
Traditional hotel operators with hundreds of bedrooms are no longer the only players in town. Today, guests are looking for more individual experiences, spacious accommodation, personal touches, and flexibility – a trend that isn’t going anywhere.
The world of hospitality is changing and adopting aMACH architecture will give operators the flexibility to adapt to whatever the market throws their way. If a serviced apartment operator wants to start selling hotel rooms or incorporate co-working space, or a hotel chain wants to start offering short term rentals, this revolutionary technology approach can make that happen, without having to reinvent the wheel.
MACH architecture is the future of technology and it's disrupting industries all over the world. There’s Contentful for content management, Commercetools for e-commerce, Stripe and Ayden for payment. As its popularity grows, it’s clear that traditional technology is no longer adequate for the fast-paced environment of the future and the hospitality industry is experiencing this first hand.
The days when hospitality providers were content to stay in their lane are over. There’s a wave of diversification sweeping the industry, and with the right technology at your fingertips, you could be at the cutting edge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Martin Reichenbach is the CEO and co-founder of Apaleo, the innovative Munich-based open property management platform. With years of experience consulting leading software companies including SAP, TeamViewer, and PayPal, Martin has an extensive background in the tech industry. Prior to his work at Apaleo, he co-founded the online marketplace Becoacht and an incubator program called The Venture. Today, Martin is focused on disrupting the nature of hospitality software with Apaleo's progressive API-first solution.