As a part of the ongoing partnership between the Accor Hospitality Hotel Group and Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, a challenge was given to the BOSC6 students on the "Hospitality Technology Strategy" elective course.

Robots No!, No!, No! so no R2D2 coming soon in a hotel. But automation yes as a first step. Hospitality is ripe for RPA and many benefits can be taken from that. Maybe one day physical robots will in hotels but positioning this as a labour cost reduction option and really seeing this wrongly.

The ultimate crystal ball question! A we have seen the industry has reacted quickly to the contact less situation, from QR codes to mobile. And as we are seeing a good progress in the vaccination situation in a lot of countries some sort of “normal” is starting to make sense.

In the wake of new technology adoption due to COVID we are at the perfect place for adoption of Augmented reality. New guest experiences can be created and new revenue streams become available with this technology.

Data scientists or “Data whisperers” will be a key part of successful hotels in the future. Data-driven decisions will become the norm and gut feeling and the “we have always done it that way” will disappear.