The importance of technology in the hospitality industry has reached its peak within the last year due to the situation in the world. All the businesses understood that they needed to develop unique, safe, and comfortable offers for their customers if they wanted to keep the lights on. The correct implementation of technology strategies for the hospitality industry can go a long way because it helps attract customers and increase their safety, boosting income.
Besides, businesses that implement hospitality technology can see new opportunities for further development and embark on delivering a wider range of services, becoming leaders in their sphere. Qubit Labs has decided to examine how technology affects the hospitality industry to help you understand how to benefit from implementing cutting-edge solutions.
The Latest Technology Trends in the Hospitality Industry
First, it’s essential to understand the current state of the hospitality market and determine what to expect in the next few years. Some of the most notable information about technology hospitality include the following:
- The hotel and resort sector peaked at $1,5 trillion in 2023.
- 62% of the customers prefer doing check-in and check-out activities via hotel apps.
- 73% of the visitors prefer using contactless options during their stay.
- The sales value of new robot installations in the food and beverage industry is predicted to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 4.36%.
- 135% increase in revenue is expected after implementing new tech.
- 19% of the increase in customer service ratings accounts for the adoption of technologies.
Also, we have to point out that hospitality industry technology trends enable businesses to increase customer comfort levels. They ensure that the clients are satisfied with the variety of services and their convenience and transparency.
Picking dishes from the menu via the hotel’s app, communicating with the staff through messengers, and opening doors with smart keys are becoming habitual. You won’t surprise anyone with a hotel room WiFi or a TV. However, if you offer an online 3D tour, use robots instead of concierges, and provide online check-ins and check-outs, your business can skyrocket because that’s how hospitality technology works.
Let’s now see how the technology used in the hospitality industry elevates customer experience and sets new demands on market players.
Food and Beverages
#1 Data Analytics
Manufacturers and supply chains must optimize their processes. They require technology to store and analyze their data. These technologies help predict shelf life and measure critical quality attributes. Data analytics allows forecasting of how different factors, like weather, traffic, or route changes, influence the transportation of goods and help prevent spoilage.
This is a demanded technology used in the hospitality industry. It enables the entire supply chain to access the same information, helping to modify operations and reduce risk factors. It enhances visibility, and brands can use it to build a trust-based system and bolster customer relationships.
#2 Robotics
Robots are the backbone of manufacturing facilities of different sizes and types from all over the world. They help to avoid downtime because they can run long shifts and increase output rates. Robots can handle multiple applications on a single platform to quickly introduce new products into the production process. Besides, if the company has installed robots at each critical point, they can automatically pick and package orders under each customer’s requirements.
Moreover, this hospitality technology reduces product waste because the robots constantly monitor every product coming off the line. They can palletize the shelves following specific requirements, improve future operations, and make all the processes more flexible and effective.
Travel and Tourism
#3 Mobile Technology
Most hospitality businesses are interested in delivering outstanding services during the trip and before and after it. Applications created according to customers’ needs can become 24/7 assistants that guide tourists and help them receive a better experience. The apps facilitate numerous processes, from booking hotels to mapping airport visitors.
Suppose you are a booking company, and your services are limited to booking accommodations and taking care of check-ins and check-outs. However, implementing mobile technology in the hospitality industry can help you become a more all-inclusive company. It’s easier for the customers to choose one company that provides different services than to reach out to multiple providers. If your app offers a set of activities or destinations to visit, you are more likely to establish strong customer connections.
#4 Virtual Assistants
Virtual travel assistants are the people who work remotely for your company and help improve customer experience by undertaking multiple tasks. They can answer messages and take calls for you, help customers book their flights, and plan travel budgets. Virtual assistants are handy for business travel because clients usually have to manage several things simultaneously and don’t have time to monitor all their plans.
Implementing new technology in the hospitality industry shows you value your clients’ time and ensures more convenient and safe travel. Besides, it enables reducing the number of social contacts. Customers won’t have to wait in long lines or communicate with too many people since everything is already booked for them.
#5 Big Data
Using big data makes managing sales and ensuring the right customer receives the right product via the right channel much easier. The impact of the mentioned information technology in the hospitality industry is invaluable. It facilitates monitoring room revenue, current bookings, and occupancy rates. Also, customers usually leave reviews about the accommodations, so using big data enables spotting significant strengths and weaknesses gathered from websites and social media sites.
Implementing the mentioned technology in the hospitality industry allows for more effective strategic management because businesses can target the right people using appropriate tools. Big data empowers companies to identify the main trends, see the similarities, and determine the best marketing opportunities in the area. The technology provides means for more targeted promotional content, delivering more relevant information to the clients.
#6 Contactless Tech
Contactless technologies change how visitors make reservations, pay for services, or turn on the lights in their rooms. They improve the comfort and safety of visitors and eliminate the number of social interactions. Besides, such tech solutions help the staff facilitate their routine operations by reducing waiting times at the front desk, enhancing the personalized visit experience, increasing revenue, and supporting management operations.
If you have a digital concierge at your hotel, it will be easier to gather requests and orders and communicate with guests on a 24-hour basis. It allows the customer to book a table directly at your establishment. It will enable them to manage all the processes themselves while reducing some time-consuming tasks. Using this technology in the hospitality industry enables getting ideas about more personalized deals to the customers.
Lodging
#7 Artificial Intelligence
You might have heard about an AI robot called “Connie,” a new solution Hilton adopted to deliver in-person customer service. The robot provides tourist information to the customers and adapts to the individuals, earning from the customers’ speech. The recent trend in hospitality information technology also implies using AI-enabled phones offered to customers. They are also called travel phones and have AI-powered built-in hotel apps, promotional offers, and quick access to hotel service assistants.
Actually, a popular forthcoming hospitality technology conference, ALIS (The American Lodging Investment Summit), has several speakers that will expand on the topic of using AI. That’s why adopting this technology into your business is a long-term investment. You can gain inspiration from world-known hotels. For example, Wynn Las Vegas has recently announced that it will integrate Amazon Echo to allow guests to control numerous facilities with their voice. At Henna na Hotel, Japan, the robots are expected to replace most staff and serve guests.
#8 Increased Internet Bandwidth
Many hospitality technology companies offer hotels the ability to take care of their WiFi to ensure it’s high-speed, so customers won’t have to wander the room to find a spot where the connection is the best. Many travelers check the hotel’s WiFi speed before they book the room to ensure it won’t hinder their business calls, email delivery, or evening Netflix binge-watching.
If your hotel has 100 rooms, you will require 400 Mbps download and 400 Mbps upload to provide a top-notch customer online experience. Although guests are unlikely to use all the bandwidth simultaneously, it’s better to safeguard it in such situations.
#9 Face Recognition Technology
Even before the pandemic, hotels started adopting facial recognition technology. Nowadays, it’s a must for businesses that want to stay competitive in the market. Such solutions reduce the necessity of using room keys or cards, and guests will skip the lines at the front desk and enter the hotels by simply pre-checking in with FaceID. Payment authorization is another advantage of this solution because there won’t be any need to use cash or credit cards to pay for food, accommodations, or other services.
If you strive to manage technology in the hospitality industry in the most impactful way, you need loyalty programs. FaceID can help you with that because it can identify the guests at the check-in and automatically activate their loyalty accounts. You will offer tailored experiences to the guests and reduce the number of activities required for the loyalty program registration.
#10 Chatbots
If you have integrated a chatbot, you prevent guests from wasting time finding the website and trying to reach out to customer support. Instead, they will use the messaging app that is convenient for them and choose one of the pre-written questions from the list to get an immediate answer. Besides, chatbots can offer coupons, send reminders, and auto-respond to Facebook comments.
Technology is important in the hospitality industry because it gives customers a feeling of being valued and appreciated and ensures a more personal experience. Chatbots can ask whether guests need help or offer to visit hotel events. They also help you understand customers’ preferences and answer more visitor inquiries and questions.
A chatbot butler at Clarion Hotel in Stockholm helps guests order room service, hail cabs, and perform several other hotel-related operations. Edwardian Hotels also has a chatbot called Edward, which can guide guests to local restaurants and famous destinations and handle complaints.
#11 Blockchain
Hospitality financial and technology professionals often emphasize the importance of introducing blockchain in the industry. This solution can decentralize data and ensure it won’t go offline or be removed by cyber crooks. It simplifies payments, especially those from overseas, and makes them more transparent and streamlined, increasing customers’ trust. Also, blockchain enables a shared digital database, quickly verifying guests by fingerprints.
Blockchain allows sellers to be paid directly and cuts out financial intermediaries. In addition to financial security, it provides more accurate baggage tracking. One of the most notable examples is BeeToken, a blockchain home-sharing platform that offers peer-to-peer transactions and charges no commission.
#12 IoT
Since customization is one of the most popular hospitality technology trends, guests look for it everywhere, from hotel rooms to workplaces. IoT can help improve room service; for example, you can offer them food and room choices based on their preferences. Smart devices can also detect whether the guest has already woken up and made morning coffee. If the visitor has left the room, the sensors will switch off the appliances to save electricity.
Marriott is one of the notable case studies because it has teamed up with Samsung and Legrand to create a room of the future by using IoT. This room will be capable of performing various automated activities, like giving a wake-up call to the guest or setting a certain temperature for the shower.
#13 Machine Learning
Competitive pricing is one of the primary strategies for hospitality service providers because it helps them attract customers. Machine Learning can help provide services at the best price, prevent companies’ profits from being threatened, and attract maximum customers. You can implement predictive models to run data about seasonality, local events, and local competition to identify the best time to offer certain offers.
Machine Learning can also divide customers into smaller groups and subgroups by identifying similar characteristics. This allows for delivering more tailored services and leads to happier customers, which results in higher profits.
Recreation
#14 Extended Reality
The hospitality technology trends also apply to museums and amusement parks because the pandemic has forced them to go digital. The museums integrate three-dimensional animations with which the users can interact, create apps to explore the paintings using smartphone cameras, and incorporate projects that bring the drawings to life. Also, AR installations allow the transport of paintings to our modern reality.
The technology in hospitality industry allows amusement parks to push the limits and open up new possibilities for innovation. For example, Legoland in New York will implement an AR-powered ride to transform guests into Lego mini-figures. Universal Studios in Japan will use the immersive power to make guests feel like they are participating in a Mario Kart race. Still, they won’t violate the rules of social distancing.
#15 Smartphone Apps
Various apps connect visitors and customers with certain destinations and inspire activity. They offer information about parks, recreation opportunities, and special events based on user preferences. Besides, people with an app won’t require printed guides, maps, or tickets, which helps support environmental goals and cut print and production costs.
Guests gather everything in one place, so they won’t have to worry about losing their tickets or carrying photo passes around. Such applications also help analyze the guest flow and better understand the changes in their behavior patterns.
Wrapping Up
Here we go: these are this year’s most recent hospitality technology trends. The technology development doesn’t stand still, so we can expect more improvements to enter the market within the next few years. If you are in the hospitality industry and want to turn your innovative ideas into reality, contact Qubit Labs. We will find skilled and experienced developers for your project to make it stand out on the market.
Also, remember to check out our recent articles to stay on the same page about upcoming technological developments.
