Brijesh Surendran
President – Sales
Hotelogix
Before discussing the topic at hand, we want to provide some context. With our partners, Carmen Software and BookingWhizz, we hosted this ‘Hotel Tech Drive – Tech Stack for Hotels – Now & Beyond’ on June 20 in Phuket, Thailand. It also had speakers from Booking.com, TrustYou, the Board of Tourism Authority of Thailand, and the Tourism Council of Phuket. It brought together leading hospitality technology providers, hoteliers, and industry experts to discuss cloud technology’s benefits.
We used the opportunity to speak with local hoteliers to learn their opinions about different hospitality technology solutions. The following is a brief overview of their feedback.
#1: Cloud Hotel PMS to get become the norm of the industry in the next 5 years
This is what 42% of hoteliers in Thailand think, and we all agree they are right about it. Almost every globally leading hotel group and even popular independent properties have migrated to the cloud. There are many reasons, but here are a few of them:
- To reduce software ownership costs
- To work with best-in-class third-party solutions for 360-degree automated hotel operations
- To manage operations remotely, on-the-go
- To go live and start selling quickly
- To save time and improve efficiencies
- To ensure data security and compliance
- To boost guest satisfaction
- To drive revenue and growth
A closer look at some of the brands already on cloud-based Hotel PMSs gives us a clear picture. They have been able to adapt and act quickly in response to the rapidly changing business environment and guest expectations. For example, Cloud Hotel PMS allows them to integrate with the right solution provider to roll out contactless guest services that today’s guests like the most. They can work with a hotel channel manager to ensure real-time distribution of rates and inventories across OTAs for better visibility, more sales, and zero overbookings. The same goes for CRM tool integration for enhanced marketing efforts, booking engine integration for direct bookings and revenue management solution integration to sell rooms at the best rate to increase occupancy and revenue.
Large hotel groups can witness many benefits with Cloud-based Hotel PMS, more precisely, a Hotel PMS with multi-property management capabilities. A single sign-on helps them gain centralised control over their group operations, including reservations, distribution, rate management etc. It lets them centrally manage travel agents’ and corporate clients’ logins and get more bookings from those sources. Groups can gain access to centralised guest history to understand their preferences to serve them better. The solution also helps them with group-level reports to make data-driven decisions. Moreover, it plays a crucial role in their expansion efforts by allowing them to add and go live with new properties quickly.
Based on the reasons mentioned above, it is clear that Cloud-based Hotel PMSs are the way to go. In fact, 39% of hoteliers in Thailand believe that legacy/server-based Hotel PMSs will become obsolete within the next five years.
#2: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to impact the hotel industry
At least 34% of hoteliers believe AI and ML will significantly impact the industry in the next five years. In fact, we have already seen AI at work in hotels. Yes. Look at today’s AI-powered revenue management tools. Hotels can significantly benefit from such tools by efficiently managing their pricing in real-time. It ensures they always offer the most competitive rates to the right guest at the right time to increase conversion. It ultimately increases their profitability by maximising revenue and occupancy.
Hotels will adopt these technologies to understand and anticipate guest behaviour, spending pattern, preferences, etc., to offer them personalised experiences. They will also leverage these technologies to reach their target audiences and upsell/cross-sell other products/amenities. Not only this, AI will also help hotels monitor and predict room/facility maintenance needs and optimize energy usage, etc., to significantly reduce a hotel’s operating costs.
Thailand hotel industry and cloud adoption
More and more Thai hotel groups are moving to the cloud despite a slow adoption rate. It is mainly fueled by the increasing competition to grab their share of business. For example, the hospitality industry in Thailand is projected to grow significantly, from USD 5,683.95 million in 2023 to USD 18,959.53 million by 2028, with a CAGR of 27.24%. As the industry expands, competition also grows. This competition will make hotels adopt a range of cloud-based hospitality technology solutions to gain a competitive edge, stay attractive, serve guests, and drive growth.
Hotelogix Editorial Desk
Hotelogix‘s team of researchers and writers are constantly innovating to share the latest trends from the travel and hospitality space. Got suggestions? Write to us on editorial@hotelogix.com.