Hackers Guide to New Normal Hospitality Technology
Technology solutions that enhance the new normal requirements with a focus on delivering on the requirements and expectations of hotel guests in post covid hotel operations ensuring guest security, health, safety, improving revenue and controlling costs.
IT Hospitality joined forces with Tony Leca, CEO of Ethnic Technologies and Kees van Donk, Senior Director Travel, Hospitality & Leisure at NEC Enterprise Solutions - EMEA to create a "Hackers Guide" of easily applicable Technology solutions that enhance the new normal requirements with a focus on delivering on the requirements and expectations of hotel guests in post covid hotel operations ensuring guest security, health, safety, improving revenue and controlling costs.
The global hotel industry has suffered and recovered from its fair share of crises over the past decades, from economic downturns, terrorist attacks and natural disasters, but nothing has shaken the hospitality sector quite like the current COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has forced most hoteliers to re-examine their fundamental strategies of preparedness, business survival, daily operations, HR policies and technological investment. In the face of this unforeseen global pandemics, how has the hospitality industry adjusted?
How can hoteliers re-evaluate their technology strategy to protect their property and their guests experiences into the future? How can technology Improve, Enhance, Optimize, Secure and Streamline during the Guest's journey, in this new normal, post COVID-19, Hospitality world?
IT Hospitality hosted a panel discussionduring the Hospitality Tomorrow Episode 3, Innovation, Leadership and Finding Your Mojo, on 15th December and officially presented the "Hackers Guide" during the online session. The event was organized by Bench Events as part of their Hospitality Tomorrow series focussing on Hostpitality though the COVID period.
A great number of questions and solutions were discussed during our LIVE session (recording available upon request) by our panel members. The panel was moderated by our Business Development Director, Frederic van Lennep. The panel members elaborated on the questions and hackers guide solutions from their own sectors driven experiences and backgrounds.
Graeme Powell, Founder of Veridicum, spends the majority of this time leading businesses on the provider side but more recently time has spent assisting hoteliers with strategy and implementation. He now does a lot of work confirming whether Wi-Fi installations meet hotel brand standards. Graeme is regularly involved with Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) workgroups having been particularly involved in areas with respect to improving the guest Wi-Fi experience. His arguments and replies on the hackers guide focused heavily on the "backbone" of the networks and WiFi connectivity to "carry" and deploy the multitude of technology solutions discussed in the hackers guide.
Kees van Donk has held several business development, account- and sales management positions in the field of Hospitality for companies including Accor, Witness, Philips and NEC. At present Kees van Donk is Director Hospitality at NEC Unified Solutions. Operating out of the company's head-office in Hilversum, the Netherlands, his responsibilities include marketing, sales and account management to the Hospitality sector throughout EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). His arguments and replies on the hackers guide were geared towards both the infrastructure of the technology and the practical applications the digital solutions can offer to enhance the guests journey and optimize cost, expenditure and revenues for the operators.
Ronald Stilting has been active in hospitality management & consultancy for more than 35 years / in Africa since 1998. responsible for 8 hotel pre-opening (6 in Africa) and various rebranding & turn-around projects. Elected General Manager of the Year 2019 Nigeria and Founder/MD of Zebra Hospitality. Ronald is a Digitalization-advocate (first to introduce Hotelkit in Africa) and Brand Ambassador for Hotelkit and Code2order DGI. His arguments and replies on the hackers guide came from a hotel operations point of view and were focused on the ease of use of back of house applications to improve guest services and back of house tasks, the guests experience and applications that helped overcome the post COVID "fears" to introduce a safe and welcoming atmosphere that is the core of hospitality operations.
The hackers guide, available for download below, contains the following listed technology solutions for the New Normal Hospitality:
- Go Digital or Go Bust! Digital and Contactless services
- Online booking platforms
- Front of House 'thermal surveillance' solutions
- Digital Check in and Check out solutions. Self-Check in Kiosks
- Digital Signage
- WiFi Connectivity
- Mobile Key Access
- Guest Room controls solutions. 2Way IPTV Communication
- GRMS solutions
- QR code operations solutions
- Hotel operations and internal communication solutions
Disclaimer and Call to Action
The views expressed in this document are the opinions of the authors and IT Hospitality, Ethnic Technologies and NEC. This document is written in the interest of affirming the positive notion that, in our opinion, from a 'tech' point of view, technologies can improve the daily operations, guest satisfaction and optimize internal processes to benefit the hotels bottom line. Most of the technologies that are mentioned in this document are already in place or can easily be retrofitted in hotels that have been built to the brand standards required by those international hotel brandsDownload the Hackers Guide to New Normal Hospitality Technology
Frederic Van Lennep
Business Development Director MEA
