This blog is a “diary” so to speak of my growing knowledge of technology in the hospitality business. Expressing my ideas and thoughts about the business is a great exercise for me to measure what I learn.
What’s clear is the hospitality business is undergoing dramatic change. New technologies in travel marketing have shifted control to the buyers of traveler. Hotels and resorts in my view will need to become creators of information about what they offer to the traveler. So much information is consumed as travelers plan business trips and vacations, hospitality providers will need to supply that pool of information content they create that features their property and offering.
However in the new world of travel discovery on the Internet, content can’t seem like advertising—it will need to appear authentic. Any content and information contributed by the property will be judged against reviews, feedback, critiques of the experience encountered by other travelers.
How hotels and resorts manage their messaging in a tangled world of blogs, social media, search engines, travel sites will have a huge impact of their future success.
In my opinion, more and more of the basic hotel information systems such as accounting, rooms and F&B management, payroll—general ERP and CRM systems—will be available to all hotel firms, especially as cloud computing and SaaS architected systems bring down costs. Therefore in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage using information technology, hotels and resorts will need to exploit the social marketing and Internet media world to which their customers turn to plan and buy travel.
