How are hoteliers using technology, and what are the results they are seeing?
These are the questions we set out to answer in our Hotel Technology Survey. Together with Benchmark Research Partners, we asked more than 100 hoteliers across a wide range of roles and company types what their experience has been.
Hoteliers say technology helps them
At the NYU Hospitality Investment Conference, everyone seemed to want more technology. Owners and investors. Brands and management companies. This data from hoteliers shows why.
Technology is driving efficiency more than effectiveness
Respondents shared that technology has been good for driving efficiency. It’s delivering effectiveness less commonly – and a competitive advantage for even fewer hoteliers.
Respondents on property saw the biggest gains in efficiency (93%), while management companies were most likely to say it improved their effectiveness (63%).
There seems to be an opportunity to help hoteliers understand the right things to focus on and do.
Technology makes hotel staff happier
Technology appears to benefit property-level staff – not just management.
On-property respondents were even more likely to report their teams benefited from technology (89%) than brands (71%) or management companies (61%).
Technology presents an opportunity to make recruiting easier
Overall, a sizable minority of hoteliers say technology makes recruiting easier for them. This advantage is currently being seen now more at the brand level (60%) than at the property (39%) or management companies (36%).
Across the hotel ecosystem, this points to an opportunity for those who are not using technology as part of their brand and employee experience.
Technology is rarely exceeding expectations for use
While respondents indicated technology makes their teams happier, those teams rarely used the technology more than expected.
On-property respondents are 48% more likely than brands to say their property teams use technology less than they expected.
Hoteliers wish their properties made better use of technology
This and the previous data point above could indicate an opportunity to drive more adoption of technology.
Many hoteliers feel technology companies don’t understand their needs
This was felt most acutely by those working at management companies, with a majority of those respondents saying tech companies didn’t understand the needs of these businesses.
Most hoteliers have experienced failed technology implementations
Respondents working at the corporate offices of management companies were more likely than brands to report failed implementations (92%), as were owners and investors (89%).
Hoteliers want to learn more about technology
Brands (93%) and on-property managers (85%) topped the list of being most interested.
Download the 2022 Hotel Technology Survey results to learn more
The data above are just a few of the things we learned in this study. The full report contains:
- How technology has affected the guest experience
- The impact of technology on hotel profitability
- What is holding back hotels from using technology
- What causes hotel technology implementations to fail
- How hoteliers want to discover new technology
- How hoteliers want to learn about technology
- What type of product training hoteliers want
