How Hospitality Technology Should Support Day to Day Operations

Confidence is key in any industry. Knowing what you’ve got in place and that you’re supported along the way is a primary driver to resilience, adaptability, and continuity. Technology plays a big part to instill that confidence, along with the hospitality technology partnerships that are associated with it. Partnerships and evolving solutions are what help organizations like yours to inspire a vision for where you want to go, and what you need to be to get there.

That said, the present is as important as the future. So, what should technology in hospitality contexts like hotels, resorts, and casinos deliver every day, right now? What are the essential pillars to success for everyone involved – business strategy, staff activities, and the guest experience? Let’s look at these foundational areas.

Easy visibility and access to key information

When people know what is happening in as close to real time as possible, it’s much easier to discuss, collaborate, adjust, and execute on a strategy. It’s best too to get the highest possible vantage point on things like competitive pricing, revenue, and profitability. It’s also helpful to know who your best guests are – how they interact with your brand or brands, their histories, and preferences – across all locations to help create the kinds of experiences that will nurture a lasting relationship.

Cloud technology enables all the above, which is why hospitality organizations are making strides toward digital transformation with multitenant cloud. But beyond the question of cloud vs on-prem, the benefits of this are about enabling staff at every level to do their best work. The question of access to what they need wherever they are as supported by internal and external expertise alike is an essential factor in accomplishing that goal.

Flexibility and empowerment

When staff members at locations can access information on their personal device – guest information, requests, cleaning schedules, reservations, and other factors – they are connected in real time to the tasks before them with greater clarity. A hospitality technology platform that easily incorporates mobile technology, not only to enhance the guest experience (which we’ll touch on in a second), but also to remove the gaps in knowledge or to visibility for service staff can be the difference between success and falling short of it.

It can also make the difference between teams being happy in their work and feeling as though they’re not doing the best job they can do. Relationships are important. This includes the ones your teams have with each other and with those to whom they’re accountable. When they feel more in control of their work and its outcomes, that makes for a better working environment and better work when it comes to daily operations, too.

Less friction, more freedom

That flexibility extends to the guest as well, and to the kind of experience they can expect when they engage with your locations. When processes to do the basics on their own devices – checking in and out, booking tables or other amenities, ordering meals and snacks – without having to make up the difference between what isn’t connected during their journey, that produces a guest experience characterized by a feeling of freedom.

Removing friction is a crucial element to delivering the best possible guest experience. When staff and guest alike can interact (or not interact, even) in any of your properties, inside or out, lobby, poolside, guest room, casino floor, and beyond, that helps your locations more easily meet the central goal of the hospitality industry since it began – to extend welcome and make guests feel at home.

Hospitality technology enables both stability and change

The takeaway here is that beyond individual features and benefits of hospitality technology, it’s the positive impact on people that has the most lasting effects. The solutions only help those effects to take root and help to create the momentum needed to continue to serve your organization.

In this, the best solutions should always help to create a sense of stability and allow you the kind of flexibility to help you change when needed. Another aspect of that is the kind of partnerships you make along the way, those who understand your vision, your immediate priorities, and are dedicated to helping you become what you need to be as the competitive landscape changes.

Best possible technology partnerships

How do you help to ensure that you’re making the best possible technology partnerships that will resonate and be useful to you now and in the future?

In a casino and resorts context, check out our hospitality and gaming industry page to find out more about our approach to partnerships and products.