The hotel industry used to lag behind other industries in technology uptake. In this TV show Simon L'Anson says this has now changed.

Technology in the hotel industry

I think hospitality has caught up and is starting to overtake again now.  I think the importance of technology, which frankly in the past was an add-on, to say the hotel bill process, now has changed completely in terms of how the hotels will approach it.  Technology is now a strategic enabler that is part of that hotel offer from the start.  So I think probably a bit of a slow start but the reality is now, I think hotel companies are as advanced as pretty much anyone else in industry today.

Look out for the next 10 industry experts to be announced as part of Hospitality250. There will be more TV shows and briefings discussing technology in the hotel industry.

I think it’s dangerous to try and assume we know what the guest wants because every guest is different.  I think that the constraints of profiling or perhaps traditional profiling, don't necessarily apply as rigidly anymore and really it’s a simple things, it’s about ultimately, whether it’s internet or other applications, it’s good connectivity that is the most important factor there because quite openly, I have my own content sources already should I want to interact with anything, you know, I don't really expect the hotel to provide it to me.  So I come with multiple devices, with multiple subscriptions for contact and frankly I want to access those as quickly and as easily and as speedily as possible.  So I think the focus has to - I’m not trying to tailor every experience to the guest but give enough of the generic on, say connectivity to provide them access to what they cherish.  Then when it comes to the marketing angle and marketing 2 guests, that's slightly different, you know.  One can - take the internet of things and, and the amount of data that will be extracted from connectivity of devices all over the internet, especially within the hotel space itself, to start to create tailored programmes and deliver that personalisation that I was talking to you a few moments ago.

I think good connectivity is king today and it’s not me as a vendor saying that if you look at for instance, the JD power surveys that come out annually for the hotel industry, connectivity as a whole has just shot up the rankings in the last 3 or 4 years to the point now it’s number 2 as a guest amenity.  We’re all travellers, we all stay in hotels and the frustration we see of reduced capability on our connectivity drives us all up the wall.  So it’s massively important to stay connected both professionally and privately in a hotel space.  That's why so much emphasis is put today on that whole connectivity piece.