How ready is the hospitality industry for the 2022 boom & how will IT help lift the pressure?

By Aditya Sanghi, Co-Founder, Hotelogix

Owing to the surge of Omicron, even though the first quarter of 2022 will not offer the much-needed relief to the hotel industry in terms of business, I believe that the latter part of the year indeed holds something good for the industry. The credit goes to the travellers’ enthusiasm to resume travel, the hotel industry’s resilience to revive, their readiness to face any untoward situation after two rounds of setbacks, and a rapid vaccination drive.

A look at the Indian hotel industry

In India, hotels will start seeing their occupancy increase during the upcoming summer holiday session when Omicron subsides by February or March as anticipated. A huge market like this has to offer many benefits to the hotel industry. That’s why this has become a preferred destination for international hotel chains. According to India Brand Equity Foundation, international chain hotel brands will have about 50% of the Indian hospitality sector. They are doing so primarily by adding independent properties to their portfolio. This is a good sign for the industry as trends indicate that properties affiliated with stronger and more prominent brands are more likely to do well in this highly competitive market while dealing with some level of uncertainties. Not only this, in terms of hotel pipeline, the market looks relatively healthy – over 155 projects with around 24,000 keys are to be added by 2024.

The incontestable role of hospitality technology

Technology is an enabler, and like other sectors, the hotel industry has also learnt its criticality in doing smart business and gaining a competitive edge. It would be apt to say that the recent operational and business challenges made them lean on technology to achieve the required agility.

Let’s look at how technology will help hotels stay strong in the time to come –

#In ensuring better multi-property management

Chain hotels need the right property management system to have superior control over their multi-property management. This is only possible when they have a cloud Hotel PMS powering up their daily operation. Many hotels in India state this as a primary reason to migrate to the cloud. They have also seen value in other aspects of multi-property solutions, like a central reservation office, central management of travel agents and corporate clients, centralised guest history, centralised rate management, and group-wide business-critical reports. The characteristics mentioned above of today’s intelligent hospitality solutions have helped many globally leading hotel brands drive their business with ease. And we expect to see the same trend in India, too.

#In reducing fixed costs

Cloud solution makes it easier for hotels to avoid making any long-term commitment in terms of huge upfront investment in IT. The crux here is that the right technology can allow hotels to scale their business without worrying about further investment in IT and all. This is possible due to the subscription-based model that frees a hotel from paying costly licence costs and long-term contracts. It enables them to switch technology, cut down on subscriptions when business is down or even increase subscriptions when they expect to do well.

#In selling more rooms

With an efficient distribution capability, technology will enable hotels to sell more rooms via online channels, including OTAs, metasearch engines, their own brand/proprietary website, and GDSs. A solution like a channel manager integrated with a Hotel PMS ensures the real-time update of rates and inventories on all the connected sales channels, leading to increased online presence and more sales. Not only this but there are also last-minute room booking apps to help hotels sell their last-minute unsold rooms.

#In offering a quality guest experience

When it comes to guest service, nothing really can beat the role of technology. Today, hotels must use technology to offer contactless solutions to their guests. The idea here is to allow guests to use their smartphones to select rooms, check-in/out, make payments, and raise service requests. Plus, the guest history module in a hotel PMS assists hotels understand their guests’ preferences. Knowing guests allows hotels to configure and upsell/cross-sell customised packages to earn more. And when a hotel offers what its guests expect from them, it retains the guests’ loyalty and emerges as a winner.

Look around. There is a piece of technology for almost every aspect of hotel business – right from streamlining operations to managing revenue to increasing online reputation. The trick lies with picking up the right one at the right time. The pandemic-led unrest may have halted the Indian hotel industry’s growth momentum momentarily. However, all stakeholders like me are sure that the community’s resourcefulness and power of technology will lead to a faster recovery path.

Aditya Sanghi, Co-founder & CEO, Hotelogix

References:
https://www.ibef.org/industry/tourism-hospitality-india.aspx
https://tophotel.news/country-overview-more-than-150-hotels-in-the-pipeline-across-india-infographic/