(Originally published on HOTELS Magazine on September 24, 2021)

HITEC is just around the corner, happening in Dallas next week, in person for the first time since 2019. It may be a bit too late to organize a field trip, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be following the trades and all the news that emerges from this landmark event.

Namely, with COVID-19, the rapid and continual adoption of technology is a base necessity for any hotel looking to save costs, save time and prevent customer attrition over the coming decade.

While 2020 saw us implement everything required to ensure a safe environment for staff and guests alike – via technologies that worked to enhance contact tracing, housekeeping schedules, remote work and contactless service – 2022 will see us shift back to integrations and the ability to make data-driven decisions in order to maximize the guest experience.

Key to remember in all this is that, coming out of the pandemic, customer loyalty has been reset. Guests are savvier than ever and know what a fair market price is. You can’t fool them, and any doubts with regard to coronavirus safety, room quality or service levels may result in a lost customer. Not only do you need technology and automation to pick up the slack, but you also need better tracking of what guests want in order to deliver a truly remarkable guest stay in order to drive word of mouth.

This is an ongoing process, and here are some things to be on the lookout for:

• Platforms that let you touch upon the entirety of a guest journey, from travel discovery and prearrival through to post-departure and continuing the conversation
• Chatbots and other guest communications tools that can offload your overworked teams so that they have more free and uninterrupted time to focus on more complex tasks
• More efficient and cost-saving payment systems so that we can finally stand a chance against the mounting problem of chargebacks and high processor fees
• Attribute-based selling functionality – within the PMS, booking engine, CRS or any other tool – so that you can find new pockets of revenue to pad out lower occupancies
• Prearrival software that cajoles guests to purchase more in advance of their stays – be it dining, spa, golf or activities – which will ultimately increase TRevPAR, boost satisfaction and help to smooth out erratic shift worker scheduling
• Labor recruitment and optimization tools – for housekeeping, F&B, front desk and all other guest-facing departments – so that HR isn’t overloading trying to find new candidates for high turnover positions and so you can trim time requirements on each given task
• Moving beyond a CRM to a CDP (customer data platform) that can efficiently integrate a multitude of disparate data points so that you can a rich and actionable guide for personalizing the stays of incoming guests, getting more return visits and appealing to new customers by inferring the behaviors of current guests

There are obviously plenty of other tools, features and benefits to look out for. As should be evident from the brief list above, technology touches upon and can improve every department. It is no longer something that is relegated solely to IT to define the vision then execute. Every hotelier must have a tech-first approach in order to cost-efficiently streamline operations so that there’s time and budget to craft something new. With all this in mind, we hope to see you next week in Dallas!