market study major hotel technology trends

Key take-aways: What is the status quo of technology in hotels, and what are major trends moving forward?

Shiji Group and Travel Singularity conducted an in-depth industry survey to answer questions such as:

What is the is the current state of technology used in hotel operations?
What are major hotel technology trends hoteliers consider?
What is the perception that hoteliers have toward technology adoption today and, moving forward, post-pandemic?
How accelerated the COVID-19 pandemic the rise of certain technologies in hospitality operations, especially contactless technology solutions?
What are hoteliers’ plans for technology post-pandemic?
What keeps hotels from migrating to the cloud?, and more.

Below you find a summary of the key findings.

Hotels and migration to the cloud

59% of hoteliers interviewed currently use a mix of cloud and on-premise solutions. Despite this encouraging data, 17% of respondents openly admitted all of their infrastructures are still entirely on-premise.

What scenario best describes your current organisation's IT environment?

Looking ahead, approximately one-third (28%) of the interviewed affirmed they anticipate their infrastructures to be completely cloud-based over the course of the next two years, with only a minority (6%) deciding to continue relying only on legacy systems.

Why Hotels migrate their technology stack to the cloud

The main reasons to move technology to the cloud are

service quality (50%),
followed by security/privacy (47%),
and integrations/cost of ownership (44%).

Only a modest 27% of hoteliers stated that product quality is a motivating factor in moving their infrastructure to the cloud.

The rise of cloud infrastructure is an unstoppable trend in the hospitality industry, although a minority of hoteliers still entirely rely on legacy systems.

What are the hoteliers' top goals when adopting technology?

The top three objectives for adopting technology for the surveyed hoteliers are to improve the guest experience (24%), to grow their profits (18%), and to future-proof their organization(s) (16%).

Which aspects of the guest journey are hoteliers looking to digitize in 2021?

Contactless technology is an unstoppable trend, with more than 55% of respondents looking to digitize their check-in and check-out processes. 70% of the hoteliers surveyed stated the want to replace printed hotel information, such as in-room handbooks.

What factors drive decisions in hotel technology adoption?

The top three aspects that are the most important factors in the technology adoption process considered by hoteliers are first the ability to increase profitability (69%, second the Ease of Use (65%), and third the quality of support from the respective technology partner (64%). Other important factors are available technology integrations (47%), and the actual quality of integrations (67%).

Technology will not replace teams, but empower them to work faster and more productively

Only 8% of the respondents believe technology reduces their need for full-time employees. The majority (63%) believe technology allows employees to focus on other, more important tasks by freeing them from mundane tasks.

Download the full report for free here to read up on further findings, such as what technology provider category is considered the most vital strategic partner; and why Property Management Systems (PMS) are still at the core of hotel operations; how budget situations look like currently when looking at technology investments; and what role Guest Messaging solutions play for the hoteliers surveyed.

About the report

The study surveyed independent properties (51%), followed by branded hotels (24%), and hotel management companies (12%). Respondents’ roles varied from executive management (30%) and revenue management (17%) to operation and owners (9% each). Of the survey respondents, 48% were based in Europe, 20% in North America, and 14% in Asia.

The survey was conducted anonymously to an extensive database, external to the Shiji Group: 78% of the respondents, in fact, were not currently customers of Shiji, or any of its brands, at the time of the survey.

About Shiji Group

Shiji Group is a multinational technology company that provides software solutions and services for enterprise companies in the hospitality, food service, retail, and entertainment industries, ranging from hospitality technology platform, hotel management solutions, food and beverage, and retail systems, payment gateways, data management, online distribution and more. Founded in 1998 as a network solutions provider for hotels, Shiji Group today comprises over 5,000 employees in 80+ subsidiaries and brands in over 23 countries, serving more than 91,000 hotels, 200,000 restaurants, and 600,000 retail outlets. For more information, visit www.shijigroup.com.

Shiji Group is a Founding Member of techtalk.travel.

About Travel Singularity

Travel Singularity is a new firm for hotels and travel technology providers, focused on assisting clients with digital disruption and technology changes. Founded in 2019, Travel Singularity's vision is to solve the growing needs for connecting the dots between digital disruption and change with the existing technology and processes in hotels.