Distinctive hospitality requires collaboration. Not solely between resort groups, however with expertise too. It’s necessary that hoteliers don’t consider their tech as a easy instrument to carry out a perform, however as a strategic companion, important to enhancing each operational effectivity and visitor expertise.
So how do you go about selecting the best companions? There are literally thousands of hospitality instruments and integrations in the marketplace, and it’s onerous to know the place to start. This text presents useful steerage on the way to construct the right tech stack.
Shifting Views on Expertise
For years, resort expertise was seen as a easy transaction: purchase a system, set up it and proceed enterprise as typical. At this time’s most profitable hoteliers are rethinking this method. The important thing query is not simply «Which system ought to we purchase?» however reasonably, «What are we attempting to realize with our expertise?»
Visitor expertise and operational effectivity are two distinct targets, every requiring a novel tech method. A resort’s expertise ecosystem must be constructed round its buyer journey, ranging from journey inspiration to post-stay engagement. By understanding this journey and figuring out gaps, hoteliers can choose the best instruments to reinforce their model promise.
Designing a Lodge Ecosystem
For those who had been constructing a resort from the bottom up, the place would you begin when designing its tech ecosystem?
The property administration system (PMS) is the apparent basis. It acts because the management heart, managing reservations, check-ins, visitor profiles and way more. Subsequent comes distribution – guaranteeing that your property is linked to the best reserving channels to achieve potential visitors. However past these necessities, what else belongs in a contemporary resort tech stack?
Accounting: The Underrated Integration
Regardless of developments in cloud expertise, many resorts nonetheless manually export reviews into Excel and painstakingly copy information from one sheet to a different. This outdated apply persists even in an period the place seamless integrations exist.
Accounting software program must be an ordinary integration, but adoption charges stay surprisingly low. A well-connected system reminiscent of Xero, which syncs invoices and monetary information in actual time, eliminates the necessity for guide number-crunching. Investing on this integration saves time and minimizes human error.
Income Administration: Why Aren’t All Motels Utilizing It?
One other stunning statistic: solely round 15-30% of resorts use a income administration system (RMS), regardless of its confirmed capability to optimize pricing and drive profitability. The rationale? A scarcity of training and consciousness.
Many unbiased hoteliers nonetheless depend on static pricing fashions based mostly on seasonal tendencies reasonably than real-time demand information. Whereas setting high-season and low-season charges manually could appear enough, it overlooks the dynamic nature of resort pricing. RMS options automate advanced calculations, guaranteeing charges are optimized for each reserving. Historic information constantly exhibits that resorts embracing autonomous pricing see above-average income development.
Income administration techniques pay for themselves, but many hoteliers hesitate resulting from a perceived lack of management. The fact, nonetheless, is that an RMS like Atomize enhances pricing methods, reasonably than exchange them. As extra hoteliers expertise the advantages firsthand, training shall be key to growing adoption.
Matching Expertise to Your Model Promise
Whereas each resort wants a core tech basis (together with PMS, distribution, accounting and income administration) the differentiating issue lies within the extra instruments layered on prime.
However with 1000’s of integrations accessible, how ought to resorts prioritize which options to implement? The reply lies in a resort’s model promise. A boutique luxurious resort could have vastly totally different expertise wants in comparison with a enterprise resort. The secret’s aligning tech investments with the specified visitor expertise.
For instance, self-check-in kiosks may fit effectively in high-traffic city resorts however might really feel impersonal at a five-star retreat centered on customized service. Equally, a leisure resort might profit from superior CRM and pre-arrival communication instruments to reinforce the visitor expertise, whereas a enterprise resort will prioritize MICE (Conferences, Incentives, Conferences and Occasions) performance to maximise group bookings.
The Energy of Small, Considerate Touches
Personalization has lengthy been a buzzword in hospitality, however what does it actually imply for visitors and hoteliers right this moment? In lots of instances, it has amounted to little greater than inserting a visitor’s identify into an electronic mail or providing a pre-programmed upsell. However as expertise advances, so does the chance to create genuinely significant, frictionless experiences that go away a long-lasting impression.
Think about checking right into a resort and, with out making a particular request, discovering a bottle of lactose-free milk in your minibar, simply since you as soon as famous your dietary restriction in a pre-stay survey. It supplies an surprising second of surprising delight.
This stage of personalization isn’t nearly exceeding expectations, it’s about eliminating friction. Friends with dietary restrictions know the wrestle of discovering appropriate choices whereas touring. A resort anticipating and performing on that want transforms a routine keep into an expertise that builds loyalty.
These moments don’t require large funding, only a well-connected PMS that integrates visitor information seamlessly. Dietary preferences saved within the PMS will be accessed by different techniques, like point-of-sale (POS) platforms or housekeeping, enabling employees to proactively cater to visitors’ wants. That is the place personalization turns into greater than a advertising and marketing gimmick. It turns into operational excellence.
The Evolution of Visitor Profiles and Income Optimization
For years, hospitality techniques have relied on reservation notes, alerts and visitor profiles to trace preferences. Nevertheless, these particulars had been typically disconnected, requiring guide effort to interpret and act upon them. At this time, the mixing of superior visitor profiling and reporting capabilities is altering that.
By leveraging expertise that may match and merge visitor profiles throughout totally different touchpoints (reminiscent of restaurant visits, spa bookings and in-room purchases) resorts can achieve a holistic view of their visitors. This permits for smarter personalization and income optimization.
For instance, resorts can now monitor modern metrics like whole visitor income (TRevPAR) or income per accessible visitor (RevPAG) reasonably than simply room income. Realizing how a lot a visitor spends throughout varied retailers helps hoteliers tailor presents and companies, encouraging extra spending whereas enhancing the visitor expertise.
The Greatest-of-Breed vs Single-Vendor Debate
When contemplating a tech stack, hoteliers typically face a key choice: undertake a best-of-breed method, integrating specialised instruments, or go for a single-vendor resolution that consolidates a number of functionalities. Each have their deserves.
A best-of-breed method ensures entry to cutting-edge expertise in every class, as suppliers focus solely on perfecting their area of interest. Nevertheless, challenges come up when these instruments wrestle to speak seamlessly, resulting in inefficiencies and information silos. And naturally, a best-of-breed method is simply attainable should you’re utilizing a PMS that enables true connectivity – ideally, a hotel tech marketplace the place options will be added with just some clicks.
Alternatively, single-vendor options provide higher integration, with merchandise designed to work collectively harmoniously. The trade-off, nonetheless, is that some functionalities might not be as superior as these of specialised suppliers. The secret’s discovering the best steadiness based mostly on a resort’s dimension, operational complexity and particular wants.
For smaller resorts with restricted assets, a single-vendor method might streamline operations and cut back vendor administration complications. Bigger resort teams, nonetheless, might profit from choosing best-in-class options for particular areas, notably the place customization and superior capabilities are essential.
Constructing a Tech Stack for the Future
Whatever the method, the last word aim is to create a seamless visitor expertise by integrating expertise successfully. Profitable personalization hinges on a well-mapped visitor journey and understanding how every system contributes to that have.
A sensible train for hoteliers is to visualise the whole visitor journey, from inspiration to post-stay engagement, and determine touchpoints the place expertise can improve the expertise. Instruments like Miro (a web based collaborative whiteboard) may also help map out these interactions, guaranteeing the best tech options are in place to ship the specified outcomes.
Moreover, when upgrading techniques, order of implementation issues. For instance, altering a gross sales and catering instrument earlier than switching the PMS might result in redundant configurations and inefficiencies. Prioritizing core techniques first and constructing round them ensures a smoother transition.
The Highway Forward
As our trade continues to evolve, the actual winners shall be hoteliers who embrace expertise not simply as a characteristic, however as a basic pillar of hospitality. Selecting the most effective companions in your tech stack mustn’t solely be uncomplicated and straightforward to realize – it must be thrilling. In spite of everything, it is going to go a great distance in serving to you obtain your model’s imaginative and prescient of remarkable hospitality.
For those who’d prefer to discover resort tech ecosystems in additional element, watch episode 17 of Matt Talks. In it, Matt Welle, Mews CEO, is joined by Options Architect Timur Dikmen to debate how the best set-up can remodel resort effectivity and profitability.
About Mews
Mews is the main platform for the brand new period of hospitality. Powering over 5,500 clients throughout greater than 85 international locations, Mews Hospitality Cloud is designed to streamline operations for contemporary hoteliers, remodel the visitor expertise and create extra worthwhile companies. Prospects embody BWH Motels, Strawberry, The Social Hub and Airelles Assortment. Mews was named Greatest PMS (2024, 2025) and listed among the many Greatest Locations to Work in Lodge Tech (2021, 2022, 2024, 2025) by Lodge Tech Report, and gained the Tech Hero 2024 Award at CIODAY. Mews has raised $335 million from buyers together with Goldman Sachs Alternate options, Kinnevik and Notion to remodel hospitality.