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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Buzzword of the Week: Mobile Check-In

06/24/2015

by Dan Phillips

Comments on this year's HITEC:

The big get bigger! There have been several mergers this last year, and a couple more rumored. That makes for fewer companies for hotels to choose products and services from. While many hotel companies and brands strive for standardization, several of them hope to differentiate themselves. It is important that many new companies, with different ways of doing things, continue to enter our industry.

It appears that many companies are trying to become everything to everybody. Where once there was just a PMS company, now they have include CRM and messaging and service request tracking and on and on. In some respects this is good, cuts down on integration issues and costs. In other respects, we may be losing differentiators that more strategically align with specific types of hotels.

At HITEC last year the theme seemed to be BYOD/BYOC with the TV and STB players. That theme carried over to this year in that many vendors have solved that issue. This year seemed to center around door locks and mobility. It seems that most everyone is talking about using mobile phones to enter guestrooms. This is still in early stages and many facets of this, not the least of which include operational challenges at the hotel during the check-in process, have to be figured out. One might assume that by next year’s HITEC, this technology will be easier to employ.

Springing off of the door locks and mobility are continuing conversations around hotel mobile apps. It seems like most every hotel brand has an app, and many individual hotels have apps as well. One could say that our industry has over saturated consumers with hotel apps that do very little by way of value or service to our guests. As hoteliers, and suppliers too, we need to search for better, more relevant, value-enhancing apps from which more hotel services can be launched. Maybe vendors touted the guest life cycle but showed very little unique and sticky applications within that framework.

It seemed that there were more exhibitors than previous years; the show seemed much bigger. HFTP is an organization made up of hoteliers and vendors. I believe that hoteliers that are HFTP members have an obligation to attend HITEC, participate in both the educational and social events, and walk the show floor meeting with as many exhibitors as possible. Yes, they are trying to sell something, and some are more pushy than others, but there is a lot to be learned by meeting with as many vendors as possible.

About The Author

Dan Phillips
Owner
Dare to Imagine

Dan Phillips is the owner of the consulting firm, Dare to Imagine (www.dare2i.com). He started behind the front desk of a Holiday Inn in 1987 and has been consulting to hotel companies since 1991. Dare to Imagine enlists hotel experts with decades of C-level experience at many of the major hotel companies in the world. He can be reached at dphillips@dare2i.com or by phone at 678-852-5913.