The world’s largest hospitality technology exposition and conference, HITEC 2016, will commence today in New Orleans. With leading industry experts and professionals from over 300 companies, the event will comprise of four days of educational seminars as well as three days of exhibits.
A number of key hospitality trends for the year will be discussed during the educational phase of the event, such as –
Three major trends being driven by the growth of millennial travelers:
With a spending power of over $200 billion, millennials have become the largest generational segment in the American hospitality industry and will account for more than half of all travel expenditure by the year 2020. They demand recognition, and personalization from hotels and properties will be altering their design as well as policies over the course of the year to better accommodate these guests.
Tailoring the guest experience with technology & human interactions:
Hotels will look to take a hybrid approach to meet the expectations of millennials as well as older generations such as baby boomers and generation xers, who aren’t as technically savvy as their younger counterparts. Pre and post-stay emails are critical for developing brand loyalty and ensuring more repeat bookings and digital marketing strategies are becoming more important for hotels. Video content and social media channels can be powerful tools if utilized properly, as can be face-to-face meetings with guests – the key is in finding the right balance between digital and human interactions.
IoT in Hospitality:
Cisco predicts 50 billion connected devices by 2020 – this will transform the landscape of a number of industries including hospitality. In addition to incorporating connected devices throughout the property to improve efficiency and enhance the guest experience like never before, the technology will allow hotels to break new ground in terms of energy efficiency.
Airbnb’s growing influence on global hospitality:
Dismissed initially by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as an impractical idea, Airbnb has gone on to establish itself as a multi-billion dollar company. The scale of disruption has forced hotel owners around the world to rethink their business models and target audiences and come up with new ways to differentiate themselves – Expedia had to go out and spend $3.9 billion on HomeAway in order to address the growing threat! Hotels can also learn a lot from the home sharing portal’s success.
The event offers hotel owners a great opportunity to stay abreast of the latest innovations in the industry.
Hotelogix will be attending HITEC 2016 – join us and meet our founder Prabhash Bhatnagar and co-founder Aditya Sanghi to learn about how cloud technology will be revamping properties around the world this 2016.
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