4 questions to ask yourself when adopting new hotel technology
The train has left the station. Are you on it?
Innovation in the technology space is happening faster than the industry ever expected. The pace of innovation is like that of a high-speed train.
“The technology revolution is here. It’s moving. Better get on board because it’s more like a high-speed rail train if you don’t get on board,” says Robbert Manussen, Area Director at IHG Taiwan, on the Hotel Moment podcast.
Technology adoption can be intimidating. Narratives like, “new tech is too expensive, too complicated, too risky,” might have stopped you from getting on the train before. But with at least 57% of CEOs identifying technological change as the top driver of revenue growth, these narratives are more like myths.
If you’re shifting focus to become a business that’s data-driven, then technology adoption provides opportunities to do that. Every technology decision is a step towards a data-driven business that you can scale and ensure profitability.
So, if you haven’t made the choice to invest in new technology, it’s not too late. Trains are always making stops — giving you a chance to climb aboard.
But first, it’s important to ask yourself questions that will determine if you’re ready to commit to the journey and the ride.
What is the problem my hotel is trying to solve?
Choosing a new technology solution isn’t about checking a box marked “done,” it’s about committing to solve your hotel’s unique challenges with solutions that benefit both staff and your guests. And accounting for the challenges of multiple properties across your portfolio is part of getting honest about what your tech stack is lacking.
Shannon Knapp, the President & CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) recently said on the Hotel Moment podcast, “We have a lot of conversations with our members about not being distracted by the new shiny object. Really understand what the use case is for these new technology platforms that we all get … what is the problem that I’m trying to solve as a hotelier from my hotel? Really be clear on what the use cases are. Don’t be distracted by the next shiny object coming through.”
Your hotel’s unique challenge
Speaking of trying to solve problems for your hotel, do any of these sound like you?
You’re a hotelier battling siloed data — dragging out the process of creating and sending timely campaigns, or even sending the right campaigns that make sense for each guest. Ever sent a family room night discount to a single man who’s a business traveler? Ouch.
Or maybe your challenge is that your campaigns feel lifeless and incomplete without personalization. Not great if you’re aiming to capture guests back from OTAs.
Perhaps your hotel has always believed in the power of the voice channel, but your call center isn’t driving conversions as it should, and reservations agents don’t have the data they need to make personal connections in the conversation.
Whatever your unique challenge, selecting a technology that can integrate with your tech stack makes solving those challenges easier. You don’t have to have everything figured out, but you should have an idea of how new technology can simplify and maybe even replace legacy systems that are causing problems.
Am I willing to train staff on new technologies?
“Make sure that you have somebody on property who can actually manage that vendor… Having the greatest technology platform that no one on property understands means you’re not maximizing the value. It means you’re wasting money and resources.” Truer words were never spoken, and we can thank Shannon for stressing this point.
Embracing new technology is one thing, but consider its impact on your staff because they’re equally part of the decision. Staff use your technology every day to communicate with guests and facilitate revenue opportunities, so help them use it right!
You know staff is trained well when you have a data-driven call center complete with reservation agents driving conversion rates based on effective, up-to-date industry training. Because proper coaching is a requirement. Choosing technologies is only half the battle. The other half is training.
Invest in people
Robbert says “We should spend more time with our people. We should facilitate training development for them to understand what the new technology is, how it works, and how it really can enhance their job, not take over their job. How can you work smarter and not harder?”
Technology enables automation, empowering staff to focus on collecting data and investing in the guest experience. When your team is confident in how to collect, manage, and understand data, it means you’ve created a data-driven culture. Teams that align with the purpose of their hotel technology make intelligent business decisions to connect with guests.
The bottom-line is, investment is two-fold. It’s investment in technology and investment in people. The first doesn’t work without the latter. It’s a reminder that your hotel is here to keep the human element of hospitality alive, but doing so in a way that promotes work efficiency and a data-driven culture within your hotel.
What will my hotel look like in the future, and am I committed to change?
Tech innovation, like a train, is always moving. If you move with it, your hotel is in a better position to make decisions for the future.
“We need to adapt our mentality, and indeed have that conversation with our teams, with our owners, with investors, and with our corporate offices about what is technology going to look like in the future? And like any bigger evolution, we have to invest in it. We have to be ready to put some money aside, and to think like — automation and technology are not there to take over roles. It’s there to create a certain efficiency that allows our people to do a different job to add value in a certain way. And that doesn’t come free of charge,” reminds Robbert Manussen.
This forward-thinking mindset is your hotel’s path to profitability, satisfying both your guests and hotel owners. If you expect to be solving problems long-term, you need to consider technology with longevity. Change isn’t going to happen with legacy systems.
For example, a Customer Data Platform is a living, breathing, and evolving piece of technology that grows with your hotel. The data collected and stored in a CDP is evergreen and continually used for every touchpoint at your hotel year after year. As guests change, so does the data, allowing hoteliers to plan for the future and anticipate guest trends before they happen.
Embrace change
If your hotel is looking to stay in business for years to come, it has to be willing to let go of tech adoption myths and embrace change.
The CEO of Mews, Matthijs Welle, said on the Hotel Moment podcast, “For some reason hoteliers around the world really struggle with this concept that you have to invest before you get something out of it. And with technology, you need to make a commitment to say, ‘I want to change.'”
Resisting industry change prevents hoteliers from growing their business and supporting their guests. Take your hotel’s loyalty program. If you’ve had the same loyalty program for decades — no new rewards, special offers, or incentives, how do you expect it to appeal to today’s guests?
Will this investment open doors for data-collection?
A productive tech stack shouldn’t allow locked doors — inaccurate data, duplicated data, OTA-masked data — all these locked doors that are the result of technology no longer serving you. Technology that doesn’t promote accurate data collection is limiting the value of your guest communication, making the data you work so hard for irrelevant. Your technology should open doors, not close them.
Matthjis recommends getting to the root cause of those locked doors, saying, “We look for an easy answer. Most of the time in hotels we’re like, ‘let’s just buy something light that will solve all of our problems.’ But if you don’t tackle the root cause, which is the way that guest data, and revenue data, and profiles are being managed — if you don’t change that and move that into the cloud, into a solution with an open API — you’re never going to change inherently the operation.”
If you approach technology investments with the goal of reducing data silos and creating a data-centric business, then the return on that investment will prove to be worthwhile. Why? Because data silos can drive up costs by as much as 80%. Technology that integrates with valuable first-party data and zero-party data sources is critical to an efficient and profitable enterprise.
“Look at your total IT ecosystem. How does it interface with each other? Where do you have opportunities to start merging systems or developing new ways of operating? Does that free up funds? Because you have three systems that actually one system can do. Then don’t save the money on those two systems. Reinvest that money into something new that you can develop, and put time aside to really work on all the different aspects of technology,” is how Robbert has achieved success with hotels he’s managed across three countries.
Confident decisions inspire better results
Feeling ready to make a big decision can take time. For years, maybe you’ve been watching the technology train go by and haven’t felt ready or confident enough to climb aboard. But if you consider the future of your hotel, it doesn’t take long to see that adopting new technology is the catalyst for long-term success — rooting every business decision, guest interaction, and stakeholder engagement in data. And when your data touchpoints are all in one place, you’ll experience the impact of what a comprehensive approach to your guest data can do for your hotel.
About Revinate
Revinate empowers hoteliers to directly connect with their guests.
Our Guest Data Platform and communication solutions unlock revenue for hoteliers and put them in control of the full guest experience — initial research, booking, check-in, throughout the stay, and even after check out — all via the communication channels that guests prefer, whether it's voice, text, email, or web.
More than 12,000 hotels globally bank on Revinate to drive direct revenue and deliver delightful guest experiences.
Ask us how we do it. Visit our website to get a demo.
Sanjana Chappalli
VP of Brand Marketing and Communications
Revinate, Inc.
