Hotels told to boost technology

Hotels told to boost technology

The Nation

The hotel industry has lagged behind other sectors in adopting technology to meet customer-led demand, according to a new report from Grant Thornton.

As a result, hotels must now put mobile technology at the centre of their customer experience as they race to catch up with and compete in the “sharing economy”, where services such as Airbnb, an online home-stay service, are challenging the traditional business model, the advisory firm said.

However, the report, “Hotels 2020: Welcoming Tomorrow’s Guests”, cautions against dehumanising the hotel experience, stressing that the most successful companies will be those that master the balance between using technology to respond to customer preferences and keeping the personal touch.

Launched early this month at the “International Hotel Investment Forum” in Berlin, the report highlights the changing nature of hotels and their guests. This is in part because of the increasing spending power of younger people born into the digital era who are looking for local, authentic experiences when travelling.

This demographic group of so-called millennials is set to outspend baby-boomers in hotels by 2017 and expects increasingly tailored services, such as mobile room customisation and special in-app offers.

With the number of Chinese tourists alone expected to double to more than 200 million by 2020, rising numbers of travellers from emerging markets mean hotels need to change their services to cater for new needs, preferences.

Tantra Tantraporn, partner for management consulting services at Grant Thornton in Thailand, added that technologies and their impact on society changed continually, and at an increasingly rapid rate. Customer expectations on the balance between services that are needed away from home, and those that are nice to have, need to be evaluated by hotels regularly.