Challenges Hotels Face With Technology Integration

What is holding back hospitality from rapidly adopting technology? HospitalityNet asked its World Panel of Hospitality Tech Experts the following question: Modern technology solutions available today have the potential to transform our industry into genuine tech and data-driven entities. Yet, the question remains: What's holding us back? Here is my take: Last year hoteliers invested in technology less than 2.75% of room revenue (STR) - compare this to 15%-20% for the OTAs. Hoteliers need to understand that only through accelerated investments in technology - cloud, mobility, AI, robotics, IoT, etc. can the hospitality industry reduce staffing needs and unsustainable labor costs, and “appease” the exceedingly tech-savvy guests and their exceedingly high tech expectations. By investing in technology, hoteliers can reduce their staffing needs and afford to pay their employees living wages, train them better and empower them to provide stellar service. What's holding us back? Reluctance to invest in technology, coming from the lack of understanding that we are serving technology-obsessed travel consumers who demand a hotel technological experience equal or better to what they have at home. The technology and data fragmentation in hospitality is another big impediment to adopting technology in hospitality. Guest data lives in multiple "data islands" that do not talk to each other: PMS, CRM, CRS, Social Media, Web Analytics, Marketing Data, and BI. Very few properties and hotel companies can boast a single view on customer data with live data feeds from ALL touchpoints with the traveler. Lack of proper education and professional development opportunities on digital hospitality technology and the latest technology innovations, trends and best practices. How many hospitality schools today teach hospitality technology courses to educate future hoteliers on the importance of technology in this tech-obsessed world? Only a few. New York University's Tisch Center for Hospitality offers “Current and Future Hospitality Technologies” graduate course since 2019, which I am privileged to teach. Antiquated accounting in hospitality treating most cloud and SaaS tech applications as Sales, General and Administrative Expenses, and not amortizible capital expenses. And finally, we have become an industry of buzzwords and flashy gadgets, Not investments in a well-thought out tech stack, but singular flashy tech applications in the hope of impressing guests, owners, and investors. Ex. Robot butler by a property without CRM technology and 7-year old website. Well, whether some hoteliers like it or not, the hospitality industry is moving from low-tech and high-touch to high-tech and high-touch. But what kind of high-touch? Fewer, well-trained and well-paid employees using technology to provide stellar service. Service, which currently the poorly paid and trained employees, overwhelmed by labor shortages and mundane, repetitive tasks simply cannot provide.

Convincing hoteliers to adopt new technology isn’t just about showing them the benefits. It’s about mitigating risk. This is a key lesson I learned at CityKey, the hotel tech solution I founded before Hotel Tech Report. I met with the GM of the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago, and while he loved the idea of our tech, he hesitated to move forward. Why? Because if the technology worked, he’d be doing his job—but if it failed, he’d be on the hook for bad guest experiences, poor reviews, and even compliance issues. This fear creates a barrier to innovation, one I’ve seen countless times in hospitality.  Geoffrey Moore describes this in his book Crossing the Chasm. It’s the gap between early adopters (the Visionaries) and the early majority (the Pragmatists), who are more risk-averse. In hospitality, this chasm is even wider. General Managers and decision-makers are often stuck between wanting to innovate and fearing the consequences if things go wrong. Here is what the tech adoption curve in hospitality looks like: ● Tech enthusiasts: push the boundaries of what's possible in hotel tech. ● Visionaries: want a competitive edge but need strong peer validation before they can get buy-in from owners. ● Pragmatists: rely on proven, data-backed solutions, turning to platforms like Hotel Tech Report for confidence. ● Conservatives: smaller, independent hotels that adopt new tech only after it has been widely accepted. ● Skeptics: legacy operators who resist change until necessary. We built Hotel Tech Report to help the hospitality industry cross this chasm. Instead of being alone in their decision-making process, GMs have the backing of a collaborative network of their peers who’ve already tested and succeeded with the tools they’re considering. #HotelTech #HospitalityIndustry #Hospitality #UrbanHotel #Investors HotelTechReport.com | The Leading Authority on Hotel Technology Follow me for more hotel software and technology insights.

What if I told you that your technology is driving #employeeturnover? In #hospitality, 38% of employees point to the PMS experience as the reason for leaving their jobs. The hidden cost of poor technology isn’t so hidden anymore… We surveyed 500+ hotel employees across 5 countries and uncovered something striking, something Cloudbeds has known (and something our Sr. Director of UX design Eric Ellis and his team obsess over): technology is making or breaking the employee experience in hotels. The numbers tell a powerful story: 52% of managers say staff need 4+ months to feel confident using their PMS 38% of employees cite their PMS experience as a reason for leaving their job 73% still rely on in-person training for essential tech tools In an industry facing unprecedented labor challenges, these findings matter. Today, we're releasing our comprehensive UX Report exploring how technology impacts hotel operations, employee satisfaction, and guest experience. Key takeaway: User experience isn't just about good design – it's about empowering hotel staff to spend less time fighting with software and more time creating exceptional guest experiences. Download the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gtBBiuZs

Hotels and Airlines still operate on mainframe platforms. Still think AI is going to eat the world immediately? If you lean over the counter at Hilton/Marriott, Delta/American/Southwest, you'll see a lovely terminal view for your reservations. The department's tech stack is cobbled together with middleware, spreadsheets, and legacy tech, including Salesforce for Hilton, Delta, and Southwest. Despite the modern tech stack existing for the last 3 decades. Platforms designed for one-user operations - have you completed a flight search in under 30 seconds of response time? - are now expected to be hammered exponentially by agents both internally and externally. The reality is that's just not going to happen any time soon. Serious work will need to be done to modernize these platforms; after 40 years, that's no easy task. Now extend this to the financial services industry or countless other legacy industries that have not been motivated to move stacks with the last technological revolution. AI adoption will take time, folks. The sooner we start with that narrative, the more we can have realistic expectations. Rather than the best-case ones. #AI #mainframes #airlines #hospitality #businesssystems #agentforce