Tech Talk

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Definitely Doug 6/9/23: Hotels Fighting Trafficking: The Role of Technology
Posted: 06/09/2023

This week I want to address an important issue for the hospitality industry, albeit one that technologists have not historically had on their radar. They can potentially play a significant role in addressing the issue, which is human trafficking, and more specifically sex trafficking.

In my last column, I reviewed some key trends in autonomous mobile robotics for hotels, and dove into three categories of delivery robots in more detail – room delivery, food delivery, and heavy-lift robots. This week I will round out the topic with several other robot types and applications, as well as general guidance for evaluating, acquiring, and adopting mobile autonomous robotics. If you have not yet read part one, I recommend going back and doing so before continuing below, as some of the introductory material is important background to what follows.

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Best Practices for Hotel & Resort Operators in Pool Season 2023
Posted: 05/25/2023

With the arrival of warmer weather and summer fast approaching, hospitality operators are gearing up for another pool season. This year, technology is at the forefront of driving booking revenue and taking operational efficiency to the next level. Modern technology platforms (such as hospitality’s newest technology category – the Property Experience Management System or PXMS) are providing brand new capabilities that unlock new strategies and approaches to filling the pool with satisfied guests.

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The Growing Role Technology Plays in Hotels and Restaurants
Posted: 05/25/2023

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.

This week I will return to a topic I have covered before, because it has, within the last 12 to 18 months, become one of the hottest-growth categories in hospitality technology. That topic is autonomous mobile robots – specifically, ones that can move around the facility as well as perform specific tasks. Many of these products were launched pre-Covid but were often seen at the time as more of a marketing gimmick than a legitimate operational solution.

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Definitely Doug 12/20/19: The Year in Review

12/23/2019

by Doug Rice

The Year in Review

As 2019 comes to a close, it’s time to count our blessings. One of mine has been the privilege (and fun!) of being able to reach out to so many interesting companies and get them to tell me what they’re doing that’s different, disruptive, and game-changing. The list of things I have to write about in future columns has only gotten longer in the nine months since I started writing this column.

If you’re like me, whether and when you read emails like this newsletter can be hit or miss, so I thought I’d do a recap of the topics I’ve covered this year, with links in case there’s one that interests you that you missed. Along the way, I’ll also highlight some companies that came to my attention or were only ready to talk after publication of the particular topic -- ones I would have included had I discovered them sooner.

In April I started by describing my objectives for the column, which haven’t changed but are worth skimming through if you’ve joined me during the course of the year. Then my first substantive column addressed robotics. A few months after writing that one, I ran across Techmetics, which offers not only a robotic butler, but a drink server for casinos and a back-of-house delivery cart robot.

May’s first installment covered Enterprise Service Buses. The subsequent announcement of Jonas Chorum brought to my attention the Jonas Hospitality ARC ESB; that’s another option that’s worth a look. The next topic was technology to help guests exploit the many things to see and do in the neighborhood around the hotel, and to incorporate them into the hotel’s marketing proposition more seamlessly.

In June I turned to artificial intelligence and chatbots, used to answer guest requests quickly during a hotel stay. Another company in this space I would check out is Easyway – they were on my radar when I wrote the article, but hadn’t formally launched past their pilot sites. And just last week I read that Whistle has added the AI and workflow layers that were qualifiers for that column; I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet but it sounds about right. The second article in June, written post-HITEC, called out some of the more innovative things I saw wandering the exhibit floor in Minneapolis.

July’s first blog covered some innovative things going on in the reservations world. The second one covered location services as applied to staff panic alerts.

Then in August I turned to housekeeping systems, where a lot is going on. A couple of companies focused in Europe came to my attention after writing that article, and I found RoomChecking to be interesting in its ability to deal with complex European work-rule requirements; it is not unusual for individual housekeepers to have unique restrictions such as which floors they can work on, how many credits they can be scheduled for, or how many twin rooms they can clean (these are features typically only found in the top-end systems). 1Check also sounded interesting, although I wasn’t successful at getting a first-hand look. August’s second column covered eLearning software.

I got a lot of good feedback on my September column, which talked about barriers to innovation in hospitality. One industry disruptor I spoke to just last week said he’d read it in preparation for a call, and he wished he’d had it earlier in his company’s lifecycle, that they had to learn some of my observations the hard way.

My first October column covered Hotspot 2.0, and it’s the one you should go back and read if you missed it the first time and if you are one of the many hoteliers hoping that 5G technology will replace the need for Wi-Fi (spoiler: it won’t!) The second topic that month covered some interesting innovations in sustainability, and the first November edition looked more specifically at energy management systems.

The second November column covered some innovative approaches to guest engagement, which every hotel should be trying to address. And my most recent topic was sales and distribution software for meetings and events, an area that has been far behind the curve but is showing promise of catching up.

I’d love to hear from readers about topics they’d like me to cover, or companies that should be on my radar. I’m always happy to spend a half hour looking at any technology product that is targeting hotels, or that thinks perhaps it should.

And speaking of game-changers, I should note that Puzzle Partner is now accepting submissions for their Hotel and Travel Tech Game Changers 2020 Report. If you’ve got something game-changing, get on their radar as well as mine!

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and see you all in 2020!