Dubai: Enter a room at a large international hotel chain in the UAE and you are likely to see a paper in-room directory next to a clunky phone. Hotel companies are lagging in implementing technologies in their properties, putting them at risk of losing market share, according to industry analysts.
“We don’t see hotel operators deploying any technology that is significant in terms of enhancing the guest experience. They have not made a strategic decision to integrate technology in their processors, like ordering room service and changing rooms,” said Chiheb Ben Mahmoud, executive vice president and head of hotels and hospitality for the Middle East and Africa at real estate consultancy, JLL.
For many years, all that holidaymakers wanted was a comfortable clean bed in a reasonably priced place that is well-located. But now, as people become tech-savvy, they expect to find the same gadgets in their homes in their hotel rooms. Travellers who stay at chains such as Marriott, Sheraton and Holiday Inn may find that the technologies they have at home are better.
“Ordinary people’s home living rooms are often technologically more enabled than hotel lobbies, restaurant and bedrooms. This should be a major cause for concern,” Ben Mahmoud said.
Hotels’ slow adoption of technology is mainly due to fears of hacking, he said.
“Hacking issues that happen from time to time in other services, [such as] financial services and health care, do not incentivize hotel operators to take the plunge, especially that they are under watch of the stock market,” he said.
Homegrown hotel operators, such as Jumeirah and The Address Hotels and Resorts, are ahead of large chains in integrating technology in guests’ hotel experience, he said.
“The emerging local operators are moving quicker in terms of online check-in. The spectrum of services that are possible are much wider, whether that’s ordering food using an iPad or having an app for checking in. They have an advantage because the security issue is more manageable since they have a smaller footprint,” he said.
Digital check-in
It was only in November last year that US-based chain Starwood Hotels and Resorts launched its mobile keyless entry system, SPG Keyless, which was rolled out across its Aloft, Element and W Hotels brands in select countries, including Qatar. It is expected to reach more markets in the early part of 2015.
Hilton Worldwide, another US-based chain, took a similar approach later that year. It launched its digital check-in and room selection technology, enabling customers to check-in and choose their rooms from digital floor plans or lists on their desktop or mobile devices. The technology is available across 16 of Hilton’s 19 UAE hotels, and is anticipated to reach the remaining properties this year.
“Hotels operated within the IHG [InterContinental Hotels Group], Starwood, Hilton and Marriott portfolios rapidly introduced mobile check in and check out while regional brands such as Jumeirah and Rotana matched the international brands, rolling out their own mobile solutions,” said Jeff Strachan, general manager at Insights Management Consultancy, a business consultancy with a focus on the tourism, hospitality and service industries.
Independent hotels are taking longer to launch mobile technologies.
“There are smaller groups and independent hotels who struggle to make the investments required to build the platforms to operate mobile concierge services,” Strachan said.
Ben Mahmoud said that large chains located in other markets are at par with UAE hotels in implementing technologies.
“Dubai as a destination is not marketed as a ‘high tech e-destination’. The Dubai brand is still to a large extent based on friendly human touch and service availability and pampering. It should be noted that this is not specific to Dubai hotels but is common to hospitality worldwide. Performance of all these operators lag behind in technology regardless of location,” he said.
He expects hotels’ slow adoption of technology to continue this year.
“I see no signs, or very slow or limited advances, in embracing technology in hotels in general,” he said.
