Latest Buzz From Industry Experts
Douglas C. Rice
Executive Vice President & CEO
Hotel Technology Next Generation
Is Your Hotel's Technology Outdated?
Now May be the Time to Replace It!
Like most items in a hotel, technology doesn't last forever. It needs periodic refresh at regular intervals to keep your hotel competitive. The lifetime of technology investments varies widely, for example three to four years for PCs and guestroom TVs, seven to ten years for front-of-house systems, and 20 years or more for infrastructure and building controls.
Planned technology replacement is smart business. Properly done, it can reduce costs and risk, and raise revenues. Done poorly or not at all, it will sooner or later impact your guest satisfaction, operating costs, and ability to generate new business. And now is an excellent time to review your technology profile and consider a refresh. During times of low occupancy, staff can better provide the needed focus and time for successful implementations, and any guest impact is easier to manage. Vendors are hungrier for your business now, and are more flexible than ever. Third-party financing remains available to minimize cash-flow impact.
If your hotel has not refreshed key technology elements recently, then it’s likely that rival hotels have created gaps that you will need to fill if you want to retain competitiveness. Technology advances have created opportunities that didn’t exist five or ten years ago – opportunities to increase revenues, to reduce operating costs, and to reduce risk.
- Intelligent environmental controls (heat, air conditioning, lighting), working in conjunction with PMS, can reduce guest room energy consumption by up to 40%, often with paybacks as short as 12-24 months.
- Advances in yield management science make it easier than ever to squeeze out extra revenue with little or no cost, even in times of low occupancy.
- New CRM and mobile marketing tools help to cement relationships with repeat customers, and can be used to improve sales of ancillary services such as room service, spa, and resort activities.
- New mobile technologies allow more effective utilization of staff, reducing labor costs without impacting the guest experience.
- Modern network designs allow the network to be shared across many or even all hotel applications and guestroom devices, and can significantly reduce the acquisition and maintenance cost of those applications and devices.
- Improvements in data security in core systems such as PMS and POS help to minimize exposure to financial risk resulting from security breaches.
- Centralized operation of systems, serving multiple hotels, is frequently now more reliable than onsite operations, and can reduce costs dramatically. Many vendors now offer hosted versions of key software packages.
Every hotel should have a refresh plan for key technologies, just as it does for soft goods and FF&E. Review the age of your current key systems and get good advice on the proper refresh interval for each. Chances are, some of your systems are past their useful lives, and you’re leaving profit on the table that could be yours with a refresh. Prioritize and sequence the investments you need to make to remain competitive.
--Douglas C. Rice
Executive VP & CEO
Hotel Technology Next Generation
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