It was a great HITEC event this year – attendees and exhibitors alike were all talking about the high energy and high attendance of the show held in Charlotte, North Carolina last week. Nearly 6000 attendees and 325+ exhibitors filled the Charlotte Convention Center to focus on all things hospitality tech.
Factors Converging for Tech Adoption
The wide-spread interest from hoteliers to embrace technology and use it to enhance both the front of house guest experience and back of house operations is clear. Multiple factors seem to be converging and driving this focus on technology including the pandemic accelerated prioritization of tech, labor shortages across the industry, and the current stage of technological development and adoption.
As Frank Wolfe, CEO of HFTP pointed out in his article, “It’s Never Been Better for Investment in the Hotel Technology Industry,” many hotel companies are now past the preliminary stages of migration to cloud technology, making it much easier for companies to extract and migrate their data so that they can focus on building their ideal tech stack.
Themes of Tech Consolidation
The desire for tech stack consolidation and streamlining was one of the themes observed by the Hotel Investor Apps (HIA) team at HITEC Charlotte.
“More and more hoteliers are seeking us out because of our ERP technology that can consolidate the functionality of multiple software into one,” noted Chris Hall, EVP of Sales for HIA. “They see the value in one system of record that integrates easily with others due to our Open API, and the benefit of business intelligence tied directly into the accounting and financial management system.”
The Buzz Around AI
Another major theme buzzing around HITEC this year was AI, and how it can be harnessed to really be of concrete use to hoteliers. As noted by David Eisen in his Hotels Magazine article, “At HITEC Generative AI was Everywhere and Nowhere,” many tech forward companies are adding a layer of AI to their products to make them even more effective.
This is true of Hotel Investor Apps, where AI is used in multiple ways to detect anomalies, reduce errors, and streamline processes in hotel accounting. See this recent article “Unleashing the Power of AI for Hotel Accounting,” in Hotel Business magazine by HIA’s COO, Chip Fritsch.
The Right Time for Technology
“It’s an exciting time in the industry,” observed Hall, “Technology is creating cost efficiencies, reducing manual labor, and providing greater financial accuracy and insights. We at Hotel Investor Apps are excited that our ERP & Accounting system is enabling our customers to streamline processes, reduce manual labor, and through that, elevate employees.”
For more on how HIA can reduce manual labor and help elevate employees, read this case study on Lark Hotels.
Ready to see HIA in action? Request a demo today.
Director of Marketing at HIA
Elisa Fritsch, Director of Marketing at HIA, contributes 15 years of diverse sales and marketing experience from corporate to start-up environments. In the hospitality sector, she managed B2B marketing for notable companies like Choice Hotels International and Kalibri Labs. At HIA, Elisa focuses on inbound and content marketing, leveraging her industry knowledge to drive growth.
