Q1 - Due to tech advancements, hotels will employ 50% fewer desk workers in 2030 - Should hotel employees be worried about being replaced by new tech?

• In general, technology is most useful when it functions alongside workers who can be on-site to provide a “human touch.” There are still many customers who still place an emphasis on in-person services and prefer to come into a hotel and check in with a receptionist. Other guests may prefer to do it all on their phones and simply pick up their key, but even they would prefer to have a real human nearby in case they run into any errors or have questions throughout the process. The best way to employ technology is as a means of providing as many choices as possible and allowing each guest to choose what best serves their needs.
• Moving forward, I expect we’ll see more and more automation, which will allow hotel staff to focus more on soft skills, such as interpersonal customer service interactions where staff can immediately engage and best serve the needs of the customer. Even as hotels and their staff focus on becoming more efficient, I think in an ideal world there is a hybrid workforce, where humans and machines can work together to deliver optimal and personalized experiences for travelers.

Q2 - Hotel tech should be part of a strategy to attract new talent to the industry. - Does cutting-edge technology enhance and enrich the employee journey?

• As AI and machine learning are integrated into a unified hotel platform, there are many ways it will make working in the hospitality industry more appealing to prospective staff. The platform will reduce the number of redundant tasks from an employee workload, such as removing the burden of manually assigning rooms according to guest preferences or entering identification documents. With the time saved, staff can spend more time working to improve the guest’s stay.
• Additionally, self-service and automation tools can help increase the time it takes to onboard new staff, which is critical in today’s growing workforce. As new employees move into the industry, ensuring they are all well-trained will be essential. Enhancements like gamification can make the training process more enjoyable and reward employees in new ways for reaching certain milestones or achieving goals. The result is a more supportive and satisfying work environment, leading to increased employee retention.

Q3 - Hotels should be able to deliver a better guest experience with fewer staff - Does technology make good on the promise of increased guest satisfaction AND profitability, while optimizing staff efficiency?

• Automation, supported by AI and machine learning, is already improving operational efficiencies at hotels. It is supporting new revenue streams while putting the guests and their needs at the center of all operations. With a unified hotel platform that allows for easy plug-ins via open APIs, hotels can employ chatbots and enhanced on-site hotel apps that allow guests to see what packages and perks they can purchase to make their stays even better. Additionally, the platform can analyze past stay history and important demographic information to automatically suggest upsell opportunities that may best resonate with the guest – whether that means reserving a tennis court, booking a couple’s massage, or dining at the on-site restaurant.
• These unified hotel platforms are also enabling frictionless communication between departments. Staff remain connected and can act swiftly, immediately knowing which rooms need an emergency visit from maintenance or which rooms have been cleaned and are ready for the guest waiting in the lobby.

Q4 - Today's human stack in hotels is not ready for the upcoming new tech stack - Should organization structures and operational processes be reviewed before thinking of tech revamps?

• Unified hotel technologies, such as the Oracle OPERA Cloud platform, are intended to make an employee’s job easier. Of course, every location is different, and organizations should always be staying on top of their growing needs and operational processes. One of the great breakthroughs of the past few years has been that technology is easier to put in place and adapt to evolving requirements.
• By taking advantage of a unified hospitality technology platform that can enable property management or central/brand management functions, hoteliers are increasingly adopting cloud-based property management systems that can be implemented without a massive investment of time and resources. They feature modern integration tools that enable them to innovate quickly or fail fast and pivot to better alternative solutions. This includes the agility to ‘plug-in’ solutions to their PMS system and move away from closed ecosystems with pre-integrated technologies. These will help properties stay competitive and navigate any future disruptions that come their way.