Blog # 3

Lauer, Elizabeth (2001). Technology dilemmas: What have IT investments done for you lately? Hospitality Upgrade. Retrieved Sunday July 6, 2008. http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2001_2nd/Jun01_TechDilemmas.html

In the hospitality industry, investment in technology is highly underestimated by management to say the very least. Several of the top managers over look technology upgrades because it is such a costly investment and it takes a lot of effort and change to adapt to a new technology in the property. But when one assesses the overall investment, those technology investments have most certainly paid for themselves through higher occupancies and overall rates in that particular property. Due to new technologies, there have been vast improvements in for example franchising companies’ central reservation systems. In addition, the online travel industry has exponentially grown due to internet distribution and the face of marketing has completely changed. But bringing up the internet, with the hospitality industry taking on new channel partners and marketing alliance, there greatly needs to be an industry-wide commitment to making a single-image inventory and a reservation process without all of the glitches that come with it. Several hospitality companies have not taken the investment to make their central reservation process seamless and customer satisfaction will show through. In addition, rather than developing a technology to reconcile front-office systems with back-of-house financial systems, we still rely on the night audit, which is a position that is extremely hard to fill, and the turnover and training costs are extremely high. Hotels each year see their operational costs sky-rocketing and they find themselves helpless to control these rising costs, and yet for every operational problem there lies a technology to assist management with controlling these costs. Management is so quick to purchase more FF&E but really these technologies will better the property in the long run more so than new curtains in the lobby. Also, management admits that although there are countless press releases on new technology, its staff remains uneducated about them. Several of the most prominent hoteliers agreed they don’t spend enough on technology despite a healthy bottom line and strong capital reserves. This is because it is quite difficult to accurately set and apply technology budgets. In order to make one, the property must first evaluate the overall business strategy and compile and prioritize the business and technology requirements.
This article was really interesting to me, especially to find that the most prominent properties that actually have the financial assets to purchase the new technology still do not make the investment. While taking this class, we have read several articles and press releases that have shown the importance of technology in the overall success of the industry. As the article mentioned, it would be like building a hotel without first making a feasibility analysis. All it really takes is keeping up with the industry and doing a little bit of extra homework, and if you have the financial capability, why not make the investment? Technology continues to better our industry and it is our responsibility as management to keep up with the industry. Really, it makes our lives easier and it will continue to help us to serve our customers better and more efficiently.