As an industry, we’re entering a transformative stage where technology for hotels is becoming the differentiator and heart of what will make amazing hotel experiences of the future.
Hotels have always been about personalization and guest experience. The best hotels are also the best at creating those incredible experiences. The difference today is that technology has become advanced enough to the point where it can assist hotels and guests in getting a unique experience.
But as in all large endeavours, it rests on the weakest link. And for hotel technology, that weakest link is data and the exchange of data between systems and applications.
In a recent interview with Barry Sternlicht, the CEO of Starwood Capital Group, he mentions the issues with technology that even a large group like Starwood encountered: “Some of the systems in these arcane, heritage, legacy systems, some of them in the hotel industry — I ran Starwood Hotels, as you know — they’re not really flexible.”
If it is hard for the CEO of a large hotel group, imagine how it is for the rest of the hotel industry.
We’ve been encountering this problem both directly and with the many partners we have worked with over the years.
To help entrepreneurs, startups, hotel tech companies and hoteliers, we’ve charted some of the options of how and where to connect to get hotel data.
Original Data from Hotels
Hotel data is accessible at two main levels. The first is, of course, getting it directly from the source, for example the hotel’s PMS, the hotel itself, social media, etc. These we have called Original Data points.
The advantage of connecting directly with these systems is that one gets the raw data straight from the source.
For certain data types, this is the best place to get it. For example, it is recommended to get social media figures and certain review data from the source.
