International Hotel Technology Forum 2021

• From housekeeping to check in: understanding the potential of robots in hospitality
• How might guests react to robots, and how will this impact employees?
• Reality check: in what timeframe will this transformation take place?
• Keeping the human touch present during this time of change

• Legacy systems, new technologies and skillsets: what must be considered when preparing to digitalise processes, and what challenges might hoteliers face?
• Automating internal processes: which tasks are best suited to be automated and why?
• Saving costs, improving margins: which new technologies have the best ROI and why?

Differentiation through digitalisation of ancilliaries (TUI Blue / Robinson Club)
What will change with digitalisation and AI – scenarios for the leisure industry
A strategy for growth and substainable profitability – using deep reinforcment learning models in practise to optimize yield, distribution cost and channels

For the last 40 years, the PMS was the leading system in a hotel IT landscape. But the world has changed and a new environment is needed to fulfill the needs of a modern hotel management.

• There are many technology features that need to be united in digitalized hotel set-up
• Ever changing technical requirements need to be considered, new additional tools integrated and processes streamlined
• And the huge amount of available data needs to be handled, sorted and used for analysis and constant improvements of services and processes

• Working with OTAs: getting the most out of these platforms to improve the hotel’s marketing reach
• Driving traffic directly to hotel sites: how can this be achieved in today’s crowded distribution landscape?
• Developing fruitful loyalty programmes for guests
• Strengthening partnerships with third parties to increase bookings and profitability

A high-performance, fail-safe and redundant infrastructure as key to success: In order to manage digitalisation projects, a suitable foundation in form of a network architecture is mandatory. Together with B&B Hotels, m3connect has built this foundation to support B&B in their growth strategy.

• Which requirements should a future-proof and scalable network fulfil?
• How can a managed SDWAN solution be integrated?
• How can digital applications be integrated in a centralized manner?

Listen to Three short presentations from businesses in the hospitality sector, bringing to light exciting tools and innovations

13:35pm –  Round 1: Must Watch: IoT Driven Access Technology – Your Guide To A Successful Digital Transformation –Serge De Klerk, Chief Marketing Officer, 4Suites

13:45pm – Round 2: Save Costs by Modernising MICE and Group Sales – #1 proposal tool for hotels – Joost Doevendans, Head of Sales at Proposales

13:55pm – Round 3: Contactless Check-In: Learn how Dream Hotel Group has saved front desk time, increased revenue, and reduced fraud, Harman Narula, Principal, Canary Technologies

A new hospitality market is taking shape as we speak. Power is shifting between distributors, operators and consumers, and walls are broken down between previous silos that suddenly compete for the same loyalty with whole new business models and hybrid user experiences. What role do we take in shaping it? How can we shape the future without losing focus on the present?

• Presenting what digital transformation means and how to leverage hidden data
• Identifying which core systems store data to best utilize this
• Unlocking valuable data through the adoption of cloud technology to streamline processes
• Showcasing TUI Hotels & Resorts achievements to share practical advice

This session:

• Introduce the first ever global benchmark for travel risk management scheduled for launch by ISO this summer
• Explore a growing security risk for the hotel industry (and other many other sectors) – the use of false identity and identity documentation.

Our first keynote will take you through the latest developments in the technology space in the hotel industry and look at the exciting work and projects within guest experiences. The session will address and cover the following points:

• Assessing the opportunities, the current pandemic has introduced to guest experience
• How AI and Robotic interface can evolve the current framework of guest interactions
• Why short term investment can bring long term gains for both guests and staff

• Why is the contactless guest experience the way forward?
• How can going digital increase my hotel’s service level?
• Experience shows: What are the true benefits of a mobile guest journey?

• The leap to digital: making back-office digitalisation a priority along-side guest experience
• Utilizing advanced data analytics to enrich guest profiles and improve experience
• Giving staff the right digital tools to improve guest experience

• Trends and restrictions vs reality
• Increase revenue and decrease costs
• Guest-hotel interaction during the stay

• From mobility to speed: what do guests expect from hotels today and how will this evolve?
• A cyclical journey: enhancing customer journeys to keep guests on-side
• Creating the ultimate hotel experience: seamless and personal CX
• Investing in technologies with a clear goal in mind: ensuring ROI for the business
• Data is the new oil: harnessing the power of data to improve profitability and engagement
• Investing in staff: keeping employees on-side to champion corporate goals and deliver seamless services

• Digital payments in hotels – the why, what and how
• Meet Lara on her journey to a hotel in Barcelona
• It’s all about data

Listen to Three short presentations from businesses in the hospitality sector, bringing to light exciting tools and innovations

1. Round 1: Effortless Revenue Driver – Automated Digital Upselling -Jos Schaap – CEO and Co-Founder, ROOMDEX Inc
2. Round 2: How to automate your housekeeping and maintenance while reducing your hotel costs: an intuitive solution for happy staff, management and guests – Isabel Cerdeira – Head of Customer Development at Hub OS
3. Round 3: Botslovers: Virtual Assistants for the hospitality industry – Patricia Tavira Muñoz , CEO, Tavira group LLC & Andrés Pulgarin is the CEO, Botslovers

• Discussing how hotels can manage 3rd party booking partners to reduce overall cost
• Addressing the rising cost of guest acquisition across the hotel industry
• Utilising NetRevPar data to determine sales and marketing spend to be allocated
• Sharing the Pandox case study and best practice to build and implement across hotel chains

• Identifying whether new technology offerings within a crowded market address your main challenges as a hotelier
• Distinguishing the benefits of working with start-ups to get access to new technologies that offer a unique product offering
• Ensuring start-ups are able to deliver with a minimal track record as opposed to larger companies with proven delivery results
• Prioritising technologies that allow for easy integration of different platforms to maximize communication and efficiency on the back end

We might not be able to meet in person, but that won’t stop us from gathering for a reunion to remember. After the program join Oaky’s IHTF  afterparty and meet your colleagues and industry peers to chat and clink glasses in a new virtual destination!

View more info here: http://spatial.chat/s/ihtf-oaky-afterparty