One of my friends said
"hoteliers are late to technology solutions, don't always like to depend on technology, and the decisions about vendors and how to handle them is not always a local decision"
Well, he wasn't wholly wrong. Why not? For a standalone hotel, taking such a decision is just a matter of IT Manager convincing the GM. But for a member hotel of a larger chain needs the approval of their corporate office for something as simple as moving a field on the PMS reservation screen from left to right.
One of my client startups created a fantastic & innovative app for hotels and miserably failed. But in a jiffy, they changed the focus & the strategy; with the same app modified, they targeted the corporate businesses instead. The results, a successful company today. I was more interested in asking more about their last-ditch that changed their fate. The CEO had fascinating facts to share with me:
- Hotels don't trust in startups because the hotels, being not so tech-savvy, often worries what-if the startup flops, who will take over, what happens to guest data, so on and so forth.
- Too many never-ending meetings with different people, and everyone with their own demand for customization.
- Exit strategy; PMS integration becomes a factor for standalone hotels. For chain hotels, it is corporate IT.
For him, the hotels are time-wasters. But on the hotels' side, I would argue somewhat reasonable. Let's take a branded hotel; the chain defines several sets of operational policies and procedures, and there are several software providers a stakeholders in it. To engage a newcomer into that setup, if not to replace a stakeholder is not an easy task. Obviously, an operator needs to prioritize maintaining the smooth functioning of the existing products in hotels, then comes the enhancements or new products.
That's good, but not so good, why? Most of the time, startups come up with breakthrough innovations, while larger companies invest in incremental technologies to stay competitive. This might be a reason hotels are traditionally unpopular for technology adaptation.
There is another area where startups are easily denied or rejected by some hotels or hotel companies. It is a lack of integration with PMS of the hotels or having it done through informal ways. We, at e360 Hospitality Solutions, help startups as well as established companies with necessary guidance, support & consultancy on PMS Integrations.
For more information, please write to me: alan@e360hospitality.com
