Take control of your own data! 

Not too long ago many hotels had a communication problem – it wasn’t the guests and staff that spoke different languages, it was the computer systems.  To solve the incumbent problems hotel software developers had to create and build customised interface systems which were costly, time-consuming and had limited functionality.   

A group of hoteliers and hospitality consultants decided they needed to get together to create a system of standards that worked together and had new functionality that would be adopted by the industry – ‘next generation solutions’ they call it . Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG), a global not-for-profit trade association was created to cultivate, through collaboration and partnership among hospitality professionals and technology providers, the development of next-generation solutions.  Their objective is to promote inter-operability of the many technology systems used in the hotel industry, such as property management systems, point-of-sale systems, telephone systems, building automation systems, guest room entertainment systems such as video on-demand, mobile, cloud software, security, access control systems and many others.

Eben Marais, Managing Director at Ankerdata, a hospitality solutions business provider, says that hotels have renewed their focus on technology to improve the guest experience and hotel operations.  He thinks that one of today’s biggest hospitality tech industry challenges is that of delivering open and performant data integration – a robust framework that is able to move data in any format through any number of destinations.  “In this day and age the hotel industry needs to start focusing and acting on the data that has been collected by hotels because if they are going through the process of collecting data, then they should be using it in every beneficial way they can.

”Big data is all over the place but what happens when all your data cannot be easily merged?  When this is the case you will always be serving your IT systems so it would make sense to connect your entire hotel infrastructure, combining all your data from all applications reliably, quickly and centrally, and in doing so enable yourself to immediately use and distribute all customer- and business related information anywhere within the hotel, and in real time – these frameworks and solutions are available in the marketplace. 

Marais adds, “With the hotel industry becoming more and more technological all guest movements are being recorded by various systems like Point-of-Sale, Spa management and CRM.  This data belongs to the establishment and should be easily accessible to the hotel operator to utilise and provide a more personalised guest experience and to attract the guests to book direct with the hotel in the future.” 

The benefits are numerous, says Ian Lumsden, Director at Ankerdata. “Having this infrastructure lays the foundation for analytical recommendation engines that provide your guests with precise, exclusive offers in real time.”   He adds that you can also retrieve direct business from OTA’s and reduce immediate operation costs. 

Emerging technologies and trends present opportunities to those who are paying attention and anticipate the prospects they might create. Together with like-minded people, organisations like HTNG, hoteliers and hospitality professionals the possibilities are endless - the products, systems and solutions are out there begging to be installed and implemented.

protel by Ankerdata launch mobile concierge and booking app with ConnectHOTEL  

The use of smartphones to book hotel rooms has increased significantly over the past few years with some statistics claiming this number to be well over the 50% mark for all hotel reservations.  With this information at hand the need for hotels to keep up with technology has become hugely important.  protel, by Ankerdata, a hospitality business solutions provider, has partnered with ConnectHOTEL to bring a customized, protel-compatible, ‘mobile concierge’ and booking application to the South African hotel industry.

The ConnectHOTEL platform, built locally in South Africa, integrates directly with protel platforms, bringing the best available rates, in real time, to guests using the app. Eben Marais, Director at Ankerdata, says, “This user-friendly, five-step booking application cuts commission fees to less than half of the major OTAs and together with a minimal set-up fee, is creating a lot of excitement in the industry.”

And, in response to the emerging chatbot demand which calls for conversation via auditory or textual methods, the platform also offers a bot named HOLLY, who is trained in the back-end to engage with guests before, during and after their stay, over a chat platform. Guests can order room service, lodge a request with housekeeping, book a taxi or arrange a later check-out time, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, ensuring a seamless, efficient and personalized experience with the hotel.

The mobile concierge and booking platform is designed based on a hotel’s requirements and internal management flows and processes, and is in keeping with its corporate identity. Jane Rosen from ConnectHOTEL says that they see this latest development in artificial intelligence as the future of guest engagement - it is a must for hotels wanting to attract and connect with a younger generation of travellers.