Michal Christine Escobar, Senior Editor - Hotels
Technologies of 'the hotel of the future' will be standard operating procedure in just a few years.
Ever present in daily life, COVID-19 has made an indelible impression on how humans live, work and enjoy recreation. As the saying goes: âNecessity is the mother of invention,â and so hospitality has evolved, adapted and invented to do its best to survive lockdowns, travel restrictions, sick guests, sick employees, and an astronomical loss of revenue. This is leading many hotels to invest in technologies that improve the guest experience, cut costs, and improve brand loyalty. But many of these technologies are not new. Theyâre not even new to hospitality. However, the urgency with which hotels are implementing them and the scale at which theyâre being implemented is new. Once considered a ânice to haveâ or a âWeâll get to it later,â the implementation of IoT devices, high speed networks, contactless technologies and more is happening at warp speed â meaning that the hotel of the future, once three to five years out, is now just around the corner. By the time weâre all willing and able to travel again, our collective hotel experience could be significantly different from what we remember. Hereâs a brief look at what might have changed.