Tech Talk

Recent posts

Definitely Doug 11/17/23: The Hotel TV Dilemma
Posted: 11/17/2023

In case you missed the memo, people no longer watch television the way that they did ten years ago. Not at home, and not at hotels. Nielsen reported that streaming services cornered 34.8% of TV screen time in July 2022, when they overtook cable for the first time.

Property management systems (PMSs) fundamentally have changed very little since the 1980s. And many hotels still use systems that were built in the eighties, nineties, or aughts. Since then, massive technology changes have occurred: the mobile revolution, cloud computing, distributed ledgers, AI-based large language models, Web 3.0, and other innovations have fundamentally changed both the technological capabilities of software, the way it is designed and built, and expectations for user experience.

Read More +

Definitely Doug 10/20/23: Gluing It All Together
Posted: 10/20/2023

Hardly a day goes by that hotels do not express frustration about the inability to tie together key data sources and technology systems. This is not a new problem; it has been around for decades. Progress has been made on many fronts to be sure, but digitalization has created new issues much faster than solutions.

Read More +

What’s the Buzz Among Today’s Hoteliers?
Posted: 10/17/2023

What’s on the minds of hoteliers? What’s keeping them up at night? And what makes travelers happy and eager to return? Some of the best places to have these candid discussions are at the industry’s conferences and events, and this year’s lineup has not disappointed. From AAHOACON and BITAC, to HITEC and The Hospitality Show, I’ve been traveling steadily, attending 13 events since January.

Technology has become an indispensable part of the guest experience. As travelers increasingly expect tech-enabled convenience, hospitality businesses must continue innovating to meet these demands. While WiFi was once the primary tech offering for hotels, today's guests want more. Integrated proptech solutions are becoming the new standard.

Read More +

comment on this article

How Millennial Expectations are Transforming the Hospitality Industry

04/27/2016

by Geneva Rinehart and Katherine Darsie

Hospitality Upgrade recently had the chance to interview Ray Carlin, vice president of solution and strategy management at Oracle Hospitality, about the key findings in Oracle’s new report, Millennials and Hospitality: The Redefinition of Service.

The report surveyed more than 9,000 millennials from around the world and discussed their use of technology in hotels, restaurants, bars and coffee shops – quantifying the impact mobile devices have on the hospitality industry. Millennials are projected to spend an average of $3,900 each on travel this year.

“It’s not a shock that millennials are interested in using mobile technology, but the reality is it’s a mixed-use environment,” Carlin said. “But for some people, mobile is a personal definition of good service.”

Some key findings of the study:

52 percent of millennials want to manage loyalty on their mobile devices.
Millennials want to use this mobile technology but on some level still want personal service and individual customer preference.
39 percent of millennials have already ordered food via a mobile device, while more than half (51 percent) want to be able to order delivery and takeout from mobile.
29 percent of U.S. millennials have already paid for food and drink by mobile device.
Millennials want to use mobile technology for hotel services such as connecting to hotel Wi-Fi, checking in to a hotel, booking a room or browsing a hotel website. Out of those surveyed, 46 percent had booked a hotel room using a mobile device, and more than 80 percent said they used a mobile device to connect to the hotel Wi-Fi.
There are potential ancillary markets to this group including connecting to room service and accessing entertainment. In the survey, 55 percent of millennials said they wanted to connect their mobile devices in hotel rooms to enjoy entertainment, and 36 percent of millennials said they wanted to be able to access their own entertainment and have the option of paying for music, films and TV programming.

“This study reinforces the need to provide solutions in an adaptive service model,” Carlin said. “It also validates an investment in cloud services and a focus on mobile enabling guest and employee-facing technology. It was an important effort for Oracle meant to communicate how cloud and mobile are inherent on how people want to be served before, during and after the visit.”

To read the full study please click here to sign up for the whitepaper section on our website.