Manish Dahiya
Head – Corporate Security & Liasion
The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group
Manish Dahiya chronicled a distinguished career of two decades in corporate security in diverse domains mainly into hospitality with hotel chains of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group. He possesses a committed, efficient security deft in private security industry. He excelled in training and emplacement of almost 1000+ security professionals during his career. He successfully and seamlessly managed the stay of VVIPs during the international events like stay of 650+ media professionals during Commonwealth Games in 2010, stay of 5 heads of various states during 3rd India-South Africa summit in 2015 and stay of 7 heads of different countries during maiden summit of International Solar Alliance in 2018. He exemplifies the elemental ability to build significant association and critical business liaisons. His expertise in technologically advanced emergency management process is a key factor in crisis preparedness & business continuity with optimum facility of safety & public security. He also received multiple prestigious awards, including the Best Hospitality Personality Award from the International Hospitality Council 2017
Introduction
Over the years, the hospitality industry has been evolving to keep pace with technology. The emergence of new technologies and new practices have completely changed the experience & spectrum of travel and hotel stay. The buzz word is to stay competitive by innovating way and adoption of technologies. The future of hospitality will be determined and dominated by the latest tech trends to provide guests with personalized experiences that meet their specific requirements. Keeping pace with tech developments calls for continued innovation. Therefore, we will be looking at some of the most important trends that are expected to shape the future of the hospitality industry in 2023.
How Technology relates to Hospitality Sector
Hospitality technology constitutes a wide range of IT, e-commerce, and similar technology solutions within the hospitality industry. It is either intended to improve the overall experience for hospitality customers or make life easier for a business’s employees. This is done by enhancing the automation content and reduce the workload of hotel staff, to accelerate the processes resulting in saving of money & time and to help the customers at multiple points along their journey in hospitality industry.
What makes Technology a key element in shaping the future of Hospitality?
The rise of the digital community signifies that competition is rife. Customers are now demanding more personalized options to meet their discrete requirements. Hotels, therefore, need to leverage the resources and systems at their disposal if they wish to retain loyal clients. Technology in hospitality sector is here to play a significant role and its presence is bound to increase in future. Hospitality industry must showcase the amenities digitally which people can access at home and even aim to exceed those expectations. It’s all about customizing the services to meet the aspirations and demands of customers. Technology enables hotels to meet guest demands and preferences with a click of button. Hotel technology also helps businesses focus on strategy saving valuable time and resources on routine everyday tasks.
Latest trends defining the hospitality industry
Virtual Reality Tour of Hotel
In particular, this can make the difference when customers are ready to make a booking, because it will give potential customers a much clearer sense of what they can expect when they visit. Those working in hospitality marketing have a particularly good opportunity to capitalize on virtual reality technology and gain an edge over rivals because it allows customers to experience elements of a hotel or to see the layout of a restaurant before booking. Most modern virtual reality tour videos can be viewed within a web browser, making them easily accessible. A greater level of immersion can also be achieved if users have access to a VR headset
“Hospitality technology constitutes a wide range of IT, e-commerce, and similar technology solutions within the hospitality industry. It is either intended to improve the overall experience for hospitality customers or make life easier for a business’s employees. This is done by enhancing the automation content and reduce the workload of hotel staff, to accelerate the processes resulting in saving of money & time and to help the customers at multiple points along their journey in hospitality industry”
Mobile Check-In
Mobile check-in hospitality tech is another trend to improve the customer experience at the point of their initial arrival. Crucially, mobile checkins swerve the need for face-to-face customer interactions, meaning customers can potentially have greater flexibility regarding when they check in. Contactless check-ins let you skip frustratingly long wait times at the front desk, reduced staff productivity, and manual errors. The introduction of mobile technology will enable guests to use their smartphones to control room temperature, turn on the lights, and even order room service among other things.
Recognition Technology
Recognition technology is one of the most important emerging tech trends, but its potential uses in the hospitality industry are especially interesting. In particular, biometrics is used to usher in a new age of seamless authentications, which could benefit hotel processes and customer purchases. Fingerprint or facial recognition technology can be used in hotel to unlock rooms, check-in and check-out purposes.
“The rise of the digital community signifies that competition is rife. Customers are now demanding more personalized options to meet their discrete requirements. Hotels, therefore, need to leverage the resources and systems at their disposal if they wish to retain loyal clients. Technology in hospitality sector is here to play a significant role and its presence is bound to increase in future. Hospitality industry must showcase the amenities digitally which people can access at home and even aim to exceed those expectations. It’s all about customizing the services to meet the aspirations and demands of customers. Technology enables hotels to meet guest demands and preferences with a click of button. Hotel technology also helps businesses focus on strategy saving valuable time and resources on routine everyday tasks”
Robotics
Robotics and robots are revolutionizing hospitality industry to carry out tasks traditionally performed by humans. From welcoming guests and providing them with important customer information, robots can occupy a concierge role within hotels. Robots for widely being used to automate tasks and make the lives of employees easier such as vacuum cleaning of floors and even germ-killing. The robotic concierge is a good example of a robot that is being used in hotels to help guests with their needs. This technology is still in its infancy but it will be interesting to see how it develops and what other uses it can be put to in the future. Possibility of robots entirely replacing hospitality staff any time soon may not happen but their usage to help humans efficiently.
Chatbots
Unending and ever growing demand for swift answers to questions at all times of the day makes Chatbots an essential part of hospitality. Hotels and restaurants will often attract queries from people in different time zones, so having staff available is difficult. A good chatbot will answer the most common questions without requiring human involvement. In this digital era, customers expect to be able to interact with hospitality companies across a variety of digital channels and receive rapid responses. Of course, having staff monitoring all of those channels and delivering swift responses can be difficult, if not impossible, which is where chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) come in. Chatbots can understand simple questions and provide answers almost instantaneously, taking the burden away from customer service staff and improving customer experience. Use of AI-powered chatbots, digital assistants and voice-activated devices is trending in order to help guests with their requests.
Wearable Tech
Wearable technology is one which has benefited the hospitality sector most. Wearables have helped in enhancing customer experience and in improving service efficiency, reducing waiting time, and improving safety.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Another technological trend within hospitality management is the ‘Internet of Things,’ or IoT, which involves extending internet connectivity to everyday objects, devices, and appliances. These devices can then collect data and communicate or interact over the internet, turning previously unintelligent devices into ‘smart’ devices, which are often semi- or fully autonomous such as internet-enabled thermostats, which automatically adjust room temperatures at check-in and check-out times in response to temperature swings caused by the sun or windows being opened. The same concept is also being deployed for lighting, improving energy efficiency by, for instance, reducing light intensity during daylight hours.
Cloud Technology
For many reasons, ensuring that your operations live in the cloud is essential in hospitality today. Being in the cloud allows real-time updates across all channels and makes adding innovations to your hotel’s tech stack easier, more efficient, and less expensive. The cloud is the future of business, offering flexibility and efficiency that traditional systems cannot. Without cloud technology, your hotel is at a clear disadvantage and cannot introduce new technologies into its operation quickly enough to keep up with the competition.
Contactless Payments
Contactless payments offer several advantages for hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, and cafes, which is why this has been among the main technology trends in the hospitality industry. Aside from speeding up payments and improving customer satisfaction, contactless tech is also easily compatible with loyalty programs. Mobile contactless payments are possible even if customers do not have their wallets or their credit card has been misplaced.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is a big bed bug for all businesses. Hotels are sitting at the edge of the businesses risk of hacking of the data of the guests being incredibly reliant on the Internet in just about every facet of their services. Protecting IT infrastructure has become a very important challenge to the industry. Hotels deal with and store a vast amount of personal guest data, which is valuable to hackers and makes hotels a popular target for cybercriminals. Guests using your Internet can also be targets of social engineering and phishing schemes that can give hackers access to your network. Hiring an in-house team responsible for securing hotel networks, establishing security protocols, and performing regular checks to protect your hotel has become inescapable requirement.
“The ‘Internet of Things,’ or IoT, involves extending internet connectivity to everyday objects, devices, and appliances. These devices can then collect data and communicate or interact over the internet, turning previously unintelligent devices into ‘smart’ devices, which are often semi- or fully autonomous such as internet-enabled thermostats, which automatically adjust room temperatures at check-in and checkout times in response to temperature swings caused by the sun or windows being opened. The same concept is also being deployed for lighting, improving energy efficiency by, for instance, reducing light intensity during daylight hours”
Conclusion
I have attempted to put across a part of the spectrum of tech trends in hospitality industry which I see it happening during my daily routine and travels and many of the emerging hotel technology trends, along with other digital trends already in use. There is no doubt that cutting-edge hotel technology is here to stay. Offering second-to-none levels of convenience and flexibility, hotels need to be able to embrace these innovative methods if they hope to maintain a competitive edge within an increasingly digital marketplace. Hospitality industry is in for a big leap to ensure customer comfort.
*Views expressed in the article are solely of the Author
