PredictioPre

My most unique prophecy is that somehow it will be the year when hoteliers will be battling between legacy technology and significant new innovations. The utopia of an entirely digitally connected operation and seamless customer journey will not yet be achieved.

However, Innovation will accelerate in what we can call narrow areas. For example, upselling will get more and more sophisticated but will still not be part of the whole journey in a smooth way. The RMS's will improve and connect other data points, such as ancillary spending, but it will remain rudimentary as data is still very fragmented.

We will become more customer-centric, but we will lack the data to balance being customer-centric vs. inventory centric. Or BI will become better and better but will only focus on one aspect of the business. For Example, the Commercial discipline. However, steps are made to empower more departments.

Somehow it could seem like a limbo area where Innovation clashes with hard legacy. But true next-curve Innovation will happen at some point. Just maybe not in 2023. for this to happen, it can come only through collaboration and an open spirit. We need better APIs and more tech companies working together. We need to open up. We will see the first signs of this, which is encouraging. But not the point where all silos will be eliminated, and everything runs like magic will not be yet there.

But the ingredients for true Innovation are coming together. I always use the analogy of Uber. For Uber to come to life, many disparate innovations had to happen: Mobile phones, Precise geolocalisation, Strong AI, and Online payments. Once these were mature enough and converged, UBER was born. 

We are also there in hospitality. The ingredients are coming together. the dish does not yet taste that good. But we are close. The future is very bright and will come faster than we think.