Co-Founder Aditya Sanghi cites current new guest & hotel trends and predicts how the hotel industry landscape will move forward for independents & groups
Hotelogix - a globally-leading, cloud-based hospitality technology provider, has grown as a business over the recent pandemic years, in turn enabling independent hotels worldwide not just to survive, but to thrive.
Key to being able to provide this essential hotel support has been a clear understanding of market dynamics and how the hotel industry landscape has evolved, both pre- and post-pandemic.
Here, Aditya Sanghi, Co-founder & CEO at Hotelogix, cites 14 market trends he has witnessed this year for independent hotels.
1) Contactless is key
Guests are so used to tapping to pay for goods and services, that this is now expected as standard at hotels. People also want to book on the move via apps, rather than calling ahead. But we also find that for these advanced services, guests are willing to pay more for the convenience.
2) Costs outweigh growth
We have witnessed incremental growth in the hotel sector in the past few years, but the cost of operations for hoteliers has hugely increased too. Shortage of staff has increased people cost, revenue and IT consultants have become very expensive. Therefore, the need for cloud-based hospitality technology for all departments and reduce on IT overheads, is more significant than ever.
3) Higher guest standards
Guests now have greater expectations from hotels post-pandemic, especially over hygiene and sanitising practices. Hoteliers obviously have had to respond to increased pre-booking queries and this has led to more vigilant, transparent in-house procedures across the board.
4) Guests will pay more
Travel trends are rebounding to levels before the pandemic, and travellers now have higher expectations. The encouraging news for hotels is that guests are willing to pay more for their accommodation when their needs are met, and they receive excellent service. With higher expectations, people are now travelling more and levels are getting back to pre-pandemic. And when expectations are met, the good news for hoteliers is that we have seen guests are overall prepared to pay more for their rooms per night.
6) Self check-in/check-out is vital
Guests have become more independent and now want the freedom to check in and out of hotels using their smartphones at their convenience. The pandemic and the rise of contactless guest service have encouraged this. Hoteliers, therefore, need the right supporting systems to make this possible.
7) More mobile chat
Guests expect to converse more with hotels via mobile app. Special requests, late check outs, extra beds – they want to do all of these with a smartphone app. Such apps also help hotels track guest requests for their timely completion.
8) Guests want more offers
While we have found that guests will pay more for rooms and improved services, they also expect to see more customer offers and smart packaging that adds more value to the stay. For example, staycation packages and long stay packages.
9) Staff are multi-tasking
Due to a severe workforce shortage, hotel staff are taking on multiple roles and multitasking. But independent hotels still need to run efficiently. Technology can help ease these matters. In this context, Hotelogix has assisted many hotels with its cloud-based, easy-to-use Hotel PMS and providing the much-needed support via training and webinars to cross skill hotel staff. It also helps non-guest-facing staff to work from home by securely accessing the system.
12) Guests need an authentic experience
Original, quirky, authentic accommodation will always win over a hotel chain in these post-pandemic times. As long as guests are confident that a hotel’s standards are high (for example cleanliness and hygiene), they will go for it. This is obviously great news for holiday homeowners, villa management companies and boutique hoteliers.
13) Dynamic pricing is crucial
We are witnessing more hotels are benefitting today by implementing dynamic pricing strategy. It helps them adjust room rates in real-time based on demand, availability, occupancy levels and length of stay. It helps hotels generate more revenue.
11) EMEA hotel groups are growing rapidly
We are seeing more and more independent hotels bring acquired and joining hotel groups in the EMEA. Our goal at Hotelogix is to be seen as the ultimate leader of EMEA market and a meaningful player in the North America market also.
14) Hotel groups need one group tech solution
Over recent years, we have beheld many hotel groups expand, some buying out independent properties that hadn’t survived the market changes, brought by the pandemic. We have had to hence provide more seamless solutions at group level, linking PMS, channel management, guest services, contactless check in/check out and various guest and staff apps. Hotel groups need new automated technology and improved efficiency, for better and centralized control on their group operations, increased sales and marketing efficiency and more of a seamless guest journey. For many expanding hotel groups, Hotelogix is now the industry's first multi-property management system, with multi-guest profiles available across all properties, managing all travel agents at group level, in real time reflected at the property.
About Hotelogix
Hotelogix is a globally leading cloud-based hospitality technology solutions provider of industry-first Multi-property Management System, Hotel PMS and Mobile PMS App for independent and hotel groups. We have the remarkable feat of implementing the most extensive multi-property deployment of 70000+ rooms across 500+ properties under a single group. Through our distribution brand AxisRooms, we also offer Channel Manager and Revenue Management solutions. We have earned the trust of 5000+ hotels in 100+ countries, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, LATAM, Europe and North America. We have been instrumental in driving their growth while helping them sell more rooms at the optimum rate and serving guests better. Hotelogix is headquartered in Singapore with offices in USA, India, UAE, Thailand and Philippines.
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