If one thing can be accurately predicted for the hospitality industry’s future, it is the inevitable rise in guest expectations for ever faster, more convenient and seamlessly personalized service. Yet at the same time, hotel operators and their teams are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver the higher quality experience their guests are seeking out. With more amenity offerings becoming available in order for industry businesses to stay competitive, hotel operations if anything have beco...

With global market performance now back in full swing for much of the hospitality industry, it can be easy to assume that business is back to normal with the pandemic now behind us. Although for those who aim to stay on top of industry trends, the more accurate observation is that while guest bookings have returned to the industry in force, traveler preferences, needs and expectations have undoubtedly been impacted by the pandemic and continue to evolve in new and potentially promising direction...

The hotel industry is constantly evolving, and with the rapid advancement of technology, security measures are also undergoing significant transformations. As potential safety risks continue to increase in both number and ingenuity, industry solution providers are on the front lines of developing new technologies while improving older ones in order to provide hoteliers and their guests with a vital edge over would-be intruders.

Since being introduced to hospitality-based businesses, mobile key technology has become a symbol that for much of the industry, represents the ultimate in enhanced guest convenience and instant service. Countless major hotel brands and independent properties alike have endeavored to incorporate the solution into their own operations in order to cater to the two thirds of guests now seeking the ability to gain guestroom access using personal devices as a secure digital key.

Staff shortages may be the hotel industry’s most discussed challenge in recent months, but the topic can also be viewed as part of a larger issue where businesses overall are having to do more with less. With other concerns such as rising inflation and interest rates joining the staffing woes of hoteliers, many industry businesses are finding that keeping up with ever-increasing guest expectations is a struggle seemingly beyond reach.

With Human Trafficking Awareness month recently taking place in January, the hotel industry continues making progress on highlighting and combatting a global issue that ruins lives and jeopardizes business reputations. Organizations such as the AHLA have made it a priority to spread awareness on the issue and provide aid to human trafficking survivors, with major brands such as IHG Hotels & Resorts making substantial donations towards the effort. Others such as Marriott International have la...

In today’s digitalized and hyper-connected business environments, having the appropriate security measures in place has become a basic requirement. Yet whether operating a large-scale resort or a small boutique property, having the most advanced security technology in place ultimately means little if human employees can unwittingly serve as a backdoor loophole.

After facing two years of uncertainty thanks in large part to COVID-19, hoteliers in 2022 were finally able to return to some sense of normalcy and begin to see market conditions improve. Yet far from being a matter of simple luck, the pandemic if anything demonstrated the industry’s ability to come together and innovate in order to overcome challenges brought on by the pandemic.

Enjoy this months blog, which is a guest entry written by Bruce Redman Becker from Becker + Becker No industry has been left untouched by the global environmental crises and hospitality is no exception. Each year seemingly brings more instances of mass heatwaves, droughts and out-of-control wildfires that are leading growing numbers of consumers to question the ecological impact of their purchase decisions. Just recently published is yet another survey indicating that 65 percent of business trav...

Today’s hospitality industry is changing more rapidly than ever to address both external market influences and new guest needs. As we enter this “New World of Hospitality,” we must each understand not only what evolving industry conditions mean for operating a safe hospitality business, but also how we can continue to live up to our promise of knowing what guests want from a hotel experience and making sure that services cater to those expectations exactly.

In today’s hospitality industry, sustainability efforts focused on protecting the environment have become a top priority for virtually any type of hotel business. And for good reason, too. An overwhelming 85.6 percent of travelers now say they would prefer to pay more if it meant staying at a hotel with eco-friendly practices. For today’s increasingly eco-conscious guests, a hotel’s commitment to environmentalism therefore can play a central role in booking decisions that no hospitality professi...

As the hotel industry continues to deal with reduced rates, sub-optimal occupancies, and a reduction in amenities and services, adopting an integrated systems approach is becoming more of a necessity in order to maintain operations that meet guest satisfaction expectations. Following the spread of Covid-19, hoteliers have greatly increased investments in technology in order to reduce expenses and increase efficiencies. With fewer employees helming a property and less room for errors, hotels are ...

Sustainability is a word that has been used extensively in hospitality circles over the past decade and is often regarded as no more than an industry buzzword that defines the environmentally friendly practices of a lodging operation. However, the term has evolved exponentially in recent years to include a range of operational areas that bring social and economic policies together with the environmental impact an organization has on its community, as well as the planet. Together, these areas for...

Since their initial emergence within the hospitality sector, IoT-based devices and services have been hailed as a game-changing opportunity to enhance efficiency and guest experiences. Articles, case studies and white papers are widely available and routinely published that detail how such solutions can instantly personalize offerings, ensure speedier service and slash business costs.

For hospitality-based businesses, the industry has seemingly been hit by one crisis or challenge after another in recent years vying for the increasingly stretched attentions of hoteliers. From attempting to navigate the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic to addressing rising guest expectations over what counts as a satisfying stay experience, hoteliers have more than enough issues requiring a need to revise business strategies and operational procedures. That being said, some industry challenges ...

With each year’s HITEC, hotel owners and operators make an annual journey to the industry’s largest technology conference in order to discover the latest innovations promising to deliver a more profitable and competitive business. For June 2022, however, HITEC Orlando represents an especially crucial opportunity for hotel businesses to make up for lost revenue as guests make their return to the industry following the darker days of the pandemic. According to a recent survey, more than 76 percent...

The hospitality industry is certainly no stranger to security risks. Statistics in fact indicate that more than 53,000 crimes take place within hotel guestrooms. At the same time, however, hoteliers are also having to remain vigilant against the growing threat of cybercrime. An issue that has resulted in at least 16 billion records containing sensitive data being lost to theft since 2019, cyber-attacks can cause untold damage to a hotel’s reputation and can lead to a significant increase in liab...

Artificial intelligence and machine-learning platforms have come a long way in recent years in terms of the scope of their capabilities and potential to provide businesses with enhanced value. In fact, 94 percent of C-level executives now believe that AI-based technologies are set to transform their organizations over the next five years. Yet within hospitality circles, 49 percent consider that the hotel industry earns a “C” with regards to the adoption of artificial intelligence. With today’s g...

It goes without saying that a hotel’s top responsibility towards any who enter its premises is to guarantee a safe and secure environment. However, despite increased industry focus, crimes taking place within hotels are still a recurring issue that places the safety of guests and employees at risk. From theft and assault to human trafficking and even murder, hoteliers can easily find themselves having to deal with the fallout of crimes carried out at their property, ruining not only reputations ...

In today’s complex and fast-paced hotel environments, technology integrations and interoperability are not just part of an ongoing trend. They are now more than ever proving essential to ensuring heightened hotel business performance and the meeting of modern hotel guest expectations. According to a Smart Decisions Guide, as many as 91 percent of hoteliers view having highly compatible technology as key to success in improving property performance. Today, although many industry professionals con...

Since their inception, digital key solutions have become a mainstream technology within the hospitality industry, thanks to the enhanced contactless convenience it provides to both properties and guests. As with virtually all technologies, the way digital key services function and the features it offers continue to evolve, keeping pace with new industry trends and guest experience expectations. Today, hoteliers are seeing growing enthusiasm among their industry peers for the adoption of Near Fie...

The beginning of 2021 started much the same as where 2020 had left off- hoteliers grappling with the impact of COVID-19 found themselves continuing with the struggle of regaining guest trust to finally experience a rebound in booking rates. Yet as 2021 progressed, industry professionals were by no means lacking in new ideas and technologies designed specifically to overcome hospitality’s latest challenges. As we look forward to a promising fresh start with the beginning of a new year, be sure to...

In today’s digital world, connectivity and personalization are vital to modern consumers. With the Internet of Things (IoT) allowing for real-time connections between devices and people, adapting smart, interconnected technology is more important than ever for hoteliers striving to meet guest needs. This is a well-recognized need within the industry. In fact, 70 percent of hospitality executives report that they have active IoT projects, well above the average 48 percent of executives in other i...

Even with the disastrous year that was 2020 behind us, the hotel industry continued to suffer from a series of recovery-stalling factors that were felt all the way through much of 2021. From survey after survey indicating that guests were all but willing to risk their health by staying at a hotel and as industry events such as tradeshows were either cancelled or unsuccessfully held online, hoteliers throughout the industry found themselves with little guidance on how to best preserve the wellbei...

Cybersecurity has become a pressing topic in the hospitality industry, with the pandemic bringing with it a significant increase in cyberattack attempts. Ransomware attacks, or the use of malicious software to encrypt and/or exfiltrate a target’s data and then demand payment under the threat of sharing it publicly or making it permanently inaccessible, has become a particular concern: ransomware attacks went up by almost 150% in March of 2020, and an all-time high of 78.4 million ransomware atta...

Cloud-based hotel software has transformed the hospitality industry. Throughout the pandemic, as occupancy and revenue sunk to abysmal revels, the adoption of cloud-based solutions helped hoteliers increase productivity and drive profitability during the industry’s most challenging times. As cloud-based solutions become increasingly commonplace, with hoteliers expected to invest 7-8% more in cloud technology over the next two to three years, hoteliers may notice another key benefit to adopting c...

Decades ago, the idea of using a mobile phone to check into a hotel was incomprehensible. Now, it’s almost commonplace. With new technology developing at a fast rate and the travel industry considering implementing vaccine passports, contactless solutions are critical in providing safe guest experiences. But many hoteliers are still learning about the newest contactless solutions, and others question just how secure they may be. Read on to learn more about which contactless solutions are popular...

Few if any industry professionals would have predicted a severe lack of available labor resources being a leading hospitality challenge just one year ago. Yet if anything can be said about the influence of the pandemic on hotel performance and needs, it is that it is unpredictable and hoteliers must make use of any means available to swiftly adapt to suddenly changing market conditions.

Few if any areas of the hospitality industry have been left unscathed since the rise of COVID-19, but perhaps none have been affected as much as those that rely on business travel to keep their businesses out of the red. From individual work-related trips to the hosting of meetings and largescale conferences, hotels that previously could count on a steady inflow of business travelers saw such revenue sources dry up almost overnight due to global travel restrictions.

You can be forgiven for thinking that there’s no end in sight to hospitality’s troubles as a result of COVID-19. Rearing from many months of abysmal booking numbers and mass layoffs around the world, it is difficult to identify another time in our industry’s history where performance has stagnated so low and for so long.

Widespread COVID-19 vaccination will be the key to the travel industry’s rebound, but questions arise around how one can prove they’re received the vaccine and how businesses will shift their hotel operations to accommodate people who have or have not received the vaccine. By the end of this blog, you’ll have gained an understanding of various vaccine certificate initiatives, and we’ll explore how to adapt your hotel operations to provide a great guest experience while keeping everyone safe and ...

Entering a hotel today offers an unmistakable contrast to what was once business as usual. Now a guest’s first onsite interaction involves the scanning of temperatures and the welcoming smile of a front desk receptionist has been replaced with face masks and a flurry of questions to determine if a guest might have been exposed to germs. Other hotel employees now hover in the background waiting to hurriedly sanitize surfaces before the arrival of the next guest. Such now widespread routines repre...

The way that hotels provide services is without a doubt rapidly transforming both in light of advances in technology and as guests continue to expect more from their stay experiences. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of online connectivity as consumers become accustomed to the instant convenience and personalization advantages that the growing presence of IoT technology provides.

There’s no question the hospitality sector has been hit hard during the pandemic. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), up to 174 million jobs could be lost by the end of 2020 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Almost half of hotel industry employees are also reported to still be out of work while five out of ten guestrooms remain empty.

Hotels are seeing some positive signs as the economy begins to recover from COVID-19. In the United States, around the end of May is typically a peak travel time. Hotels had an average 37% occupancy rate, up from the dismally low rate of 22% in April, 2020. Within Europe, properties likewise reported improved performance in July when compared to May while the Asia-Pacific region recently experienced a return to profitability with a +225% growth in GOPPAR during the same month. Such results provi...

While still in the midst of attempting to navigate one of the most profound crises to hit global markets, many within the travel and hospitality industries are already beginning to look ahead to determine what the long-term future may hold for their businesses. According to current forecasts, statistics fortunately indicate a rapid economic turnaround between 2021 and 2022. Yet beyond performance expectations, questions still remain over what ultimate shape the global travel and hospitality indu...

The hospitality industry has continued to experience an overload of what COVID-19 means for the market and how it will impact business moving forward. Understandably top of mind for hoteliers is how to resume their operations and services in a way that addresses new market realities and that ensures their ability to recover as much lost revenue as possible. However, with so much information being circulated that provides hoteliers with a seemingly endless array of steps that they should take in ...

The Microsoft operating system Windows 7 is dead. Are you operating on overtime? This situation calls for a necessary upgrade that also may make it easier to understand the need for future-proofing your hotel access management system.

Reopening in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, many hotels find themselves both critically understaffed and financially drained. Now, hospitality professionals need to reexamine how their operations and guest-facing services can successfully function. Remote operations can solve several of these challenges.

When hotel guests begin to return in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, cleanliness will be a critical factor both for guests and staff. How should you best approach this new normal? Here is a list of new procedures and technologies that hoteliers are beginning to implement to limit virus exposure.