Does IT provide a strategic advantage?
C-SUITE World Panel
— 13 C-Suite executives shared their view



President & CEO, Radisson Hospitality AB
IT is one of the most critical departments of our company as information technology is where the business, innovation and technology come together to create a competitive advantage. Our entire business is customer-centric. And our IT structure and architecture are there to bring meaningful value to all our customers, be it either families who are on holiday and want to enjoy the experience of staying in a hotel, business travelers, the owners of our hotels, travel agencies or even our employees. see more

COO and Founding Partner at citizenM
Tech today enables our personal and professional lives… it allows us to be efficient, timely, data factual and more. Tech development has reached significant speed and specialization is needed to be guided or make the right calls. see more

Founder and Partner of CityHub
At the moment, IT in hospitality is still in its early stages of development. Tech products are increasingly considered to be at the basis of a guest-oriented and modern hotel experience. Due to the high demand of specific tech products for the hospitality industry, a growing number of tech service providers are offering ways to directly increase revenue or create a more seamless experience. Many hotels are slowly starting to implement these systems, which has begun to bear fruit. see more

Group Chief Technology and Product Officer, OYO Hotels & Homes
The Hospitality Industry is betting big on technology right from enhancing the customer experience to efficient operations, cost-effective budgets, improved services and more. The role of Information Technology in enabling the identification of breakthroughs and setting of benchmarks in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry over the last decade is tremendous. see more

CEO of North & Central America at Accor
Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic. - Arthur C. Clarke (Author) - This is a great descriptor of the guest experience when technology is seamless pre, during and post the stay experience. Seamless IT capabilities have become the expectation of our industry, and this applies to both our guests and our colleagues. It could be as simple as the demand for wifi in the guest room, or a real time weekly work schedule for colleagues on their device, and it definitely applies to much more complex IT projects like global guest personalization. see more

CEO at Viceroy Hotel Group
Technology plays a big role in the hospitality management industry for guests, management teams and staff. Technology helps process and speed up operations, which has a direct effect on guest satisfaction. Hotel Brands need to be aware of new technological capabilities and keep up with ever-evolving customer needs. Otherwise, they will find themselves quickly outpaced by the competition. see more

Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Hotels & Resorts, Middle East and Africa
The hospitality industry has been slower than many to embrace technology, but it is quickly catching up, based on the realisation that in today's digital world, IT solutions should be entrenched in every aspect of our business. In this respect, IT can no longer exist as an isolated department - savvy hospitality companies should be taking a holistic approach, with IT built into the structure of every department and seamlessly connecting each. see more

Chief Executive Officer at NH Hotel Group
Nowadays IT is highly strategic for all industries, including hospitality – where the role of technology has grown significantly in the past decade. During the past few years, NH Hotel Group has made a relevant investment in technology, avoiding the archetypal IT approach that combines multiple systems and integrations that imply high maintenance costs, lack of flexibility, low quality of information, and inverse economies of scale. see more

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Deutsche Hospitality
The days when IT was a supporting actor are long gone. Technology is a decisive strategic factor at so many levels that it goes without saying that the IT department is a key player in our company. Digital touchpoints influence the way guests and potential guests experience our brands, smart solutions enable operations to be cost-effective and energy-efficient. Technology is our daily business and it keeps changing at a fast pace with new opportunities and applications offering new potentials and experiences. More than 50 percent of our bookings are made online and our guests expect the same digital convenience at every touchpoint. see more

Chief Executive Officer of the Kempinski Group
The evolving technology landscape provides tremendous opportunities for companies to differentiate from its competitors, but achieving this requires a holistic approach, positioning the Information Technology department as a strategic discipline. see more

Chief Executive Officer at Dream Hotel Group
Consumers today are more connected than ever, and that doesn't change when they travel. As such, information technology (IT) has certainly moved up to the forefront in our organization over the last few years. It touches almost every discipline, and elements of technology are part of every new initiative. Just the changes in PCI compliance and GDPR alone need their own legal and IT teams! Though technology is not one of my strong suits, I have forced myself to get involved and understand the issues affecting IT, especially when it affects other departments like Operations, Revenue Management, Marketing and Legal. I only see this involvement growing over the foreseeable future as information and technology continue to shape our world.

CEO of Kerten Hospitality
“Technological advancement is at the heart of the personalized journey guests and travelers demand today and is at the core of all hospitality verticals who live by Big Data. For Kerten Hospitality, adopting the next generation technology is the secret to our disruptive vision and goes beyond Big Data to bring the “soft touch” and human element back into the hospitality space by focusing on the use of data and not on the data collection. see more

CEO, InTown Suites and Uptown Suites
Absolutely yes. Keep in mind, tech architecture needs to be thought through in advance and needs to be woven into the customer journey and all things in the backend that allow for seamless delivery of operations. A disjointed tech architecture will fail and increase costs. see more