The future is now. Well, at least for hoteliers fully embracing cloud-based solutions.
Savvy business operators realize a hotel operations platform powered by cloud-computing is fueling the hotel industry to increased efficiency, more satisfied employees and heightened profitability. Sorry legacy systems, but a new breed of hotel property management systems (PMS) is transforming hotels in ways premise-based systems never could.
Cloud-computing is creating massive transformation
According to Statista, in 2018, the public cloud services market is expected to reach approximately $186.4 billion. And by 2021, this technology segment is forecast to exceed $302.5 billion. One reason; according to LogicMonitor, via an article in Forbes, 83% of Enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020.
It’s no longer an issue as to whether this technology will take hold, but how much longer hoteliers maintaining legacy systems are willing to be left behind. One reason is the opportunity to go mobile.
Did you know?
According to the 2017 Smart Decision Guide to Hotel Guest Experience Management, 86% of hoteliers “agree” or “strongly agree” employees at all levels and across all parts of the organization require mobile access to be most effective in their jobs.
It’s critical to understand as time moves on, it’ll be harder and harder for hotels powered by an antiquated on-premise PMS to compete against hotels using the full breadth and power of a modern, cloud-based PMS. And as technology continues its inescapable move forward, the functionality separation between legacy and cloud-based systems will become increasingly vast.
Leveraging the power of the cloud
According to LogicMonitor, digitally transforming enterprises (63%) is the leading factor driving greater public cloud engagement or adoption, followed by the desire for IT agility (62%). Companies in all industries inside and outside hospitality understand opportunities delivered via cloud-computing far outweigh those of staying with a current technology platform. And as newer technologies come to the fore, such as the internet of things (IoT), Artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the need for a cloud-based PMS increases.
Quick primer: For the hotel industry, IoT opens new ways to deliver meaningful guest experiences. We’re already seeing it with smartphones opening guestroom doors and serving up location-based offers. AI is being used through text messaging services that automatically respond to guest queries as if it’s an associate responding. Additionally, machine learning is helping hoteliers with customer relationship management (CRM) and setting room rates.
Without cloud technology, the ease and simplicity of adding these features to a hotel’s technology stack simply wouldn’t be there. Underscoring it all, the high financial penalty for staying with aging, outdated technology. A cloud-based system eliminates the need for hotels to replace costly hardware, expensive software licenses and of course constant on-premise updates many times requiring IT personnel. Always up-to-date cloud-based systems typically charge a reasonable flat monthly fee and are designed specifically to incorporate new features and technologies as merited. Best of breed cloud-based PMS software for hotels are so flexible, these solutions continually add features and functionality suggested by its user base. Plus, hoteliers never have to worry about system outages or having the system offline as its being updated.
In the next chapter, we’ll discuss the very specific ways the cloud-based PMS is more effective for the modern millennial workforce and how the freedom of tapping into the system via mobile access is transforming how hotel operators and owners manage properties.
Don’t want to wait for part 4?
Download our eBook: 6 Must-Have Technologies for Hotel Success (According to Best Practices IT Market Research).
Ready to see how a partner like SkyTouch can impact your operations and your revenue? Contact us today and book a demo of the SkyTouch Hotel Operations Platform.
