Some of the most influential leaders in the hotel distribution space are looking to machines and artificial intelligence to help remove friction in the process and improve distribution best practices.
Much of the work is still done in spreadsheets and new technologies have the potential to reduce costs and help personalize the booking experience.
Before hotels can begin to worry about pushing the right rates to the right channels, an important first step is getting the correct content to all the partners looking to sell your rooms, whether it be hotel descriptions, room-type categories, images or virtual tours.
“We need content parity across all our channels,” said Arvind Bala, Senior Director of Global Distribution and Channel Management at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. “Today we still write descriptions on spreadsheets. Unbelievable, right?”
“We still function on spreadsheets as well,” admitted Lew Harasymiw, Director of Distribution Strategy at IHG. “I feel like we have this content conversation every year, and here we are still using spreadsheets.
“I think there’s a lot more we can do and accomplish with the help of computers and machines.”
Blockchain and Hotels — Eventually
Harasymiw is a big proponent of blockchain’s ability to improve the distribution space — but only one step at a time.
“We’re trying to revolutionize everything and find the next big thing. We’re trying to bring [blockchain] on right now and solve all the problems immediately,” he said.
“A better way is to approach it little by little, and I do think the endgame is that distribution would significantly benefit from blockchain.”
Harasymiw looks to blockchain — a list of records that are linked and secured using cryptography — as a way for hotels to also improve loyalty and trip scheduling.
For example, a hotel could add its guest data into a blockchain and then other third-party vendors could add experience or attractions bookings, linking everything into a single, shared itinerary.
Harasymiw said there are three things that need to happen for blockchain to be widely adopted across hotels:
