Skift Take
Thanks to the growing influence of technology, a dramatic shift is now underway in how hotel owners think about their job responsibilities, and the tools they need to be successful. At the same time, implementing technology to solve existing challenges can sometimes create new challenges.
Today we are launching the latest report in our Skift Trends Reports service, The Strategic Guide to a Modern Hotel Technology Stack.
What’s in your tech stack?
Hotel managers and owners are inundated with different technology solutions aimed at helping to fill rooms and to keep them filled. Ironically, more technology can also lead to more challenges, as hoteliers “stack” solutions on top of solutions and allocate staff to managing them. For this premium report, Skift interviewed dozens of hotel veterans to give our community a better lay-of-the-land of what’s happening in hotel tech. Here we focus on distribution and property management – primarily technology that helps hotels connect with and understand their guests. We’ve also pulled valuable insights from surveys and testimonials on the challenges of operating some of the hotel world’s most widely used property management systems.
The world of hotel technology software, or the “tech stack” as it is sometimes known, exists as a fragmented, piecemeal set of solutions aimed at optimizing hotel functions like operations, revenue management, marketing, and guest services. Now there are growing signs of consolidation as big players inside and outside the category vie for a bigger piece of the billions of dollars spent each year by hotels. Traditional online travel agency heavyweights like Priceline and Expedia have spent the last five years acquiring companies that position them with the business-to-business services space. Meanwhile enterprise software giants like Oracle and SAP are spending billions to buy their way into hospitality services and integrated property management solutions.
Technology spend objectives for the next 12 months based on survey responses of 100 hotel professionals.
Yet, even as more companies eye an entrance into the lucrative hotel tech space, many hotel owners are sitting on the sidelines. The biggest challenge for hotel executives is figuring out what types of software solutions are right for their business. Hotels can now choose from a wide range of technology solutions to assist with virtually any task, from on-site property management, to reservations to setting consistent prices on different online travel websites.
In addition, challenges like limited IT budgets, questions about measurement of ROI, and worries about how systems actually impact the guest experience all complicate decision-making. Changes in consumer behavior and ever-rising guest expectations in technology also make the task of finding the best hotel tech solutions even more challenging.
According to senior-level hotel executives interviewed for this report, the right way to proceed in such an environment is by keeping a laser focus on defining the right business goals, before going after the solutions.
About These Reports
This is the latest in a series of twice-monthly trends reports that brief readers on a specific trend, providing insight into the current state of the market, the context around the trend, and where the industry is heading in the near future.
After you subscribe, you will receive two reports every month — 24 in a year. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report a la carte at a higher price.
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