Five Characteristics Hotels and Vendors Need to Succeed in a Digitized Environment

The world has changed. And the hospitality industry has drastically changed as well. We cannot carry on conducting business the same old way while making the same mistakes. We need to adapt to our new environment in order to be efficient, successful, profitable while attracting new talent.

Many things that we’re doing now (the way we build our teams, the way we approach customer acquisition, the way we segment our business, the way we forecast, etc.) are done out of habit. But do we really understand why we’re doing these things in this particular way? Is this optimal and does it actually drive ROI and improve operating efficiencies? Does the new reality dictate a new approach? Can we do better?

We need to ask ourselves these questions critically so that we are able to truly understand our behavior and take a very different, more optimal approach, to ensure that it corresponds with the new Hospitality 2.0 model.

The Evolved Hotelier Mindset

For hotel companies to succeed, they need to upgrade their mindset and stick to the following key pillars:

1. Heavy reliance on technology. If you’re not using modern tech (cloud-based, AI-powered, user-friendly solutions), you’re using carrier pigeons. And those birds are tired.

2. Agility. No more being the Titanic – we need to learn to pivot and adapt to our ever-changing environment.

3. Continuous innovation. Keep an open mind and don’t forget to upgrade your tech stack, at least once per decade.

4. Data-driven decisions. The answers are in the data, not in your gut.

5. Open mind. Instead of restrictions and workarounds, focus on possibilities and opportunities.

Hoteliers can’t keep doing things the same old way and expect different results. That’s the definition of insanity. To thrive in this brave new world, they need to adapt, innovate, and embrace the shiny new toys that technology has to offer.

But we can’t only rely on ourselves. We have to have tech vendors’ support to help us achieve our goals and provide better services to our guests.

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The Vendors’ Role

Tech vendors are the unsung heroes of this tale, crafting the tools that help hoteliers be better at what they do. They will play a crucial role in the evolution of our industry by:

1. Building user-centric products that have user-friendly interfaces and actually solve a problem for hoteliers;

2. Opening up their APIs and building seamless integrations with strategic partners;

3. Adapting to the changing needs of stakeholders and continuously innovating;

4. Clearly communicating the benefits of their products to the right decision-makers;

5. Assisting with technology adoption by making their sales and onboarding processes easy and user-friendly.

In this dynamic relationship between hoteliers and tech providers, vendors are the engines, driving us forward toward a future of innovation and efficiency. So as we continue our journey to the renaissance of hospitality, it’s important for hotel tech providers to rise to the occasion. Those trusty legacy methods and technology that once made us feel like rockstars are now about as useful as a floppy disk in a cloud storage world.

It’s time to modernize. No more excuses. The hospitality industry needs better tools to tackle the ongoing challenges we face. Let’s fire up the innovation engines and get ready for a tech transformation that will make even the most stubborn hoteliers say, “Where has this been all my life?”