What are the major trends in hospitality technology? How can hoteliers ensure their investments in technology delivers benefits in the future? Let’s listen to Ted Horner.

Ted Horner, consultant, professional speaker and member of a number of leading global hospitality technology associations, provided an insight into the changing landscape of hospitality technology, as well as the technology life cycle, evolving financing structures and how hoteliers can ensure their investments in technology delivers operational and business benefits in ways that are future proof.

What are the major trends in hospitality technology at the moment?

The trend for guests to expect 100 percent connectivity throughout the hotel on their own devices - whether it is smart phone or tablet - is probably the single biggest influence on technology investments today. It is the responsibility of the property to provide quality connectivity that meets or exceeds the guests’ expectations, as well as making sure it is simple to use and provides complete coverage of the property.

The second major technology impact now is in the area of mobility. More and more guests are using their smartphones to make a booking or undertake research on hotels. For guests to be able to do this easily, hotels web sites need to adapt to smart phone displays. In fact, the whole way hotels conduct their online promotion is incredibly important - it's an area requiring specialists who are not necessarily hoteliers. It is no longer acceptable to have a website that is built for desktop only - it must be an m-site which is written to allow guests to easily browse your site on their mobile device.  

Michael Levie CEO of CitizenM Hotels has an excellent website www.citizenm.com.  He has designed it in such a way that 55 percent of all his bookings emanate from his own website and furthermore, he employs consumer behaviourists to manage and analyse the traffic to his web site. 

Given the high reliance on infrastructure to deliver WiFi to support guest mobile services, are funding and decision models changing?

Some of the Wi-Fi vendors are still keen to implement a vendor- financed contract, rolling in the cost of the cabling, active equipment such as switches and carrier services into a fee per room per day. While these contracts may offer an attractive operating model to hotel operators, they often deliver an LCD (lowest common denominator) with substandard Wi-Fi coverage, poor bandwidth and do not use the latest active equipment. These type of contracts often lock the operator into fixed capacities for the duration of the contract ( 3-5 years), without offering upgrade options to leverage new technology or more competitive rates for increased bandwidth through the term of the contract. 

You cannot underestimate the importance of getting the right physical infrastructure in place to deliver 100 percent Wi-Fi coverage throughout the entire property. Ultimately, this cabling infrastructure should be considered an integral part of the building fabric, just like the plumbing and electrical.

What is the current window for technology life cycle planning?

With technology in hotels being driven to some extent by consumer technology, there has been a decline in the traditional life cycle of the technology in hotels to around three years. In the past, application contracts such as PMS and POS - where the license fees were paid up front - there was an expectation that both the software and hardware to run these systems would last 5-7 years. However, this is changing as the industry embraces hosted applications off premise with the advent of SAAS (software as a service). This means that operating companies can shift solutions quickly and efficiently if the current application vendor fails to deliver.  

When it comes to Wi-Fi however, there are three components that need to be considered: the infrastructure, the carrier services, and the applications that manage the billing. 

The physical cable useful life maybe up to 25+ years, however the application and the carrier services are more like 3 years. Owners must consider the different components they are contracting, as the physical infrastructure will be supporting multiple application vendors for both guests and staff, and over time, the number of applications will expand. While you can change application vendors or carriers quite easily, changing the cabling in the property is a high cost, and a potential major operational disruption to staff and guests. (Hence the need to get the cabling right in the first instance!)    

What advice would you give to hoteliers and owners on the contracting of mobile coverage solutions?

My advice to owners is to capitalise the physical infrastructure to ensure you have control and contract only applications and services. Be sure to implement very stringent SLA’s with penalty clauses and ensure you have a technology upgrade clause that protects you in the event the vendor releases a new technology that would benefit your business.

If a vendor- financed option is preferred, ensure you conduct an independent site coverage survey and review of infrastructure and active equipment to ensure your designated vendors will deliver to meet your guest’s expectations both now and into the future.

Remember, once the contract is signed, the vendor will not admit to poor coverage or low bandwidth and you will be stuck with a fixed solution and fixed contract.  Conducting this site survey and then issuing an RFP to a select group of vendors is a critical step in ensuring you state exactly what it is that you require -- not the bells and whistles the vendor wants to sell you. Stating your contract terms in your RFP is also essential to ensure your contract negotiations are managed efficiently.