Hotel Operational Management

Investment in hotel operational management focusses mainly on two major objectives: on the one hand, achieving a significant improvement in processes and on the other, establishing various strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

According to studies analysing the projection of Spanish hotels over the next few years, it is expected that they will increase their investment in technology by €18,000 for each of their establishments.

Of this, 48% of the budget will be invested in new applications which will have an implementation time of less than 24 months.

The following points will analyse this data in detail.

Reasons for hotels to increase their investment in operational management

There are two main reasons for a hotel to decide to invest in new technology: on the one hand, to optimize processes (around 31%) and also to differentiate themselves from the rest of their competitors (29%).

The remaining reasons have to do with the establishment of cross selling, upselling or loyalty schemes (21%), as well as strategies relating to the development and growth of corporate areas (15%).

It has been calculated that three out of ten hotel chains believe that they should implement technological improvements that will help them improve efficiency by optimising their processes, enabling them to give better customer service, to achieve employee satisfaction and in general, to run the business much more efficiently. Unfortunately, only one out of ten hotels has an operational management or planning solution that can make the most of its business potential.

What obstacles are hotels faced with when investing in technological operational management?

Some 63% of chains surveyed state that the most important obstacle they have to face is implementation and maintenance costs, followed by the problems encountered when starting an employee training scheme (so that they are able to use the tools correctly). The third obstacle they encounter is how to overcome the difficulty some customers find in using these tools, as well as the added value they contribute to the experience.

Elaborating a little further on amounts to be invested, we find that 71% of hotel chains expect to invest more than €10,000 per year, 44% plan to invest between €10,000 and €20,000, 15% will make an investment between €20,000 and €50,000 and finally, only 12% plan to make an investment in excess of €50,000.

Regarding the average time envisaged to make these changes, it is not usually more than five years, although a significant percentage (48%) wish to make this investment in less than two years.