The PMS' role as the center of a hotel's technology ecosystem is coming to an end. Crucial guest data sits locked up in today's disconnected data silos, making it very difficult for hotels/brands to optimize and bank in on the 'digital guest journey'. True? If so, how could a future application/data infrastructure or migration path look like? What's your take?

David Millili
David Millili
Chief Executive Officer of Angie Hospitality

The hotel technology industry has always been challenged in finding the right panacea as it relates to understanding and anticipating guest needs. The high number of new market entrants has been particularly disruptive, driving unprecedented advances as well as fragmentation and complexities. Many technology developers are so caught up with innovation that they lose focus on the end result, which is ultimately to give guests what they really want. 

Any solution, whether it is a new PMS, CRS, or other primary system, should amplify the guest experience, as well as be able to interact seamlessly with a myriad of older systems and newer platforms alike. The overriding principle is that hoteliers and their IT partners must be prepared for a world where change is constant, customer- and context-centered data is gold—and where digital comes first.

Will there be a new entrant that can connect all the diverse technology facets of our industry in the near future? Probably not. However, when you look at true disrupters such as OYO, they exemplify a new approach which has the potential to become the new industry standard. With OYO Hotels & Homes, millions of customers globally, have access to a large and growing supply of standardized and trusted accommodation offerings at affordable and predictable prices. OYO is now a hotel brand, a technology provider, and a data collector. If OYO's strategy proves successful, their model will soon be replicated because no one wants to finish last.

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