The history of technology in the hospitality industry
Over the course of the past 70 years, technology has slowly but surely become an essential tool in the day-to-day operations of hospitality businesses worldwide. The evolution of technology since the mid-half of the last century, has taken the industry to another level.
It all began in the 1950’s, with the advent of the Central Reservation Systems (CRS). Properties using CRS were all of a sudden, able to reach multiple distribution systems.
This was followed by the development of the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) in the early 1960’s. GDSs automated the marketing, sales, and distribution needs of the global travel industry.
Property Management Systems (PMS) began making its appearance in the 1970’s. What PMSs did was to automate functions such as guest bookings/reservations and check-ins, identify the origin of the sale including a host of other data to simplify the job of the front office employees.
Not to be left out, further research and development in the 1980’s, resulted in the introduction of Revenue Management Systems (RMS), which, using complex algorithms analysed customer demand, optimized inventory and price availability while maximizing revenue growth. RMSs developed pricing strategies by auto-regulating the sale of products to the customer – at the right time, at the right price and through any distribution channel. It even factored in the weather.
The 1990’s saw several ‘players’ entering the arena, namely, Channel Managers (early 1990’s) who oversaw the transmission of property rates and room availabilities to numerous distribution channels. The emergence of Online Travel Agencies in the mid-1990 was a ‘game changer’. OTA’s as they became to be popularly known, quickly began to challenge the traditional ‘brick and mortar’ travel operations. Whilst they brought in an impersonal touch, they helped consumers find and book competitively priced hotel rooms online. The internet of things by now killed off many high street travel agents. By late 1990, Search Engines reinforced that ‘goggling’ was now a way of life – especially for those wishing to book hotels when planning to travel.
At the turn of the twenty first century, Metasearch Engines enabled the pooling of results from an individual search – to provide the user an enhanced picture of results available on the internet. Although we have come a long way in terms of design, usability, and overall performance, we are currently in what one might term the ‘first generation’ of search engines. What would the second and next generation look like? Time will tell.
In 1860 the electric light was invented. It took another 20 years for the first hotel to offer electricity in rooms. Running hot water became a thing in the early 1900’s and yet… it took 15 years for hot water to first flow in hotels. The history of the hotel industry adapting to technology has shown it to be one that is extremely ‘laid-back’-often looking at it as CAPEX expenditure to be pushed back or avoided. Unlike the hotel industry, the travel sector embraced technology much faster. Take airlines, many of which allowed passengers to select their seat and check-in online and access their boarding pass on mobile.
COVID-19 has forced hotels to technologically leap almost 10 years ahead in a matter of months. Some of the tech now deemed ‘must have’, such as going contactless including self check-in kiosks and keyless entry were already there for some time. The scramble to get ahead is now on…
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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