No flying cars hover over our streets and space-age robots aren’t waiting on tables in restaurants in place of human waiters. While the high-tech future that was once imagined for us many decades ago may be far off from reality, we certainly have many conveniences and technologies that we couldn’t have imaged. Our new era has brought many changes to the world we live in and no industry has been left out of the transition.
In the hotel industry, the future is constantly morphing. With such a heavy reliance on technology for managing rooms and bookings, hoteliers have to constantly adapt to the latest changes.
Your hotel has so many arms that work on separate functions. One arm takes care of booking rooms, one arm guides the website, another takes care of online travel agents (OTAs) and mobile bookings. Separate channel managers oversee global distribution system providers, direct bookings and OTAs. But when all these arms get tangled up, these distribution robots loses effectiveness. In the new age, the distribution channels are streamlined to make a more unified and simple process. This new age robot can carry out all the task with just one arm, leaving less room for entanglements and mix ups.
A unified distribution strategy is the new age for hotels. Instead of trying to keep an eye on each separate entity, unify the managers and processes into one bundled arm. Properties can distribute their room rates, packages and deals all from one computer. This will engage their entire market reach with one sweep. Imagine the simplicity in not having to visit multiple platforms to reach each segment. Errors like double bookings, loss of business and rate parity issues will be mitigated with less room for crossover between systems.
If your hotel is ready to step into the new age, get ready to unify your distribution systems. Not only will you be ahead of the curve and be able to ramp up what your hotel can offer, your job will be easier. You will have one – or four – less things to worry about when you bring all your distribution management systems under one roof.
You can also read our other articles on Top 10 hospitality industry trends and how clients view cloud based solutions as an opportunity rather than a cost.