HITEC 2014 was a great success and I was happy to be a part of it. I’m a tad slow with my updates on the event and that’s not because of a dearth of things to write about – as a matter of fact, it’s quite the opposite! So I decided to pen down my experiences at HITEC.
To start with, HITEC began with a welcome dinner which was the right kind of kick-start to the event and gave a chance to network. I really enjoyed having meaningful conversations with various like-minded people from the hospitality industry.
Day 1
I was pleasantly surprised by the enormous response we received on Day 1. We have been exhibiting at HITEC since 2010 but such footfalls at the event had never been witnessed by us before. The economy seems to be on a high as I witnessed a lot of independent hoteliers in the tradeshow who took time off their hectic schedules to attend the event, which is a great marker of growth and progress. One thing that really impressed me was that we were visited by passionate hoteliers who felt strongly about their property and Hotelogix cloud PMS was widely appreciated by industry professionals from all over the globe. It was also surprising to see universities visit us to get the latest updates on the trends of the hospitality industry.
Days 2 & 3
However, Days 2 and 3 didn’t see many visitors unlike Day 1. Even my co-exhibitors were surprised by the plunge in visitors in the last two days and we felt that HITEC could consider trimming down the event to 2 days for the exhibitors in the future.
Industry Observations
Over these 3 days, we got to see a lot of new players on the cloud with offerings like ID Scanning, POS and Review system. Companies are also investing a lot in Cloud PMS.
That the hospitality industry is racing ahead to adopt the cloud is clearly visible. This goes with our theory that the hospitality industry is one unique industry where switching to cloud is not just a bottom line issue, but also a matter of top line and hence an issue of existence. Major legacy players are seen moving to the cloud when it comes to PMS. New PMSs mushrooming on the cloud is a clear validation of the industry.
Hotelogix feels that it is sitting in a position of strength when it comes to product leadership. It was clear that there wasn’t any other cloud PMS that had the global reach of Hotelogix and we feel proud to have reached this stage.
Apart from these observations, there was a lot of focus that I saw on guest facing tools like guest review systems. Online guest behavior monitoring is also picking up and so is revenue management.
Our Visitors
We received a lot of visitors from countries like Japan, Mexico, France and Netherlands. Many consultants, independent hoteliers and educational institutes visited our booth and inquired about our cloud PMS services. Everyone complimented us for making a system that is user-friendly and adaptable. Our unified distribution system is unique and our inbuilt POS is also being appreciated by the industry. This yet again proves our reading of the solution that is needed by the market.
An industry expert visited our booth and validated Hotelogix to have a unique approach towards small and mid-sized hotel industry.
We had few competitors who took time off their hectic schedules to visit our booth. They were very social and we all partied together.
Smooth Launch of Revenue Management System
HITEC was the right platform to announce our partnership with PriceMatch to launch the integrated Revenue Management System. (Read: Hotelogix to Launch a Partnership with PriceMatch in HITEC 2014). This news created a lot of buzz at the event and everyone is looking forward to the new integration.
Our Booth
Our booth was well-liked by the visitors. I take this opportunity to thank Naomi Starks for helping us at our booth #229.
I remember a funny incident that took place at the booth. We had carried handmade pencils (see pic below) from India to distribute to our visitors as a gesture of gratitude for stopping by at our booth. One of our visitors thought that the pencil was a weapon and was hesitant to hold it. Everyone was quite fascinated to know that it was a handmade pencil made of tree bark. Most of them came back to me asking for the pencil for their children.
Overall, we got a very positive response from HITEC this year and we are extremely thankful to all those who visited us and exchanged ideas. We are glad to have made some new connections in the industry and we aspire to provide them with flawless service. Thanks to everyone for making HITEC 2014 an enjoyable and memorable experience for Hotelogix. Hope to connect again soon.
If you missed us at HITEC this time then please visit our website for details on our products.
This blog was previously published on Linkedin Pulse.
