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 ...

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...

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...

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...