29 min read

HITEC Orlando Report: 50+ Hospitality Technology Innovations You Need to Know

Not able to make it to Orlando to check out the latest innovations at HITEC? Not to worry, Hotel Tech Report has you covered.  Our team reviewed dozens of new launches to create a curated list of the most exciting innovations in the market and synthesize them into key market trends.

Avatar

Adam Hollander in Operations

Last updated May 31, 2023

image description

Amid factors like soaring inflation, the war in Ukraine and growing fears of stagflation – the World Bank predicted that global growth would slow to 2.9% in 2022, down from 5.7% in 2021.

Hotels now have a decision to make, to press pause on tech investments or double down.

The reality is that whether or not a recession occurs, halting investment in technology for hotels can be an extremely dangerous decision for several reasons: 

  1. Tech is becoming more necessary to operate in any environment, regardless of where the economy stands (especially amidst labor issues…)
  2. It could derail or delay progress toward long-term goals
  3. Top hotel companies don’t want to be caught flat-footed or miss the next opportunities to stay ahead of the compset

After speaking with dozens of innovative hoteliers at the show one thing became abundantly clear–instead of pulling back all together, the best leaders in the business are viewing tech as an essential and integrated part of their operation both front and back of house and their technology priorities are geared towards eliminating inefficiencies, streamlining their operations and driving revenue.

Below we’ll dig into 7 key tech trends that serve to be the common thread driving new innovations on display at the show: 

  1. Leveraging Tech to Tackle Labor Issues
  2. Consolidation of Guest Experience Tech
  3. AI Based Suggestions & Recommendations
  4. More Granular Reporting & Insights
  5. Reduction of Manual Tasks & Data Entry
  6. More Granular Segmentation to Drive Deeper Personalization
  7. Spotlight on Digital Tipping

Trend #1: Leveraging Tech to Tackle Labor Issues

Mentions: Cloudbeds, Oracle, RoomRaccoon, GoTab, innRoad, IRIS, Clairvoyix, Smart Host

If you’re feeling a sense of deja vu reading this first trend, you aren’t crazy.  This was the top trend in last year’s HITEC recap too.  The reality is though that in hindsight last year’s labor issues pale in comparison to this year’s which is why tech providers have doubled down to focus on investing in building tools to help extend the capabilities of the limited staff your hotel does still have on property.  They’re finding new ways to automate manual time consuming processes, make staff more efficient and even smooth the onboarding process to mitigate the pain of poor retention and training a revolving door of new team members who need to get up to speed quickly with your tools and processes to mitigate the risk of burn and churn.

Cloudbeds launched Amplify to provide their hotel partners with outsourced digital marketing, SEO and meta-search advertising services by Cloudbeds. Marina Moretti, Owner of Ô de Casa Hostel & Bar explained how much this new offering simplified digital marketing for his property, “As an owner, digital marketing is not my specialty. I have always viewed it as complicated, but it is quickly becoming a necessity to operate a lodging business in today’s market. With Cloudbeds Amplify, the team made the process easy by handling the entire setup and management. Thus far, we've driven 57 additional bookings through our website that might otherwise have been booked via OTAs - without requiring any additional time or effort from myself or staff."

Oracle launched the OPERA Cloud Digital Assistant, a digital assistant to help staff perform lookups and routine tasks through voice or text.  Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts have been early adopters of the new feature and commented on the helpfulness of simple information lookups and questions such as quickly finding out room statuses or changes.

RoomRaccoon launched RoomRacoon Housekeeping, a new module to digitize manual housekeeping processes for their hotel partners.  Adriaan Liebetrau, General Manager of MINT Hotels, South Africa shared that “Leading a large team of housekeepers with multiple tasks at MINT Hotels has now been simplified with a single solution – RaccoonHousekeeping. It makes it so much easier to connect with our team through the mobile app where I can update tasks at the click of a button. This saves me multiple calls between departments to ensure rooms are ready for arrival.” 

GoTab launched it’s Zone Ordering System enabling hotels to create distinct zones for their restaurant, common areas, meeting space, pool or guest rooms to tailor bespoke F&B service models and offerings based on where guests are located on property. Camilo Rivera, General Manager of The Delegate Hotel, highlighted GoTab’s ability to help hotels blend tech and in-person hospitality, “GoTab is the best solution for contactless ordering and payment in the current landscape. It has given us the tools to pivot during this past year, and we’re excited to evolve our hospitality service model to blend technology and in-person hospitality, particularly for our luxury clientele."

innRoad launched Mobile Check-in to help expedite guest check in, capture all required information, and simplify front desk operations.  With contactless check-in, guests get to submit their contact info, guest identification documents, credit card information, and sign their registration forms online before arriving at the hotel. With this feature, guests can easily save time when checking in by just getting their room key at reception.

IRIS launched Open Tab to offer guests the option to pay at the table, order from multiple devices, split the bill and more.  Guests no longer have to wait for servers to add to their order or settle their final bill which saves time, increases check size, boosts ordering frequency and more effectively meets the expectations of today’s traveler.

Clairvoyix launched EnterpriseRFP in beta to help hotel sales teams to more with less and improve communication with planners by eliminating manual tasks and saving time with their new online RFP builder wizard that enables team members to seamlessly craft everything from briefs or comprehensive RFPs.

Smart Host launches Offer Management to help hoteliers quickly and easily create beautiful high converting offers based on live availability.  The company reported the early adopted Falkensteiner Hotels reduced time spent with offer generation from 10 minutes per offer to 2 minutes per offer, and increased offer conversion rates by 32%.

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Cloudbeds Launched Amplify, outsourced digital marketing, SEO and metasearch advertising services by Cloudbeds.
Product logo
Cloudbeds PMS Property Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
Cloudbeds Launched Amplify, outsourced digital marketing, SEO and metasearch advertising services by Cloudbeds.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
98 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Oracle launched OPERA Cloud Digital Assistant, a digital assistant to help staff perform lookups and routine tasks through voice or text.
Product logo
Oracle OPERA PMS Property Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
98 HT Score
Oracle launched OPERA Cloud Digital Assistant, a digital assistant to help staff perform lookups and routine tasks through voice or text.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
86 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
RoomRaccoon launched Housekeeping to digitize manual housekeeping processes.
Product logo
RoomRaccoon PMS Property Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
86 HT Score
RoomRaccoon launched Housekeeping to digitize manual housekeeping processes.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
GoTab launched a new Zone Ordering system to create distinct zones for your restaurant, common areas, meeting space, pool or guest rooms to tailor bespoke F&B service models and offerings based on where guests are located on property.
Product logo
GoTab Hotel Restaurant POS Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
GoTab launched a new Zone Ordering system to create distinct zones for your restaurant, common areas, meeting space, pool or guest rooms to tailor bespoke F&B service models and offerings based on where guests are located on property.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
78 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
innRoad launched mobile checkin to expedite guest check in, capture all required information, and simplify front desk operations.
Product logo
innRoad All-in-1 HMS Hotel Management Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
78 HT Score
innRoad launched mobile checkin to expedite guest check in, capture all required information, and simplify front desk operations.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
84 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
IRIS launched Open Tab to offer guests the option to pay at the table, order from multiple devices, split the bill and more.
Product logo
IRIS Mobile Ordering & Room Service
THE PITCH
RATINGS
84 HT Score
IRIS launched Open Tab to offer guests the option to pay at the table, order from multiple devices, split the bill and more.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Clairvoyix launched Enterprise RFP in beta to enable fewer sales team members, eliminate manual tasks and save time with an online RFP builder wizard to seamlessly craft everything from briefs or comprehensive RFPs.
Product logo
Clairvoyix Hotel CRM & Email Marketing
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
Clairvoyix launched Enterprise RFP in beta to enable fewer sales team members, eliminate manual tasks and save time with an online RFP builder wizard to seamlessly craft everything from briefs or comprehensive RFPs.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
99 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Smart Host launched offer management to enable hotels to quickly and easily create beautiful high converting offers with live availability.
Product logo
Smart Host CRM Hotel CRM & Email Marketing
THE PITCH
RATINGS
99 HT Score
Smart Host launched offer management to enable hotels to quickly and easily create beautiful high converting offers with live availability.
Learn More
Get the latest hotel tech tips, trends and insights delivered to your inbox once a month
You’ve been subscribed
Invalid email format
post_faces_combined Join 50,000+ executives from world’s leading hotel brands and get the latest insights delivered to your inbox once a month

Trend #2: Consolidation of Guest Experience Tech

Mentions: Duve, HelloShift, Whistle, INTELITY, Oaky, SABA, MyStay

Convergence of marketing and distribution has been a theme of past years but what was interesting and new to see this year is a serious push towards consolidation of guest experience tech.  Providers across staff collaboration, contactless checkin, mobile key, guest apps, upselling, guest messaging, mobile ordering and more are all starting to either build (or buy) new functionality to the point where the overlap across categories is becoming extremely difficult to pick a single category for any product. 

Ultimately this trend makes sense when it comes to any guest interfacing tech because the reality is that there are jobs to be done (ie. upsell, communicate, promote, checkin, place requests, etc) and then these need to be offered to the guest across whatever communication channel they prefer (ie. branded app, in-room tablets, web app, messaging, etc).  It also makes a lot of sense because when it comes to guest experience, most hoteliers will choose a single guest experience platform to serve as their guest facing tech stack knowing that this will be the tool that they use to interact with guests from a technical perspective. 

As a result, app providers like MyStay are rolling out tablets and messaging products like HelloShift are launching check in solutions and we expect that this trend will only accelerate to the point where it wouldn’t be surprising to see only a single unified ‘Guest Experience Platforms’ category on Hotel Tech Report in the next few years where categories like apps, checkin, messaging and upselling are all product modules or features that are offered by platforms which ultimately will help consolidate and simplify guest experience related tech choices for hotels but will mean providers will have more competition and will need to invest more heavily in broader product functionality.

Duve launched Personalized Guest Journeys to help hotels customize and automate guest segmentation in order to personalize offers, messaging and content delivery for each user.  Data is collected during the online check-in process, so once a guest arrives at the hotel (and even before), the content provided to them is tailored to their profile and persona.

HelloShift launched Web Check-in to enable guests to check in on their mobile device, scan and upload documents, digitally sign registration cards, receive mobile keys, and have access to all hotel amenities through a guidebook.  Contactless Check In is integrated with existing HelloShift offerings -- Guest Messaging, Staff Collaboration, and Housekeeping -- in an all-in-one software. This helps hotels transform into a digital hotel without juggling between multiple apps.  Guests can skip the Front desk and complete the check in on the fly, on their computer or personal mobile device with no third-party app to download. The guidebook answers most of the guest questions without them having to involve hotel staff.

Whistle announces being acquired by Cloudbeds to integrate guest messaging as a key part of hotel's communication strategy.  Cloudbeds execs claim that Whistle will play an important role in the company’s vision for creating a fully frictionless solution that enables guests to engage with lodging businesses on their own terms. Simultaneously, it will give lodging businesses a unified platform to more efficiently manage points of contact throughout the entire guest journey.

INTELITY launched ID verification and authentication to boost security and fraud prevention in mobile checkin flows via its partnership with Incode.  The team unveiled the new partnership alongside its R5 platform update which includes tons of new features from deep links to an all new configuration home that allows hotels to fine tune and personalize the functionality to their needs and makes it significantly easier to set up, customize and manage the holistic guest experience platform.

Oaky announced upselling via messaging via a new partnership with messaging provider HiJiffy.  This new partnership allows joint clients to offer personalized upsells from Oaky directly on their guests’ favourite messaging platforms such as SMS text, Whatsapp or Messenger. The goal of this new integration is to give more travellers access to custom offers and increase ancillary revenue for hotels.

Cendyn unveiled Opentable profiles syncing to provide visibility for hotel-based restaurants to holistic guest insights, bringing a single, unified view of profiles onto the OpenTable restaurant platform. This allows for personalized dining experiences and enables loyalty recognition across the entire guest journey, at the restaurant as well as across the hotel property. 

SABA Hospitality rolled out Room Controls through a new integration with Messerschmitt enabling guests to control in-room automation features right from the SABA App. Guests can now use their mobile device for room access, to manage their in-room environment (for example temperature, lighting and curtains), to order room service, or request additional amenities and services, all via a single interface.

MyStay launched In-stay upsell to enable hoteliers to upsell offers and services via app, messaging, tablets or QR codes to drive more revenue.  Hotel Impozant in Slovakia commented that guests have already taken to the new feature in short order, "We have been using the in-stay upsell only for a short time, but we have already received an influx of positive comments from our guests, they system is really easy to use and we are looking forward. towards the first round of revenue numbers."

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
96 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Duve launched Guest Journeys for hotels to create customizable and automated guest segmentation to personalize offer, messaging and content delivery through Duve for each user.
Product logo
Duve - Online Check-in Contactless Check-in
THE PITCH
RATINGS
96 HT Score
Duve launched Guest Journeys for hotels to create customizable and automated guest segmentation to personalize offer, messaging and content delivery through Duve for each user.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
24 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
HelloShift launched Checkin to enable guests to checkin on their mobile device, scan and upload documents, digitally sign registration cards, receive mobile keys, and have access to all hotel amenities through a guidebook.
Product logo
HelloShift (Guest) Guest Messaging Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
24 HT Score
HelloShift launched Checkin to enable guests to checkin on their mobile device, scan and upload documents, digitally sign registration cards, receive mobile keys, and have access to all hotel amenities through a guidebook.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
99 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Enable fully Oaky's automated upselling via your hotel website's chatbot, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp via HiJiffy messenger.
Product logo
Oaky Upselling Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
99 HT Score
Enable fully Oaky's automated upselling via your hotel website's chatbot, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp via HiJiffy messenger.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
99 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Enable fully Oaky's automated upselling via your hotel website's chatbot, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp via HiJiffy messenger.
Product logo
Oaky Upselling Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
99 HT Score
Enable fully Oaky's automated upselling via your hotel website's chatbot, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp via HiJiffy messenger.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
76 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
INTELITY rolled out ID verification and authentication via their new partnership with Incode.
Product logo
INTELITY Guest Mobile Apps Hotel Guest Apps
THE PITCH
RATINGS
76 HT Score
INTELITY rolled out ID verification and authentication via their new partnership with Incode.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
76 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
INTELITY rolled out ID verification and authentication via their new partnership with Incode.
Product logo
INTELITY Guest Mobile Apps Hotel Guest Apps
THE PITCH
RATINGS
76 HT Score
INTELITY rolled out ID verification and authentication via their new partnership with Incode.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
98 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
SABA Hospitality launched new room controls, F&B ordering, and request functionality through the SABA app.
Product logo
SABA F&B Ordering Mobile Ordering & Room Service
THE PITCH
RATINGS
98 HT Score
SABA Hospitality launched new room controls, F&B ordering, and request functionality through the SABA app.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
19 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
MyStay launched In-stay upsell to enable hoteliers to upsell offers and services via app, messaging, tablets or QR codes to drive more revenue.
Product logo
MyStay Upselling Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
19 HT Score
MyStay launched In-stay upsell to enable hoteliers to upsell offers and services via app, messaging, tablets or QR codes to drive more revenue.
Learn More

Trend #3: AI Based Suggestions & Recommendations

Mentions: EasyWay, Pace, Quicktext, UpStay, Pricelabs

AI based suggestions and recommendations are table stakes in the broader tech world whether you look at the autocomplete search box on Google, content optimization suggestions in SEO tools like Clearscope or ad optimization on Linkedin. The beautiful part about AI is that it allows computers to not only run automated analysis that humans couldn’t possibly do (at least not in a reasonable or useful amount of time) but then learn and improve based on its conclusions serving up better recommendations over time. 

The first phase of adopting AI isn’t to hand over the reigns to computers all together but instead to create interfaces that allow humans to monitor, train and approve (or adjust) the automated suggestions made by the AI and that’s exactly what tech vendors are building. Whether its to help hotels improve their SEO through content suggestions, automatically respond to message based inquiries or optimize segment based restrictions to drive more revenue, suppliers across the hotel tech stack are leveraging AI to help hoteliers leverage tech more effectively.

EasyWay unveiled Magic Spell, an AI-based messaging assistant that generates automatic phrasing suggestions as you’re chatting with guests in real time.  Since Magic Spell deeply understands content and semantics within the hospitality industry, it uses AI to generate fast response recommendations for every guest situation. Magic Spell also works in every language automatically out of the box elevating guest communication for everyone. 

Pace shipped Restrictions Management to give hoteliers recommendations of how to manage segment based restrictions to better optimize their business mix.  Many hoteliers are still using Excel to manage a limited range of restrictions and manually applying them to their pricing with limited permutations possible.  The ability to seamlessly and easily manage restrictions from within your RMS is increasingly crucial as booking windows, guest preferences and market demand have all become more nuanced and dynamic on account of the pandemic. 

Quicktext announced Q-SEO, a new feature that analyzes the top queries that were made to your hotel chatbot in 30+ languages on a weekly basis and indexes the 20 top request topics to automatically generate FAQs for your hotel’s website to improve SEO. Every week the content is reshuffled automatically so that Googles sees it as fresh content. 

UpStay announced Special Product Offers, a new feature that allows hotels to go beyond just room upgrades and sell both on and off property value add services and amenities via it's upselling platform for things like breakfast, live performances, fitness classes, bike rentals and more.  UpStay's AI then recommends specific offers based on which products or services each guest is most likely to convert and purchase and the guest can bid for the items.  Ilan Levy, General Manager at Herrods Hotels, noted that, "UpStay helps us provide our guests with an amazing value for their money based on our unsold inventory. The solution quickly generated consistent conversions and revenue from the very first moment it went live in our hotel."

Pricelabs rolls out Minimum Stay Recommendation Engine to automatically adjust minimum stay restrictions dynamically to capture hidden revenue opportunities and boost occupancy.

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
85 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Pace Revenue shipped Restrictions Management to give hoteliers recommendations of how to manage segment based restrictions to better optimize their business mix.
Product logo
FLYR Hospitality Revenue Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
85 HT Score
Pace Revenue shipped Restrictions Management to give hoteliers recommendations of how to manage segment based restrictions to better optimize their business mix.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
89 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Quicktext announced Q-SEO, a new feature that analyzes the top queries that were made to your hotel chatbot in 30+ languages on a weekly basis and indexes the 20 top request topics to automatically generate FAQs for your hotel’s website to improve SEO. Every week the content is reshuffled automatically so that Google sees it as fresh content.
Product logo
Quicktext Hotel Chatbots
THE PITCH
RATINGS
89 HT Score
Quicktext announced Q-SEO, a new feature that analyzes the top queries that were made to your hotel chatbot in 30+ languages on a weekly basis and indexes the 20 top request topics to automatically generate FAQs for your hotel’s website to improve SEO. Every week the content is reshuffled automatically so that Google sees it as fresh content.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
73 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
New to the UpStay platform and maximizing the ability for hoteliers to achieve their full revenue-earning potential is the technology’s Special Offer capabilities. Leveraging the same advanced AI that can personalize promo messaging and increase the likelihood of a room upgrade, UpStay now also features the ability to send targeted promotions for a hotel’s full range of services and experience offerings.
Product logo
Plusgrade (formerly UpStay) Upselling Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
73 HT Score
New to the UpStay platform and maximizing the ability for hoteliers to achieve their full revenue-earning potential is the technology’s Special Offer capabilities. Leveraging the same advanced AI that can personalize promo messaging and increase the likelihood of a room upgrade, UpStay now also features the ability to send targeted promotions for a hotel’s full range of services and experience offerings.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Automatically adjust minimum stay restrictions dynamically to capture hidden revenue opportunities and boost occupancy.
Product logo
PriceLabs VR Dynamic Pricing
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
Automatically adjust minimum stay restrictions dynamically to capture hidden revenue opportunities and boost occupancy.
Learn More

Trend #4: More Granular Reporting & Insights

Mentions: Actabl, Duetto, IDeaS, OTA Insight, Mews, Fornova, HubOS, Tripleseat

If you’re someone who feels like there are too many tools, dashboards, metrics and interfaces to manage within your hotel, you’re definitely not alone.  Ultimately even small bed & breakfasts have thousands of guests coming through their doors every year and keeping track of preferences, analyzing trends and personalizing communication is extremely difficult especially across fragmented systems with different data structures, user IDs and functionality. 

The good news is that tech vendors are really starting to show that they understand that its not about more dashboards and metrics but rather its about highlighting the most important metrics in real time alongside actionable recommendations and then creating flexible interfaces to allow hoteliers to dive deeper into the data and build their own customizable dashboards to matter the metrics that matter most to their business.

ALICE, Profitsword, Transcendent and Hotel Effectiveness announce the launch of Actabl, the new brand and unified product vision for the recent ASG rollup that sets out to serve as a unified holistic operations and insights platform.  The Actabl suite of solutions includes ALICE hotel operations management, ProfitSword’s AI-powered business intelligence technology, Transcendent’s advanced asset management, and the latest in labor management innovation by Hotel Effectiveness.

Duetto launched its New Rate Management Experience (NRMX) to enable revenue teams to work more strategically and efficiently. New features include the ability to consolidate rate publishing pages into one single, unified view and enable bulk updates on rate acceptance. A customizable view of crucial data points, enabling users to click and drag elements of the GameChanger dashboard into a view that best fits their strategy, empowers more confident rate pushes. And improved decision intelligence provides more comprehensive competitive information and quicker filtering to enable revenue managers to focus on the days that most need their attention.

IDeaS shipped its new Channel Forecast Dashboard to provide hoteliers move beyond room revenue KPIs and channel cost reporting to channel cost forecasting.  For decades hoteliers have been looking for ways to better manage acquisition costs from their distribution channels. The Channel Forecast Dashboard gives hospitality organizations the ability to monitor past performance and future demand and costs by distribution channel allowing hoteliers to make data-driven distribution strategy decisions.

OTA Insight launched The Overview, its new view of key commercial metrics at a glance featuring a dynamic alerts feed, personalizable settings and built-in team collaboration. Jonathan Cachan, Director of Strategic Development at Astotel, articulated why he starts his day with The Overview, “The Overview is a quick and easy way to start my day with a snapshot of the most important items. I am able to set key dates and action alert items right away. It also brings together the metrics I need into one place, so I no longer spend so much time moving back and forth between systems…it brings so much more efficiency into all the roles within hotels; whether you are in revenue, sales, marketing, operations or even in a position where you just need a bird's eye view of business.”

Mews shipped their all new Product Report, enabling hoteliers to group products by category and better understand guest product consumption behavior which aids in pre-planning and sales of the popular product categories.  The new report also allows hotels to now correlate occupancy with product revenue from guests staying at the property versus products sold.

Fornova went live with it’s Distribution Overview Page, it’s all new and fully customizable distribution dashboard home featuring Revenue at Risk (RaR) and Distribution Health Score (DHS) prioritization tools.  Users choose what they see, they aren't constrained by preset filters selected by the solution provider. The tools give users any aggregation that they want. The flexibility of this feature involves the ability to drill down into highly relevant data using layers of filters and aggregating the data by different customizable elements. 

HubOS launched Energy & Sustainability, an easy way to monitor your hotel’s energy and water consumption and log changes to your property to track ESG impact.  Benjamin Gomez, Engineering Manager at Six Senses, commented on the seamlessness of the module’s monitoring capabilities, “Hub OS is a very helpful tool for our daily hotel operations and managing our Energy and Water Consumptions. Benchmarking won’t be a problem anymore! We can review our KPIs, Carbon foot print, utilities consumption and trends instantly after our engineers enter the meter readings while on the go. The Sustainability module is very helpful for tracking our weekly waste in the hotel operations, helping us to keep track of our food waste for composting, recyclables and towards reaching our goal for a Zero Waste operation.”

Tripleseat rolled out it’s Advanced Reporting Platform (TARP), a data analytics tool that empowers Sales and Catering professionals with clear business insights and reporting to inform stakeholders and strategy and turn your hotel’s sales and event data into decision-quality reports and management-ready visuals.  Data flows directly from Tripleseat bookings into TARP, ensuring accurate information is used to populate reports and dashboards. Users may quickly fitler the report by data categories, rearrange columns based on preferences, and save those reports for future use and sharing. TARP reduces inaccuracies and saves precious time.

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
90 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
For decades hoteliers have been looking for ways to better manage acquisition costs from their distribution channels. The Channel Forecast Dashboard gives hospitality organizations the ability to monitor past performance and future demand and costs by distribution channel allowing hoteliers to make data-driven distribution strategy decisions.
Product logo
IDeaS Revenue Solutions Revenue Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
90 HT Score
For decades hoteliers have been looking for ways to better manage acquisition costs from their distribution channels. The Channel Forecast Dashboard gives hospitality organizations the ability to monitor past performance and future demand and costs by distribution channel allowing hoteliers to make data-driven distribution strategy decisions.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The Overview consolidates and tracks key commercial metrics. With the Overview, hotelier's can now execute and optimize their commercial strategy - in one singular view. The Overview makes it easier for hoteliers to react, adjust and regain forward momentum in today’s fast-paced market.
Product logo
Lighthouse (Rate Insight) Rate Shopping
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
The Overview consolidates and tracks key commercial metrics. With the Overview, hotelier's can now execute and optimize their commercial strategy - in one singular view. The Overview makes it easier for hoteliers to react, adjust and regain forward momentum in today’s fast-paced market.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
27 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Fornova’s Distribution Overview page empowers hoteliers to save time and make better-informed decisions by combining all the metrics of the solution on one page and allowing users to group the data by every possible category such as OTA, Point of Sale (country of origin), Metasearch engine, country, etc. The multi-layered aggregation and filtration process also provides users with flexibility to drill down into and see data that is highly relevant to their business and investigate the origin of their distribution issues.
Product logo
FornovaDI (Distribution Intelligence) Hotel Rate Parity
THE PITCH
RATINGS
27 HT Score
Fornova’s Distribution Overview page empowers hoteliers to save time and make better-informed decisions by combining all the metrics of the solution on one page and allowing users to group the data by every possible category such as OTA, Point of Sale (country of origin), Metasearch engine, country, etc. The multi-layered aggregation and filtration process also provides users with flexibility to drill down into and see data that is highly relevant to their business and investigate the origin of their distribution issues.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
In the Hospitality Industry, like many others, the impact on climate change is real and concerning. The energy, paper, plastic, food and water consumption is huge. HUB OS was designed to help hotels improve their operation by transforming manual processes into environmental friendly digital ones and eliminating useless tasks through automation.
Product logo
HubOS Staff App Staff Collaboration Tools
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
In the Hospitality Industry, like many others, the impact on climate change is real and concerning. The energy, paper, plastic, food and water consumption is huge. HUB OS was designed to help hotels improve their operation by transforming manual processes into environmental friendly digital ones and eliminating useless tasks through automation.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
91 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
TARP is the data analytics tool that empowers Sales and Catering professionals with clear business insights and reporting that will inform stakeholders and strategy.
Product logo
Tripleseat (Group Sales Management Platform) Hotel Sales Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
91 HT Score
TARP is the data analytics tool that empowers Sales and Catering professionals with clear business insights and reporting that will inform stakeholders and strategy.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The Product report is a chronological overview of all stay products that were sold in a specific time period within a specific service. You can choose which Service you'd like to see the report for. The report shows the total number of products sold on a specific day or a specific time period as well as the number of products sold in each category. You can also view the number of guests staying at your property for the same time period.
Product logo
Mews PMS Property Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
The Product report is a chronological overview of all stay products that were sold in a specific time period within a specific service. You can choose which Service you'd like to see the report for. The report shows the total number of products sold on a specific day or a specific time period as well as the number of products sold in each category. You can also view the number of guests staying at your property for the same time period.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Duetto’s New Rate Management Experience (NRMX) features are designed to enable revenue teams to work more strategically, consolidating all rate publishing pages into one single, unified view.
Product logo
GameChanger by Duetto Revenue Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
Duetto’s New Rate Management Experience (NRMX) features are designed to enable revenue teams to work more strategically, consolidating all rate publishing pages into one single, unified view.
Learn More

Trend #5: Reduction of Manual Tasks & Data Entry

Mentions: Duetto, Asksuite, Aptech, SkyTouch Technology, MeetingPackage, Akia, SmartHotel, Aleno

It wasn’t so long ago that hoteliers tracked everything from arrivals to budgets on pen and paper until they discovered their new best friend, spreadsheets.  Spreadsheets helped hoteliers run calculations automatically with formulas and update them by just copy/pasting in new data saving hours of time and unlocking new insights. 

The downside to spreadsheets was that once hoteliers created enough of them, they got unwieldy to manage and sync and of course they didn’t contain live real time data so they still required manual updating.  Even so, there isn’t a soul on the planet who wouldn’t choose spreadsheets over pen and paper. 

That same phenomena happened from spreadsheets to cloud based SaaS to the point where it was (and is) great having access to real time data, but this data was locked inside of each system which meant a lot of exporting and importing into other tools (or back into spreadsheets for comparative analysis) which requires a lot of manual work, data entry and consequently–room for human error. 

What we’re seeing in the market now is a shift in focus to really help hoteliers chip away at manual data entry and rote tasks that can (and should) be done automatically by computers.  Providers are launching new workflow builders, event based automations, app integrations and more to help hoteliers rid themselves of manual data entry and rote tasks to get data from one system to another once and for all.

Duetto launched its New Forecast & Budget Builder in ScoreBoard, which enables revenue managers, finance, and operations teams to generate forecasts and budgets more quickly and accurately, whether by property, brand, or at a corporate level. The New Forecast & Budget Builder UI reduces complexity in revenue operations while improving data accuracy and data sharing. New features include the ability to forecast based on physical inventory and net out-of-order rooms, as well as being able to drill down to the business mix of forecasted values to better project actuals, including ancillary streams.

Asksuite launched its Omnichannel Email Integration to bring transactional booking emails into the Asksuite website live chat conversation stream to simplify and streamline booking inquiries.  The upgrade also offers a new way to compose emails, giving extra agility to reservation teams with a direct link to the booking engine, real-time quotes, images, and descriptions.

Aptech rolled out Invoice Automation to put an end to paper invoices and manual data entry with invoice scanning, automation and an outsourced workforce to ensure 98%-99% accuracy.  John Reilly, General Manager at The Naples Bay Resort & Marina, attested to the increased efficiency as well as major time and cost savings: “We used to have a team of five accountants; now we have two. We needed a way to streamline the accounts payable process and remove a lot of the mundane data-entry tasks associated with invoice processing. Now our accountants are optimizing their time more efficiently and getting more work done in less time.”

SkyTouch Technology launched GT Digital Registration to help hoteliers ditch manual pen and paper registration at the front desk with the new SkyTouch GT tablets.  The SkyTouch GT Digital Registration process decreases check-in time, ensures accuracy of guest information, and reduces labor devoted to record keeping and storage. Hotel policies are displayed to guests directly on the tablet. Easy for the hotel to update policies as needs change, we offer self-installation and set-up.

MeetingPackage showed off Venue Sales Management Automations to help sales teams remind customers and staff automatically about important Meetings & Events inquiry deadlines.  Tomas Sabolt from The Loft Hotel in Bratislava described the digitization of his team’s processes by leveraging the tool, "Initially, we didn’t see any problems in our M&E sales but once we got to know MeetingPackage we decided to switch from our previous system as MeetingPackage is so easy to use. In the end it was an easy decision once we saw how to manage Meetings & Events sales with MeetingPackage software.”

Akia shipped Automated Workflows to empower hoteliers to leverage guest authorization as an event to trigger actions in 3rd party apps.  Tony Heim, InnKeeper at Commonwealth Hotels, described the benefits of leveraging workflows to trigger digital keys to be made, “Switching to Akia was an incredible decision for our property. They’ve streamlined the check-in process both for our guests and our associates, shaving off valuable time for every party involved. The process is smooth, and because of their integration with FLEXIPASS we’ve been able to deliver unique door codes quicker than ever.”

SmartHotel launched Payment Links, a tool for hoteliers to create dynamic payment links based on customizable rules.  The rule based easy to configure system helps hoteliers automatically create payment or credit card guarantee links based on rate code and other variables (ie. x days before arrival) and sends out personalized emails to guests. Deposits or tokenized credit cards are directly reported back into PMS of choice.

Aleno unveiled Guest Preference Sync to help hoteliers sync guest F&B preferences to build richer guest profiles in your PMS.  Jonas Ritscher, Front Office Manager at Suvretta House Switzerland, spoke to the time saving benefits of having customer data synced between PMS & POS, “With the integration of aleno and PMS, we optimize processes and internal communication. No more lists and everyone always has up-to-date information.”

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Duetto’s New Forecast & Budget Builder delivers best-in-class analytics, streamlined data management, and easy reporting for hotel revenue leaders.
Product logo
GameChanger by Duetto Revenue Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
Duetto’s New Forecast & Budget Builder delivers best-in-class analytics, streamlined data management, and easy reporting for hotel revenue leaders.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Asksuite's Omnichannel Email Integration is a big step toward an even smoother experience for hoteliers, who get to manage all channels from a single screen, saving hours of work. It also enhances customer service and cements a unified channel control and management.
Product logo
Asksuite AI Reservation Agent Hotel Chatbots
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
Asksuite's Omnichannel Email Integration is a big step toward an even smoother experience for hoteliers, who get to manage all channels from a single screen, saving hours of work. It also enhances customer service and cements a unified channel control and management.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
96 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Aptech's invoice automation provides a highly accurate data capture process to organizations allowing them to eliminate paper, remove manual data entry, and capture increased operational efficiencies.
Product logo
PVNG (by Aptech) Hotel Accounting Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
96 HT Score
Aptech's invoice automation provides a highly accurate data capture process to organizations allowing them to eliminate paper, remove manual data entry, and capture increased operational efficiencies.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
79 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The SkyTouch GT tablet turns the traditional paper registration card into a thing of the past. This solution will expedite your guest check-in by offering technology that guests have become used to in everyday life. Go paperless and go green!
Product logo
SkyTouch Technology Property Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
79 HT Score
The SkyTouch GT tablet turns the traditional paper registration card into a thing of the past. This solution will expedite your guest check-in by offering technology that guests have become used to in everyday life. Go paperless and go green!
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
86 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Remind customers and staff automatically on the important dead lines when it comes to Meetings & Events enquiries. Save time, improve efficiency, and offer better user experience to all stakeholders involved in the M&E sales process.
Product logo
MeetingPackage (Venue & Sales Management) Hotel Sales Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
86 HT Score
Remind customers and staff automatically on the important dead lines when it comes to Meetings & Events enquiries. Save time, improve efficiency, and offer better user experience to all stakeholders involved in the M&E sales process.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
80 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Workflow Automation is a framework that allows the hotelier to connect events (checkout, message received, ID verified, order submitted) to actions. Actions are actions within Akia's communication platform or third-party actions (e.g. send a message, create a work order in another system, issue a mobile key, etc).
Product logo
Akia Guest Messaging Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
80 HT Score
Workflow Automation is a framework that allows the hotelier to connect events (checkout, message received, ID verified, order submitted) to actions. Actions are actions within Akia's communication platform or third-party actions (e.g. send a message, create a work order in another system, issue a mobile key, etc).
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
15 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Within Smart Payments, Smart Hotel hase now introduced the Payment links implementation--a rule based easy to configure system that will help hoteliers automatically create payment or credit card guarantee links based on rate code and other variables (ie. x days before arrival) and sends out personalized emails to guests. Deposits or tokenized credit card are directly reported back into PMS of choice.
Product logo
SmartHOTEL (Channel Manager) Channel Managers
THE PITCH
RATINGS
15 HT Score
Within Smart Payments, Smart Hotel hase now introduced the Payment links implementation--a rule based easy to configure system that will help hoteliers automatically create payment or credit card guarantee links based on rate code and other variables (ie. x days before arrival) and sends out personalized emails to guests. Deposits or tokenized credit card are directly reported back into PMS of choice.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
aleno combines restaurant reservation system and PMS. For better data for perfect guest experience, less work, more efficient planning. The integration to Protel and Mews makes it possible. Hotels have full control over their data with the white label system and can completely customize the reservation widget according to their own needs.
Product logo
aleno Hotel Restaurant POS Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
aleno combines restaurant reservation system and PMS. For better data for perfect guest experience, less work, more efficient planning. The integration to Protel and Mews makes it possible. Hotels have full control over their data with the white label system and can completely customize the reservation widget according to their own needs.
Learn More

Trend #6: More Granular Segmentation to Drive Deeper Personalization

Mentions: Hapi, VenueLytics, Duve, dailypoint, Gauvendi, Inspire, Laasie

If you’re thinking to yourself that personalization really isn’t a new trend, we completely agree.  The shift in the market right now though is how personalization is being viewed and the vector with which it is being built. 

Previously vendors have essentially looked at the vast pool of data that hotels have and tried to build ways to group customers into segments so that hotels aren’t communicating with guests via shotgun mass outreach but instead, to tailor to groups or segments of customers to build more personalized relationships that convert and retain more loyal customers.  The crazy thing is that so many hotels still send out mass communications to their databases when it has been clearly researched and documented that this not only performs worse, but it also frustrates consumers. 

The new approach in the broader tech world is to leverage customer data to deliver personalized 1-to-1 communications through marketing automation by setting up triggers and actions based on timing, events and customer data to create an automated orchestration of your customer journey that can personalize on an individual level at scale.  Obviously there will always be a place for segment based one-off promotions and offers to drive demand, but the reality is that the goal of your customer communications should be that (a) they are automated and (b) each message feels as close to a 1-to-1 communication with each customer.  These two goals might seem to conflict with each other but that’s what tech providers are building tools to help you achieve.

Hapi rolled out Hapi Guest for Marketing Cloud for hotels to be able to use Salesforce as their CRM by leveraging Hapi to clean and sync your portfolio’s data to run personalized campaigns.  Shrikant Shenoy, Senior VP of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Langham Hotels described why Hapi Guest is a critical component to personalizing communications and marketing for Langham, “The business objective is to make sure the guest knows they are staying with us and feels those moments of engagement, so they enjoy their stay more. This will also usually motivate them to spend more with us and we can make sure they come back. A big part of doing that is being able to personalize the service, so we treat you like an individual – we know a little bit about you.”

VenueLytics launched RevAccelerator to more effectively curate and deliver targeted offers at optimal times to personalize the guest experience and drive more revenue.  Hotels using VenueLytics RevAccelerator can automatically push out offers to guests for Early check-in / late checkout, room upgrades, F & B, Spa / Fitness and retail.  Additional revenue can be generated with offers for tours, activities, tickets and admissions outside the hotel.

Duve launched Personalized Guest Journeys to help hotels customize and automate guest segmentation in order to personalize offers, messaging and content delivery for each user.  Data is collected during the online check-in process, so once a guest arrives at the hotel (and even before), the content provided to them is tailored to their profile and persona.

dailypoint™ showed its Content Bot that helps hoteliers create personalized newsletters for guests.  The Content Bot enables hoteliers to make most of their guest data and use it for individual and targeted communication that increases direct sales and revenue.

GauVendi shipped their Sales Engine to unlock attribute based selling and a customizable booking experience to drive more revenue.  Florian Ultsch, COO of Harry’s Home and Adler Hotels, described the benefits of attribute based selling, “If you buy a car, you can decide the color, the interior, all the extras. This is what GauVendi helps guests to do when they book a room with us. In the past, our reception and reservation teams wouldn’t have time for this, but their automation opens new possibilities.”

Inspire launched Loyalty CardLink, a loyalty card that guests can use throughout property outlets to collect loyalty points and rewards to encourage guest spend.  The member securely registers their payment card when registering for a branded loyalty programme and receives instant points for their spend in any hotel area.

Laasie showed off its Call Center Rewards to enable call center operators to boost conversion and bookings by offering callers rewards.  While laasie has traditionally supported rewards delivery via web and mobile booking channels, they recently added support for call centers to drive additional revenue by boosting call center close rates.

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
38 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Hapi has launched two new applications available on the Salesforce App Exchange – Hapi Guest for Marketing Cloud and Hapi Guest for Tableau. In addition to the core application, Hapi Guest for Salesforce, hoteliers now have more insight into their data and the ability to create 360-degree marketing campaigns to convert more demand.
Product logo
Hapi Guest Hotel CRM & Email Marketing
THE PITCH
RATINGS
38 HT Score
Hapi has launched two new applications available on the Salesforce App Exchange – Hapi Guest for Marketing Cloud and Hapi Guest for Tableau. In addition to the core application, Hapi Guest for Salesforce, hoteliers now have more insight into their data and the ability to create 360-degree marketing campaigns to convert more demand.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
VenueLytics RevAccelerator empower Hotels to provide a completely data driven Guest Journey and delight their guests with timely guest services, deals/offers & provide a memorable guest experience. With this solution, Hotels can significantly increase in ancillary revenue via up-sell and cross-sell via omni-channel guest engagement & reduce operational cost using AI.
Product logo
Sojern AI Smart Concierge Guest Messaging Software
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
VenueLytics RevAccelerator empower Hotels to provide a completely data driven Guest Journey and delight their guests with timely guest services, deals/offers & provide a memorable guest experience. With this solution, Hotels can significantly increase in ancillary revenue via up-sell and cross-sell via omni-channel guest engagement & reduce operational cost using AI.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
96 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Duve launched Guest Journeys for hotels to create customizable and automated guest segmentation to personalize offer, messaging and content delivery through Duve for each user.
Product logo
Duve - Online Check-in Contactless Check-in
THE PITCH
RATINGS
96 HT Score
Duve launched Guest Journeys for hotels to create customizable and automated guest segmentation to personalize offer, messaging and content delivery through Duve for each user.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
97 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The Content Bot enables hoteliers to make most of their guest data and use it for individual and targeted communication that increases direct sales and revenue.
Product logo
dailypoint™ 360° – Central Data Management Hotel CRM & Email Marketing
THE PITCH
RATINGS
97 HT Score
The Content Bot enables hoteliers to make most of their guest data and use it for individual and targeted communication that increases direct sales and revenue.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The proprietary technology manages rooms, availability, and rates in a detailed way by digitizing all dimensions of the room experience (view, location, design, bathroom, etc.). By having more room products on the shelf with smaller price jumps hoteliers are able to offer the right product at the right price to the right guest audience, they will always have a room product for the demand. Room experiences can now be sold in any product variation (feature combinations) and be optimized for all distribution channels and travel segments.
Product logo
GauVendi Booking Engine
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
The proprietary technology manages rooms, availability, and rates in a detailed way by digitizing all dimensions of the room experience (view, location, design, bathroom, etc.). By having more room products on the shelf with smaller price jumps hoteliers are able to offer the right product at the right price to the right guest audience, they will always have a room product for the demand. Room experiences can now be sold in any product variation (feature combinations) and be optimized for all distribution channels and travel segments.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
CardLink provides a seamless experience for guests as a member of a branded loyalty programme to earn points across the full guest journey without any system or staff intervention. By paying for their product with a registred payment card means guests earn points instantly, with option to get cashback or % discount, tailored to the hospitality owner's preference.
Product logo
Inspire Loyalty Loyalty Programs for Independents
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
CardLink provides a seamless experience for guests as a member of a branded loyalty programme to earn points across the full guest journey without any system or staff intervention. By paying for their product with a registred payment card means guests earn points instantly, with option to get cashback or % discount, tailored to the hospitality owner's preference.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
25 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
While laasie has traditionally supported web and mobile booking channels, we have recently added support for the call center, which as demonstrated extreme value in terms of call center close rate.
Product logo
LaaSie Convert Direct Booking Tools
THE PITCH
RATINGS
25 HT Score
While laasie has traditionally supported web and mobile booking channels, we have recently added support for the call center, which as demonstrated extreme value in terms of call center close rate.
Learn More

Trend #7: Spotlight on Digital Tipping

Mentions: eTip, Canary, Unifocus

It was hard to turn a corner of Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center without catching wind of a new digital tipping app.  The problem is straight forward, fewer and fewer people are carrying cash around and that means less tipping which hotels used to rely on as a retention tool to boost compensation for employees.  The double edged sword is that staff are getting less tips than ever as a result which only compounds the labor challenges in today’s market. 

While it's still too early to know the adoption and engagement with digital tipping, it definitely makes sense why products are popping up to try to help revitalize this employee retention mechanism as a way to hire and retain staff.

Canary unveiled its new Digital Tipping functionality to encourage tipping by prompting hotel guests at key points throughout the guest journey.  Canary's Digital Tipping is available as a standalone or fully integrated solution with Canary's larger Guest Management System that includes Contactless Check-In, Contactless Checkout, Guest Messaging, Digital Upsells, Digital Authorizations and Digital Contracts.

Unifocus launched Gratitude, a digital tipping solution that integrates with Unifocus’ time & attendance solution.  With Gratitude, hotel employees are able to reclaim lost wages from declining tips by receiving tips digitally.

eTip showed off its Cashless Tipping solution to bolster staff retention through cashless, appless digital tipping.  The company claims that staff using their solution have seen a 5x increase in tip frequency and an average $4.50/hr increase in compensation.

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Digital Tipping helps increase staff compensation by providing guests with an easy way to leave tips, whether they are carrying cash or not. Canary Digital Tipping also encourages higher tipping frequency and amounts by prompting hotel guess to tip staff generously at key points throughout the guest journey.
Product logo
Canary Contactless Check-In Contactless Check-in
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
Digital Tipping helps increase staff compensation by providing guests with an easy way to leave tips, whether they are carrying cash or not. Canary Digital Tipping also encourages higher tipping frequency and amounts by prompting hotel guess to tip staff generously at key points throughout the guest journey.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
75 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Gratitude is a digital tipping app where guests can tip hotel staff through their devices, tips go to the right staff members, and reclaim lost source of wages.
Product logo
Unifocus Scheduling & Workforce Management
THE PITCH
RATINGS
75 HT Score
Gratitude is a digital tipping app where guests can tip hotel staff through their devices, tips go to the right staff members, and reclaim lost source of wages.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
94 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
eTip is an app-less, cashless, and contact-free tipping solution that enables tip earners to better manage their financial wellness. Businesses have increased their monthly staff retention by 30% ($37,000 of turnover of cost savings) while tip earners have seen a 5x increase in tip frequency and an average $4.50/hr increase in compensation.
Product logo
eTip.io Digital Tipping Solutions
THE PITCH
RATINGS
94 HT Score
eTip is an app-less, cashless, and contact-free tipping solution that enables tip earners to better manage their financial wellness. Businesses have increased their monthly staff retention by 30% ($37,000 of turnover of cost savings) while tip earners have seen a 5x increase in tip frequency and an average $4.50/hr increase in compensation.
Learn More

Other Notable Innovations

Mentions: ASSA ABLOY, Goki, Zaplox, HotelRunner, Eviivo, M3, Book Me Bob

ASSA ABLOY GLOBAL SOLUTIONS unveiled VingCard Novel, its sleek redesigned door locks with all component modules embedded within the handle.  VingCard Novel serves as an advanced, yet cost-effective solution that combines heightened security, functionality and sustainability into an attractive and easy to install door lock handle design. Its scalable components and enhanced durability provide hoteliers with a long-term solution that reduces costs and that stays a step ahead of new advances in technology.  With a simple software update and/or licensing agreement, VingCard Novel bypasses the now unnecessary need to add or replace hardware whenever a new functionality or feature is desired. 

HotelRunner announced Wix Hotels Powered by HotelRunner, the website design powerhouse’s exclusive partnership with Hotel Runner that enables hotels to build true purpose build end-to-end drag and drop hotel websites with direct on-site (commission free) bookings, channel management, online payments, instant invoicing and more.  Wix’s comprehensive online platform combined with HotelRunner’s end-to-end travel technology provides the ability for users to create a website, manage their property, guests, bookings, and sales channels all from one platform.

Goki rolled out its SmartLock Pro which automatically issues a SmartKey & DoorCode to every guest.  Nomads World Hotels commented, “The SmartLock Pro will enable us to run the enitre group from one central location - without needing to physically be at the property. We can run lock audits, pull battery status, revoke access and remotely open the doors, none of which was possible before the SmartLock Pro.”

Zaplox shipped its new Key App, to add digital keys to hotels’ existing web checkin flows.  Chris Shroff, CEO of Myrtle Beach Seaside Resorts, explained his selection process, “We were looking for ways to improve the guest experience, speed up the check-in process at our resorts and reduce congestion at the front desk, Maestro and Zaplox were able to provide a seamless mobile guest journey that was tightly integrated with our Maestro PMS and delivered true value to our guests and the service they expect.”

Eviivo rolled out a new Mobile App making their entire suite of solutions now enabling hoteliers who are wearing more hats than ever due to the labor shortage to do everything from checking availability, managing rates, checking housekeeping statuses and monitoring payments all on the go.  Louise Creane-Smith, Owner of Rosslyn House, noted the benefits of having mobile access to key functionality, "When I get telephone enquiries I can just open the app wherever I am and advise on availability. No having to ask the caller to wait while I get on the PC or call back when I get home. I get notifications imeediately as the booking comes in, meaning I can send "thank you" texts and request information straight away, which leaves a good impression with the guests."

M3 launched native language translations to it's time and attendance product to help simplify core workflows for non-english speaking staff.  This new functionality now allow non-english native employees to set their personal language preference while displaying all of the same information and features on the app as it would appear in English. Punch collection will allow hotel employees to submit time punches from their mobile devices with unique selections for property and job assignments when necessary. This new feature functionality aims to streamline the clock-in-clock-out process for employees on every level. The request time off portal will allow hotel employees to request PTO (Paid Time Off) and managers to approve the request within the mobile application.

Book Me Bob announced it's integrated vouchers functionality via a partnership with Aiva.  This new functionality gives hotels the ability to offer fully branded discount, incentive, value add or gift vouchers commission free on their own website with no initial cost or set-up fees and pay-as-you go pricing.

Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
53 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
VingCard Novel serves as an advanced, yet cost-effective solution that combines heightened security, functionality and sustainability into an attractive and easy to install door lock handle design. Its scalable components and enhanced durability provide hoteliers with a long-term solution that reduces costs and that stays a step ahead of new advances in technology.
Product logo
Mobile Access by Vingcard Hotel Keyless Entry Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
53 HT Score
VingCard Novel serves as an advanced, yet cost-effective solution that combines heightened security, functionality and sustainability into an attractive and easy to install door lock handle design. Its scalable components and enhanced durability provide hoteliers with a long-term solution that reduces costs and that stays a step ahead of new advances in technology.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
76 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
By leveraging Wix’s platform, business owners will be able to construct a website, manage their property, receive direct reservations and connect to online sales channels and travel agencies like Expedia and Airbnb. This will aid in driving revenues for the business owners.
Product logo
Channel Manager by HotelRunner Channel Managers
THE PITCH
RATINGS
76 HT Score
By leveraging Wix’s platform, business owners will be able to construct a website, manage their property, receive direct reservations and connect to online sales channels and travel agencies like Expedia and Airbnb. This will aid in driving revenues for the business owners.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
SmartLock Pro automatically issues a SmartKey & DoorCode to every guest for the length of their stay. Having DoorCodes as backup (not reception) means that we fully automate access & can completely remove plastic from a hoteliers operation.
Product logo
Goki Hotel Keyless Entry Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
SmartLock Pro automatically issues a SmartKey & DoorCode to every guest for the length of their stay. Having DoorCodes as backup (not reception) means that we fully automate access & can completely remove plastic from a hoteliers operation.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
0 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
Zaplox Key app works with any PMS that offers online check-in and is a quick and smooth way for hotels and PMS companies to offer a complete mobile guest journey. Zaplox Key app enhances the online check-in experience and saves time and resources for both the guest and the hotel.
Product logo
Zaplox Self-service Kiosk Contactless Check-in
THE PITCH
RATINGS
0 HT Score
Zaplox Key app works with any PMS that offers online check-in and is a quick and smooth way for hotels and PMS companies to offer a complete mobile guest journey. Zaplox Key app enhances the online check-in experience and saves time and resources for both the guest and the hotel.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
88 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The entire Eviivo product suite is now available on the go via the all new Eviivo mobile app helping busy hoteliers better manage multi-tasking.
Product logo
eviivo Suite™ PMS Property Management Systems
THE PITCH
RATINGS
88 HT Score
The entire Eviivo product suite is now available on the go via the all new Eviivo mobile app helping busy hoteliers better manage multi-tasking.
Learn More
Image
THE PITCH
RATINGS BEST FOR
100 HT Score
Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, review quantity, review recency, and vendor submitted information to help buyers better understand their products.
Learn More
The added functionality of bi-lingual capabilities will be helpful for non-native English speakers and those who would prefer Spanish text. M3 Labor will now allow the user to set their personal language preference while displaying all of the same information and features on the app as it would appear in English. Punch collection will allow hotel employees to submit time punches from their mobile devices with unique selections for property and job assignments when necessary.
Product logo
M3 (Labor Management) Scheduling & Workforce Management
THE PITCH
RATINGS
100 HT Score
The added functionality of bi-lingual capabilities will be helpful for non-native English speakers and those who would prefer Spanish text. M3 Labor will now allow the user to set their personal language preference while displaying all of the same information and features on the app as it would appear in English. Punch collection will allow hotel employees to submit time punches from their mobile devices with unique selections for property and job assignments when necessary.
Learn More
Author image
Adam Hollander
Co-Founder Linkedin profile
Adam is the co-founder of Hotel Tech Report, the hotel industry’s app store where millions of professionals discover the best digital products to run and grow their businesses. He was previously on the hotel acquisitions and development team at MWT Hospitality. Prior to his work on the development team, he completed an extensive management rotation at Hotel Terra spending time in each department which fostered a deep understanding of day-to-day operations and hotel management. Adam received his MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business and bachelors degree from Williams College.