Hotel owners and operators see a need for significant change in the hotel industry, and many are hopeful technology can be a major driver for that change.
At the 2023 HITEC conference in late June, hotel owner-operator and AAHOA Chairman Bharat Patel said the industry is in need of a "quantum leap" fueled by technology.
"I'm hoping hotel chains that are investing tens of millions of dollars, some hundreds of millions of dollars, have got to go and take a quantum leap into this century but at the next level and be sure that they do what's best for the guest and consumer but also what's best for the hotel owner," he said.
During that same discussion, hoteliers were reminded there are significant barriers to that type of jump, most notably rules and regulations on how to handle consumer data.
"Before we even look at the technology, we need to look at the legislation and the laws," Tariq Valani, Accor's senior vice president of global support services, said. "You've got so many different points of concern. For example, in some countries you need to ask for identification. In others, you don't. Facial recognition is probably the easiest way to go from one angle, but once you implement that, how do you get the actual right to use that information? How do you get that initial image in order to be able to recognize the guest?"
Hoteliers are also hopeful that generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT can unlock new levels of efficiency.
Tata Crocombe, owner of three South Pacific resorts, believes the technology could be the key to a new golden age for the industry, although the change will take time. He noted it's already useful as a productivity tool for his team.
"I gave everyone [on my team] a presentation [on generative AI]. Some people run with it, and some people don't," he said. "There's no requirement to use it, but I'll tell you one thing that's interesting is that the ones who are running with it, their performance is going through the roof. And the ones who aren't, their performance is static. We run a quarterly review process, and that's going to come through in the pay raises pretty quick."
Tech and revenue leaders at Charlestowne Hotels said it will be important to cut through the hype to get to real-use cases for artificial intelligence. They said they have been surprised by how eager many have been to adopt it, though.
"The psychology of how it rolled out has actually been helpful," Chief Revenue Officer Johnathan Capps said. "Our surprise has been to find people in our organization are using it personally, so they're more willing to adopt it professionally, whereas usually with things like that it feels like Big Brother and they're a little wary of it."
Overall, content is key for success in the hotel industry, especially in reaching younger travelers.
Another area hoteliers must be more intentional about improving with technology is diversity. Tech leaders said companies must be focused on having a wider pool of potential candidates for tech jobs.
"We have a lot of conversations about this" at Hilton, Caroline van Beesten, head of EMEA technology and global deployment for Hilton, said. "How do you get better at the recruitment part? And it's not just 'OK, you have to recruit a diverse candidate for a role.' You need to have a diverse candidate pool to pick from. And there's a lot of focus on the recruitment side, but also from a development pathing perspective, how do we identify potential, and how do we recruit for potential rather than recruit for a certain role?"