What’s in the cloud — and who owns it — anyway? Despite the industry’s reliance on cloud computing, security myths and other concerns swirl among discussions about the technology, sometimes leading operators to mistrust potential technology partners. These rumblings can lead to a storm of operational disruptions, leaving hoteliers feeling rudderless in a marketplace that requires constant adjustment and reaction.

Hotels are preparing for a busy summer of leisure travel, and for resort hotels across the industry, success during this period will be determined by their ability to improve ancillary revenue from across their property. Considering the limited available labor in the industry, hoteliers need to ensure their property has the right technology in place to maximize the return on their revenue-generating goods and services—especially independent operators. Unfortunately, not every hotel PMS is set up to offer the same advantages in resorts compared to full or limited-service hotels. Determining these capabilities starts with understanding your property’s tech stack.

In the past few years, hotels and restaurants have grown into hubs for entertainment, leisure, and human connection. In an effort to best serve their guests, operators have begun rethinking their technological investments and working to adapt to recent shifts in consumer preference and operations. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, brands are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their experiences more convenient and comfortable. Advanced property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) systems can increase operational and staff efficiency, while also meeting changing customer expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience.

Is your hotel’s data protected? What if your hotel lost access to its data overnight? A situation like this would be more than an inconvenience, it would threaten your hotel’s operations and negatively impact your business in a myriad of ways. Loss of access to data could be the result of an on-premises system crash, which will be inconvenient, but which can be brought back into operation reasonably quickly with the help of your PMS and IT teams. The more serious threat to hoteliers is ransomware attacks, and unfortunately, thanks to their rising prevalence, should be a real concern to hoteliers.

Finding ways to justify the cost of new technology can be a challenge in today’s current environment, but many hoteliers are relying on it throughout the pandemic to improve operations, interact with guests, train workers, and increase revenue. With 2022 in sight, the rest of the industry is taking stock of the most valuable technology innovations that were successfully put-to-use this year. One big hurdle remains: the hotel property-management system.