The first simple hotel management system was introduced back in the 1970s, allowing hoteliers to confirm on-site reservations. By the early 1990s, the first database management system was marketed, allowing for digital records, which made accessing information much easier than Excel spreadsheets. Now, the hospitality industry is amidst the "cloud computing boom". The impact of cloud-based solutions is enormous: it revolutionises how the managers run their hotels/restaurants and interact with the customers.

You and your hotel staff are constantly flooded with information from emails, text messages, walkie-talkies, online meetings, and, of course, telephone calls. But your communication technologies are imperfect, because they exist in silos and are disconnected from core systems and processes. Because of that, your employees may lose key facts, fail to make necessary handoffs, and miss connections and opportunities to provide stellar service.

The hospitality sector serves millions of customers every day. Each of them checks in and out with his or her own expectation. Some only need to have a room to stay during a business trip but some other customers also demand other services and spend thousands of dollars on restaurants, dining, entertainment, sports, and spa treatments.

For a hotel chain, which may own, operate or manage thousands of properties around the world, revenue management truly is a daunting challenge. In recent years, many hotel chains have heavily invested in Business Intelligence (BI) to drive their revenue management. The massively powerful data analytics capabilities provided by Business Intelligence solutions have created giant leaps in revenue optimisation of hotel chains.

How can a hotel chain whose properties are located in many different countries reliably provide its financial professionals with advanced forecasting and reporting capabilities around the clock and across multiple devices? Find out how Kempinski Hotels - the Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group – achieved such a feat.

The importance of revenue optimisation or revenue management in the hotel industry cannot be overstated due to its critical importance to the Hotel bottom line. Basically, revenue optimisation is being able to sell the right room to the right guest, at the right price and at the right time. It requires plenty of actionable information in a timely manner, which is so often unattainable. 

These are the lifestyle trends that will be shaping the hospitality industry in the next 12 months, according to Muriel Muirden, a renowned hotel designer and trend forecaster.

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia, Agoda or Booking.com have become a crucial source of hotel revenue. Independent hotels are particularly dependent on OTAs for their revenue. While this is not necessarily a negative trend, hoteliers should avoid relying too much on this channel for it may hurt the hotels’ profitability. OTAs usually demand around 10-20% in direct commissions. Additionally, the rate parity agreement with OTAs limits the hotels’ pricing options.

The Hospitality industry increasingly appreciates the significance of personalisation in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. As guests today are getting bombarded with information and offers from both hotels and online travel agencies (OTAs), personalised services could well be the ultimate goal that every Hotel aims to achieve.

This is a long and challenging journey; but hoteliers can start by understanding the fundamental principles and practices, as well as associated legal and ethical implications of hospitality personalisation.

Technology is still developing at a fast-moving pace, some has positively changed the way hospitality operates. However, it’s challenging for Hotels, service providers and hospitality-related services to keep up with these rapid changes and innovation. If you don’t want to be an outsider to these technology changes impacting the hospitality industry, then read these top 5 technology inventions: