Alison Guillot
As the hospitality industry evolves, we closely follow the trends and challenges facing organizations around the world. Our goal as technology providers is to strengthen and innovate our core solutions to improve operations and revenue for our customers. Much of our research throughout the year becomes our blogs and eBooks, and with each page view and download, we gain a deeper understanding of your priorities and goals.
So what’s been on your minds this year? Here’s a countdown of our most popular blogs of 2019, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog for regular content updates in the future.
#10. How Digital Transformation Can Win Over Your Guests
Hotels that are slow to embrace digital transformation don’t have many options besides responding to a guest request or complaint as it happens. But a manual approach won’t win your property any service awards or improve guest satisfaction scores in a competitive marketplace. Leveraging the power of hospitality software can significantly assist in all phases of the guest experience—before, during, and post-stay—by ensuring that critical touchpoints will result in positive outcomes. Read more.
#9. What Matters Most to Hotel Guests?
As hotel chains continue to introduce guest-facing technology to stand out from the competition, it’s important to also stop and ask the question – what do hotel guests really want? To find the answer, we commissioned an exclusive study with Cornell University and InterContinental Hotels Group to poll industry professionals and travelers and analyze data to build a more accurate roadmap of the future. As we studied our collective findings, our view of the traveler of tomorrow started to take shape, including their predicted behaviors and preferences. Read more.
#8. 10 Tips for Closing Group Business
Congratulations, your hotel is on the shortlist for that big group or event! But even sales pros know a door can easily slam shut or stall, leaving your team on the hook for group business stuck in the pipeline. How you finesse the proposal is everything. Here are our top 10 tips to help you shorten the sales cycle and win more business. Read more.
#7. Looking Beneath the Iceberg of Hotel Guest Management
Historically, a personalized experience was only provided for VIP loyalty guests and something that came as an unexpected surprise. Perhaps they checked in and received a custom amenity based on an interaction from their previous stay. However, the defining element of our current age is that personalization has evolved from being a simple “guest” experience into a full-fledged “traveler” experience. Read more.
#6. 3 Reasons to Focus on Local Negotiated Rate Contracts Now
In 2018, travelers in the U.S. spent more than $232 billion on lodging, according to the U.S. Travel Association. That includes 463 million business trips, 38% of which were meetings and events related. How much your hotel sees of that travel will have a lot to do with location, but there are ways to entice companies into partnering with your property – the most effective being local negotiated rates (LNR) or volume contracts. Read more.
#5. 3 Common Event Planning Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Planning and executing a successful event involves several moving parts and airtight communication. However, facilitating this collaboration between a venue and event organizer is easier said than done. Read more.
#4. 5 Proposal Mistakes Your Hotel Should Stop Right Now
Working hard in sales is key for success, but today, we know that’s only half of the equation. It’s also about making smart choices of where our energy can be put to best use. For proposals, scalability is key. Wise hotels know it’s worth the time to invest in a proposal library that once assembled, can help teams move faster once an RFP hits. Read more.
#3. New Trends in CRS and PMS
Recent trends in enterprise hospitality software are breaking down long-standing barriers between management systems that have traditionally operated in semi-isolation from one another. The increasing convergence of CRS and PMS systems into a single unified platform offers many benefits for chains and guests alike, and solves several challenges that have plagued the industry for decades. Read more.
#2. Staff Safety Beyond the Panic Button
A lack of personal safety in the workplace is a growing concern for many companies worldwide. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, approximately 14% of all sexual assaults reported in America from 2005-2015 targeted hospitality professionals; the highest of any industry. OSHA reported last year that there were approximately 275,000 injuries in the hospitality industry, with more than 6,700 of those cases directly affecting hotel room attendants. These revealing numbers have prompted many government leaders at the local and federal levels to enact legislation protecting hotel staff. Although progress is being made, there remains a larger cultural problem within the industry that needs to be addressed. Read more.
#1. 9 Emerging Event Trends for 2019
The hospitality industry is more dynamic and fast-paced than ever before – especially when it comes to events. Start the year off right by thinking about how you can win more business with these emerging event trends for 2019. Read more.
