• Sivaprasad Gangadharan - Chief Sales Officer - Hotelogix   

The hospitality industry had a great year in 2023, with hotels of all categories seeing improved occupancy rates. From 2022 to 2023, the value of the market increased from $4,390.59 billion to $4,699.57 billion at a CAGR of 7.0%. One noticeable trend was the industry's increased use of cloud-based technology solutions. Let's look at some factors contributing to the industry's success in 2023.

Increased IT budget

Hotels have come to understand the significance of technology in the post-pandemic era. They have realized that adopting the latest and most efficient technology is crucial to survive in today's highly competitive market. With the business landscape and guest preferences evolving rapidly, it became imperative for them to invest in technology to gain a competitive edge. Due to this, hotels globally allocated around 5% of their revenue towards adopting new technologies in 2023, about a 10%-15% increase from 2022.

Improved cloud adoption

This was the most crucial shift in 2023. About 60% to 70% of independent and group hotels migrated from on-premises solutions to cloud-based property management systems. Plus, almost all newly set-up properties adopted the cloud. Reasons - to access data on the go, address labor shortage issues, improve operational efficiencies, gain better control over business processes, save cost, and drive growth.

Another significant change worth looking into is - hotel groups’ increasing interest in gaining centralized control over group-wide operations - over reservation, rate management, online distribution, etc. It also led to an increased adoption of cloud Hotel PMSs with multi-property management capabilities.

The industry also saw a tilt towards adopting AI-powered chatbots, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, loyalty programs, IoT-based solutions, etc - everything focused on improving efficiency and guest experience.

Higher occupancy and RevPAR

In 2023, the global hotel industry saw about 12%-15% more occupancy compared to 2022, with an 18%-20 % spike in average RevPAR. Thanks to many big-ticket events, including the Rugby World Cup in France, the G20 Summit, and the ICC World Cup in India, hotels saw a sharp rise in demand.

Increased focus on contactless services

There is a noticeable movement towards adopting guest-facing technology in 2023. Yes, we are talking about the adoption of contactless services, keyless entry, mobile check-in/out, mobile payment, service requests via mobile phones, etc. What led to such a shift? About 90% of guests like them, and hotels have to offer what they want.

Hotelogix has significantly improved its product lineup in line with the changing dynamics. For example, our cloud-based Hotel PMS is now available with a new look and feel powered by modern technology. This was done as, over the years, we have understood that a feature-rich yet easy-to-use system is critical for hotels to improve efficiency while reducing errors. They also need a system to work efficiently during peak-season rush hours to do more while saving time and guest experience. Most importantly, we have enhanced our Hotel PMS with contactless services. The objective here is to help hotels see more value from their IT investment in business growth, improved guest satisfaction, and increased revenue. As a technology provider and an essential stakeholder in the hospitality industry, we are optimistic about 2024. We hope it brings many successes for the industry, which has been struggling to regain its former glory for the past four years.

Source: Research And Markets

About Hotelogix

Hotelogix is a globally leading cloud-based hospitality technology solutions provider of industry-first Multi-property Management System, Hotel PMS and Mobile PMS App for independent and hotel groups. We have the remarkable feat of implementing the most extensive multi-property deployment of 50000+ rooms across 500+ properties under a single group. Through our distribution brand AxisRooms, we also offer Channel Manager and Revenue Management solutions. We have earned the trust of 5000+ hotels in 100+ countries, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, LATAM, Europe and North America. We have been instrumental in driving their growth while helping them sell more rooms at the optimum rate and serving guests better.

Hotelogix is headquartered in Singapore with offices in the USA, India, UAE, Thailand and the Philippines.