Tips & Trends • Jul 14, 2023
Hotel Technology Adoption: The Need for Leaps, Not Steps
In a recent article by Hotel News Now, author Sean McCracken highlights key insights from the 2023 HITEC conference and HSMAI’s Marketing Strategy Conference. Top of mind for hoteliers and industry experts: innovation. More specifically, experts across the board emphasized the need for technology adoption and altering the status quo for the next generation of hospitality.
Getting By With ‘Heart’
With the surge of artificial intelligence hitting mainstream relevance in 2023, Steven Van Belleghem, a thought leader on transforming customer relationships, kicked off HSMAI by proclaiming that ‘heart’ separates humans from new technologies.
The adage that ‘people buy from people’ existed far before the advent of artificial intelligence. However, in today’s technological landscape, it may be shortsighted to believe that heart, intuition, or any other characterization of human nature can overcome the next generation of hospitality technology. At least not alone. Frankly, it’s unlikely that heart alone will always be able to separate humans from AI, especially in virtual selling, where the line between real and virtual experiences is blurred.
Take, for example, booking a wedding at a resort halfway around the world. For properties that lag in technology adoption, prospective customers must rely on static sites, pictures, and reputation when qualifying or disqualifying a particular venue. In many instances, heart never even has an opportunity to enter the equation. Whereas had the resort adopted technology like TrueTour™, the prospective customer could have had a suite of immersive 360° images, 3D models, traditional photos and videos, shareable links, and more–all in one platform integrated on the resort’s site. Again, heart may not have been part of the conversation right away, but stunning content and an impressive experience were.
A fairer assessment of the hospitality industry is that it’s been getting by with heart. Heart has locked the industry in a perpetual state of playing catch-up. Instead, hotels should embrace new technology and use heart as an accessory to their virtual selling strategy, not as an alternative.
Taking Leaps in Technology Adoption
Bharat Patel, a hotel owner and operator and AAHOA chairman, asserts that the times of simply aspiring to be on the same technological level as the retail and airline industries are past. Incremental steps toward advancement and technology adoption will not cut it anymore. Instead, the status quo needs to shift more drastically.
According to Patel, the hospitality industry, from Select Service to Full Service luxury brands, must act to do what’s best for guests and owners alike. Bluntly, in 2023, hotel chains “have got to go and take a quantum leap into this century.”
In another analogy, Michael Levie, founding partner of CitizenM and advisor with NEOM Hospitality Development and Tourism, talks about the need to let go of legacy systems to see value in new technology. He states, “Unless we clean out the basement, clean it out altogether, and start anew, we’re not going to get there.”
Where to Start
Although Patel hopes that hotel chains are “investing millions of dollars, some hundreds of millions of dollars,” taking leaps doesn’t have to cost anything near that.
Visiting Media’s TrueTour is the next evolution of virtual selling. Traditionally, sales assets like PDFs, websites, photos, and videos are siloed. When using them to sell, your options were limited to printing hard copies, sharing multiple links, or emailing attachments. At best, the experience is cookie-cutter. At worst, the experience is disjointed and confusing.
TrueTour is the only selling software that allows hotels to add beautiful 360° images, 3D models, CGI setups, and every traditional sales asset in a single platform. And, with TrueTour, hotels can create unique, bespoke virtual experiences for customers, shared with a single link.
About Visiting Media
Visiting Media builds software that is revolutionizing how the hospitality industry does business. Our flagship product TrueTour™ is the only sales enablement platform on earth that uses immersive content and combines it with all of your sales tools so you can deliver bespoke and dynamic experiences to customers quickly and wherever they already are.
Ready to take a quantum leap? Request your personalized demo!
Tips & Trends • Jul 14, 2023
Hotel Technology Adoption: The Need for Leaps, Not Steps
In a recent article by Hotel News Now, author Sean McCracken highlights key insights from the 2023 HITEC conference and HSMAI’s Marketing Strategy Conference. Top of mind for hoteliers and industry experts: innovation. More specifically, experts across the board emphasized the need for technology adoption and altering the status quo for the next generation of hospitality.
Getting By With ‘Heart’
With the surge of artificial intelligence hitting mainstream relevance in 2023, Steven Van Belleghem, a thought leader on transforming customer relationships, kicked off HSMAI by proclaiming that ‘heart’ separates humans from new technologies.
The adage that ‘people buy from people’ existed far before the advent of artificial intelligence. However, in today’s technological landscape, it may be shortsighted to believe that heart, intuition, or any other characterization of human nature can overcome the next generation of hospitality technology. At least not alone. Frankly, it’s unlikely that heart alone will always be able to separate humans from AI, especially in virtual selling, where the line between real and virtual experiences is blurred.
Take, for example, booking a wedding at a resort halfway around the world. For properties that lag in technology adoption, prospective customers must rely on static sites, pictures, and reputation when qualifying or disqualifying a particular venue. In many instances, heart never even has an opportunity to enter the equation. Whereas had the resort adopted technology like TrueTour™, the prospective customer could have had a suite of immersive 360° images, 3D models, traditional photos and videos, shareable links, and more–all in one platform integrated on the resort’s site. Again, heart may not have been part of the conversation right away, but stunning content and an impressive experience were.
A fairer assessment of the hospitality industry is that it’s been getting by with heart. Heart has locked the industry in a perpetual state of playing catch-up. Instead, hotels should embrace new technology and use heart as an accessory to their virtual selling strategy, not as an alternative.
Taking Leaps in Technology Adoption
Bharat Patel, a hotel owner and operator and AAHOA chairman, asserts that the times of simply aspiring to be on the same technological level as the retail and airline industries are past. Incremental steps toward advancement and technology adoption will not cut it anymore. Instead, the status quo needs to shift more drastically.
According to Patel, the hospitality industry, from Select Service to Full Service luxury brands, must act to do what’s best for guests and owners alike. Bluntly, in 2023, hotel chains “have got to go and take a quantum leap into this century.”
In another analogy, Michael Levie, founding partner of CitizenM and advisor with NEOM Hospitality Development and Tourism, talks about the need to let go of legacy systems to see value in new technology. He states, “Unless we clean out the basement, clean it out altogether, and start anew, we’re not going to get there.”
Where to Start
Although Patel hopes that hotel chains are “investing millions of dollars, some hundreds of millions of dollars,” taking leaps doesn’t have to cost anything near that.
Visiting Media’s TrueTour is the next evolution of virtual selling. Traditionally, sales assets like PDFs, websites, photos, and videos are siloed. When using them to sell, your options were limited to printing hard copies, sharing multiple links, or emailing attachments. At best, the experience is cookie-cutter. At worst, the experience is disjointed and confusing.
TrueTour is the only selling software that allows hotels to add beautiful 360° images, 3D models, CGI setups, and every traditional sales asset in a single platform. And, with TrueTour, hotels can create unique, bespoke virtual experiences for customers, shared with a single link.
About Visiting Media
Visiting Media builds software that is revolutionizing how the hospitality industry does business. Our flagship product TrueTour™ is the only sales enablement platform on earth that uses immersive content and combines it with all of your sales tools so you can deliver bespoke and dynamic experiences to customers quickly and wherever they already are.
Ready to take a quantum leap? Request your personalized demo!