Digital platforms have changed the way the hospitality industry works. In this TV show Frank Fiskers discusses how distribution has changed for Scandic.

Intermediary digital platforms

So Scandic is a Nordic hotel group. We operate approximately 230 hotels, primarily in 4 Nordic countries with a little bit of business in Germany, a little bit of business in Benelux. We are 13,000 team members and we have a of approximately 11 billion Swedish kroner. I don’t know if it has disrupted distribution but I think it has changed distribution dramatically and that's of course the shift from, in principle, all other channels to the internet both through digital intermediaries and through our own web sites. I think for Scandic it is like most other hotel companies, you know, we started working with these intermediaries back in – after it was 9/11, I think we never really realised whom we went into bed with and I think that this relationship has grown tremendously over the years but also it has its challenges and this is what we’re seeing now, that we are trying to cope with these challenges and trying to determine what should we do with these challenges that these intermediaries present.

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Hotel technology has developed to a point where a guest could check in easily without going to reception or collecting a key as Frank Fiskers of Scandic discusses in this TV show.

Hotel technology at Scandic

Of course there's also a lot of changes in the technology that we use in the hotel, the physical box of the hotel in terms of wireless, wifi, key locks to the guest rooms and there we have – because we mainly work in Scandinavia which is reasonably high tech and where we have a lot of variant data and segments of the market, we have spent a lot of time and money on upgrading technology within the hotels. So I would think that Scandic is at the forefront of – we were among the first who offered free wifi which is spreading through. So there we are now testing, um, keyless locks and mobile devices, that works in one of our hotels and fully at the property and it works fully. We are one of the first that launched last year, online check out. So guests can now check out on their mobile phones without passing through reception. So there's a lot of emphasis in that area, so. I think that there will be a distance in the shorter term where we are just meeting expectations before we are really delighting customers with new technology. So think we are, I wouldn’t say catching up, but I think we have a – this is now where we are living up to expectations to what customer sees in other businesses and other industries.

Developments in hotel technology are changing quickly. The Hospitality Channel will continue to bring you expert discussion about the developments. Look out for the next 10 industry experts to be announced as part of Hospitality250.