IHIF: Persuading owners to invest in tech still a challenge, says panel
15 June 2010
Despite the general agreement that future hospitality will be technology driven, getting owners and management to commit to technology investments remains a challenge, agreed a panel of hospitality technology experts at the IHIF Asia Pacific forum today.
Commenting on challenges for hospitality IT professionals, the panel agreed that convincing owners to commit on tech investments is still a struggle.
“In the old days in Las Vegas, the casino was the center of everything. Nowadays, big business and professional hoteliers are very much into every area of hotel has to make money. We are challenged by that,” said Thomas Dillon, VP-IT, Asia, Venetian Macau, where the conference is taking place and a participant in a panel discussion on hotel technology investment.
The key, said Perry Lai, VP-IT, Langham Hotels International, was to speak in the owners’ language when discussing technology investments and to stress the benefits.
“With owners, we need to give them comforters we are spending money not just for the sake of it. We need to make the owner understand why we need technology there,” he said.
Another important measure, added Dillon, is to plan ahead for future technology requirements. “From ground zero, we need to design things that are needed in the hotel but also design things that might be needed in the future,” he said.
Moderator of the discussion, Terence Ronson, managing director of IT hospitality consultancy Pertlink, added: “What we have to take into consideration is spending money smartly and not just filling hotels with toys. We know that hotels traditionally have beautiful lobbies but when it comes to technology, the majority is hidden. No-one will ever walk into your hotel and say ‘what a wonderful cabling system you have here’, technology is hidden but it’s vital.”
Commenting on what new technology innovations we can expect to see in hospitality, the panel singled out video conferencing, mobility, and social media.
“One of the things we are seeing is the conversion of video conferencing into the guest room. Now people go into the business centre, but because they are travelling, they would like to have [video conferencing] in the room,” said Lai.
Mobility will also continue to be one of the major tech trends to watch in the next couple of years, said Tat Meng Chee, hospitality practice lead, Asia Pacific, of telecommunications company Avaya, another participant in the panel discussion. “Mobility is key – the power on that device is going to multiply exponentially. In the next few years, your mobile will have the capability of a server,” he predicted.
Dillon stated that he believed the next major push is social media, moving beyond the contents of the guest room to focusing on how to sell the property outside, and connect customers through social media platforms such as Twitter.
The panel discussion was held at the IHIF Asia Pacific, which is currently taking place in Macau.
The three-day event is part of a week of hospitality events under the Hotel World Asia umbrella, organized by Questex Media Group, publisher of Hotel Management Asia.
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