Hospitality Technology

Travelport+, with enhanced, modern retailing tools to make it easier for advisors to offer more choice and deliver better service to their clients.

Trip Manager portal on Travelport+, offering travelers the ability to service their own trip and carry out fast, easy transactions on the go.

Travelport also updated its servicing capabilities to improve airline connectivity and empower advisors to serve travelers more efficiently, with less back-end work.

McDonald’s has spent the better portion of the last year developing and implementing strategies to bring the global fast-food franchise into the 21st century. Other global competitors have beaten McDonald’s to the punch tech-wise — Starbucks, Domino’s and Taco Bell, for example, are years ahead of Mickey D’s when it comes to ordering online and using digital tools to enhance the consumers’ experience.

But the fast-food giant is playing quick catch-up with its in-store tech, mobile ordering and delivery initiatives — and is doing so by taking a page out of Snapchat’s playbook by blending unattended retail with marketing.

That’s right. McDonald’s got its hands on a vending machine.

Of course, customer satisfaction is always a top priority, but labor challenges are the motivator for restaurants’ automation investment. Just two years ago, increasing sales was overwhelmingly the top reason that restaurants used automation. Though new technology expense is still a concern, current labor limitations have changed the math for many restaurants, likely leading to an ac

eleration of automation and technology, Datassential said.

As consumers grow accustomed to more technology and then reach the point they no longer want to live without it – the restaurant of tomorrow may very well resemble something that’s unrecognizable today. But those operators who push the envelope with new technology will see that consumers are more willing than perhaps ever before to come along for the ride. 

Toast, went public last week in an offering that valued it at around $30 billion. Meanwhile, two other providers unveiled their own all-in-one systems. Here’s a look:

Presto Flex:

The company’s new front-of-house ordering tablet can be used to enable pay-at-the-table or as a server handheld, ordering kiosk or drive-thru line buster. It is also voice-enabled, allowing guests or servers to place their order by simply saying it out loud.

Digital Key Share will allow more than one guest to have access to their room’s Digital Key, which turns the free Hilton Honors app on their smartphones into a room key.

Hilton also unveiled an enhancement to a highly valued Hilton Honors benefit, providing members with early confirmation of a favorite perk—complimentary room upgrades.

hese two enhancements join the recently launched Confirmed Connecting Rooms, another industry first that allows individuals to easily and instantly confirm at least two connecting rooms at the time of booking.

If you want to gain better marketing exposure without shelling out for additional marketing costs, investing in a GDS is a wise decision. The system places your property in front of numerous clients without dipping into your marketing budget

- GDS also reap the benefit of reaching untapped segments for your property.

As the industry becomes more collaborative and more inclusive, so does the technology. Some GDS firms are recognizing the need to include non-GDS, independent hotels in their searches in order to offer a better range of choices.

We are now experiencing the fourth industrial revolution, a period marked by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and fifth-generation wireless technology.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this digital transformation resulting in a widening technology-mediated customer experience.

Service robots are “system-based autonomous and adaptable interfaces that interact, communicate, and deliver service to an organization’s customer” (Wirtz et al., 2018, p. 109).

Artificial intelligence, or AI, refers to the performance of seemingly intelligent behaviours by computers or machines.

Essentially, AI refers to computers or machines carrying out tasks that were traditionally thought to require cognitive function to carry out. It is associated with concepts like automation and big data.

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in hospitality management, primarily because of its ability to carry out traditionally human functions at any time of the day.

Countless hospitality industry leaders are increasingly leveraging the use of one specific tool in their hotels to increase personalization and exceed customer expectations: artificial intelligence or more commonly known as AI.

More and more hotels, especially large global hotel chains such as Marriott International, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and Caesars Entertainment, have started implementing the use of AI in their hotels in the form of chatbot messaging, AI powered customer service, and data analytics in hopes of redefining the current industry standards on a personalized guest experience.

Marriott International, for example, has multiple chatbots including Marriott Rewards chatbots which are available on various platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, WeChat, and Google Assistant (Bethesda

There is no question that robots are a great deal more efficient than humans, especially when it comes to things like manufacturing goods. Not only are robots able to work with better accuracy, which reduces the amount of time and materials wasted, they can also work faster (and longer) than humans can. While this can have an adverse impact on the jobs that people rely on, it also, by lower manufacturing costs, makes the price of goods cheaper. This, in turn, has the effect of making those goods, whether they be cars, clothing, or computers, more accessible to a wider number of people.

Instead of thinking about robots purely in terms of the people they might replace, it’s instructive to think of the benefits they will bring. From more fulfilling jobs to increased access to goods and services previously only available to the wealthy, there’s no question that this technology will have an incredibly transformative impact on the world at large.

Hotels are a “symbol of hospitality”, say the researchers, “which manifests as human values or touch”.

On a more positive note, the researchers explain, many people enjoy technological advancements, appreciate the “usefulness and ease of use” of service robots and like to show off their novel experience to others

They speculated that the “highly contagious” nature of COVID-19 may have made people more enthusiastic about robot services in hotels.

Proximity marketing is a form of electronic marketing where customers are targeted by marketers based on their proximity to a certain location. Generally, these communications are personalised and aimed at motivating the customer to make a purchase in the immediate future.

There are several ways a proximity marketing system can be implemented. Options include:QR CodesGeofencing (RFID or GPS)BeaconsWi-Fi

Geofencing is a tool that facilitates proximity marketing by tracking a guest’s movement using an app that has been granted access to analyze their device’s GPS signal.

Digital marketing is absolutely vital for maximising bookings and increasing your revenue,

Customer Experience Marketing

Hotels are (and, more importantly, have to be) more customer-centric than ever before.

Analytics and automation are nothing new for revenue managers but recent advancements in tech take these areas to new heights. Only a short while back predictive analytics, forward-looking data and live insights were still futuristic dreams. Today they’re a reality. That’s a good thing for revenue managers, especially in the upcoming ramp-up phase, these new capabilities are crucial to making the most of unpredictable markets. 

The ideal solution here is for the Cluster Revenue Manager to use a system that automates data collection. First, this saves you time gathering information. Second, it gives you immediate access to the data you need to shape strategies and make recommendations for all hotels in your cluster.

Using an automated system to collect live market and competitor data solves this problem. For the best results, pick a business intelligence (BI) solution that provides live, on-demand reporting. This will give you access to the latest numbers whenever you need them, otherwise, you’ll lose time again on updating old reports. 

While hospitality technology is my passion, a pre-pandemic snapshot of our industry proves that adoption was on the slower side

Serving guests is the heart of our industry, and there are risks with automating processes that could potentially disrupt the seamless guest experience we have worked so hard to establish.

I am seeing an evolution of hospitality like I've never seen before, and it seems it is here to stay.

Many local businesses have been experiencing the worker-shortage issues for nearly a year,

We've had to take rooms out of order just because we couldn't (clean and prepare) them fast enough," Boswell said, "especially on the weekends and (during) special events and on holidays."

Pyle said she has been very satisfied with Rosi's performance over the last two months. Most customers — especially children — love the robot, and many want to take pictures or videos of it.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s an internationally accepted green building certification system designed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization consisting of members from real estate, construction, finance, and technology sectors.

LEED certification means that your hotel has met certain standards for sustainability. There are four LEED levels

LEED commercial projects earn points