Tech Talk

Recent posts

Merging High Tech With High Touch to Create a New Hospitality Paradigm
Posted: 03/23/2023

One of the key challenges facing today’s hoteliers is that of high tech vs high touch. Does technology conflict with personalized service? Is it possible to offer both during the same visit? And can hotels that utilize technology in favor of human interaction achieve guest loyalty?

Business travel is picking back up and families may be taking their first or second real vacations since the pandemic cancelled so many plans just a few years ago. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, hoteliers are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their stay more comfortable than ever. With an advanced property management systems (PMS) and integration platforms, hoteliers can increase operational and staff efficiency, but also meet changing guest expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience. We looked ahead to see what changes we expect to see sweeping the hospitality industry this year.

Long-term readers of this blog know that I rarely focus on a single company or product. My goal is to help readers understand new and emerging technologies, when and why they might be useful, and what to consider if you are buying them.

Read More +

The Future of Hotels
Posted: 02/21/2023

Hotels have always been a high-touch low-tech business. Today, and into the foreseeable future, hotels are moving away from the pure ‘people serving people’ model towards a more high-tech low-touch business, and doubling down on digitalization. In the paragraphs below, I envision ways in which tech can innovate and enhance the guest experience throughout the guests’ 6 stage hotel journey: Imagine-Book-Stay-Report-Recommend-Return.

Read More +

Definitely Doug 2/10/23: Planning for June
Posted: 02/10/2023

The question I have heard most often in recent months is “where are you going in the last week of June?”. As most readers are aware, two trade shows featuring hotel technology are scheduled during the same dates that week. Many of you are still undecided which to attend. Knowing that your decision will be based at least in part on where others are going (hoteliers and exhibitors both), I decided to try to get some real data that I could share.

Read More +

comment on this article

#HITECnola Part 5: Special HITEC 2016 Report brought to you by DANNI Enterprises

07/05/2016

by Steve Berrey

Hospitality Upgrade reached out to the team at DANNI Enterprises to provide a summary of experiences from HITEC 2016. Each team member scouted HITEC through the lens of his or her specific area of expertise.

Click here to read Part 1.
Click here to read Part 2.
Click here to read Part 3.
Click here to read Part 4.

Steve Berrey, Areas of expertise: business and product management, infrastructure and cabling, and network design and security

#HITECnola Part 5
I went to HITEC this year looking specifically for innovation in guest internet solutions and convergence benefits from consolidation and partnerships. One announcement caught my attention from SONIFI/Single Digits. Bernard Poncelet from Single Digits said the company is promising authentication to the casting experience via the sign-on into the Wi-Fi system.

(editor’s note: TeleAdapt announced its Roomcast, powered by Chromecast, a media streaming solution for hotels. The company also announced that Aloft New Orleans Downtown became the first to pilot RoomCast Powered by Chromecast. And also new to the scene but with decades behind them, ADB sponsored the HITEC welcome reception and really launched their brand. Touting the phrase, the biggest hotel interactive TV provider you’ve never heard of, ADB made a big push this year.)

While I was hoping to find new, exciting and even disruptive technologies this year, honestly, I found that this industry is woefully in need of more innovation or consolidation to achieve better economies of scale. Announcements from last year’s HITEC are barely products at this year’s show, and in the guest internet space, the dreams of many years ago are still not coming to pass. Wi-fi is slightly faster, the guest experience is the same or marginally better in a few convergence partnerships. But the overall feel is one of a mature market, when we all know technology is continuing at a blistering pace forward.

This special report is part of a 6-part HITEC 2016 summary focusing on specific technology areas from this year’s event. The previously released part 1 and 2 are available on the TechTalk Blog. And segments 4-6 are available at the links below.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 6

To receive Hotel-Online and the Siegel Sez newsletter, please sign up for free at http://www.hotel-online.com/account/register.

About The Author

Steve Berrey

Steve Berrey, a 20+ year product and technology veteran, has been focused on the hospitality space since 2000, when he cofounded StayOnline – a managed services provider that led the early charge of Wi-Fi into the Hospitality industry. He applies his expertise in data networking and experience in television and other converged products to help hoteliers leverage their investments to their fullest potential. He also has extensive experience in product marketing, helping vendors to craft their products for the hospitality industry and align their roadmap with their long-term corporate strategy.

Steve has been a ten-year member of HTNGs infrastructure resource team, and is constantly plugged into the latest technology trends for hotel technology products and strategies.