Why does technological innovation fail in hotels?
We all are aware that technological innovation is the need of the hour in the hotel industry. But do you know why they fail?
Do you often found yourself struggling with the pressure of transforming your regular hotel into an automated hotel?
Then you are at the right place. We know Covid-19 has brought a lot of changes in the industry that we were not expecting shortly.
But instead of being pessimistic about the situation, we must go with the flow.
By this, I mean we must adopt the latest technologies to fulfil the needs and demands of hotel guests and improve sales and operations.
But, before implementing these changes, we must take care of a few things.
Thereupon, we do not fail. Many hotels experience barriers in implementing innovation, and few fail to execute them successfully.
Hence, let’s have a look into the reasons for technological innovation failure in the hotel industry:
Not looking for the solution
It is necessary to adopt technologies but prioritising new technology while ignoring the real issues is the reason for innovation failure.
Adopting new technologies is necessary if you want to develop innovation processes or even new kinds of products.
But often, new technology is prioritized over the real goals behind using it.
For instance, your hotel adopts new technology to provide mobile check-in.
But the guests still have to stand in a queue at the front desk and complete additional procedures to obtain the key.
The real goal hotel must keep here to not bother guests to stand in queue and allow them to quickly check into their room.
This is an operation failure. Hence, reexamine the operating practices before implementing new technology.
Insufficient training
Initial training of staff is a must. Hence, prepare a proper schedule and take out necessary time and expenses in the training of staff.
Segment the training schedule according to the staff position across each installed technology.
You can choose to provide training to staff in any of the following manner which suits you both the best.
There are mainly three types of training formats: on-site, classroom and online training.
On-site training: It is the basic training method in which a representative conducts group training on the hospitality premises.
Here, they will teach about the functionality of the technology hotel is installing and all other necessary stuff like how to use them.
Classroom training: In this representative conduct regular classes on scheduled time.
It offers general educational training of widely adopted applications.
Online training: As the name suggests, this training is conducted online(through an internet connection).
The motive of this is to familiarize the staff with technologies hotels will implement shortly.
Without proper training, failure is inevitable.
Benchmarking
It means setting standard outcomes, which determine the implementation of the technology is successful or not.
Hoteliers have to set a definite standard to avoid confusion.
It will give clarity about the successful implementation of the innovative technology.
Do not only rely on financial metrics to know its worthiness.
For instance, relying on the profits in comparison to the expenses incurred in installation and implementation of the technology.
These financial metrics we can measure.
But the actual success in the use of technological innovation is only determined when we know the success of intangibles that are difficult to measure.
For instance, improvement in staff productivity.
Common questions that show the success of both financial matrices and intangible measures.
For instance, Has property gained a competitive advantage as a result of the application? Has it reduced the workload of staff? and so on.
Poor scalability
Scalability refers to the ability to adapt performance in response to changes in application and demands.
It determines efficiency, quality and competitiveness.
Assuming that one size will fit everything is a mistake. In the hotel industry, every hotel has different occupancy.
Hence, thinking that if something works for a 5-star hotel does not necessarily mean it fits in a resort also.
Hence, these kinds of assumptions will lead to technological adoption failing.
Because the performance and the handling capacity turns out to be poor.
Hence, install and implement an application that can handle a high volume of workload and expand as per demands.
The demands include processing, system resources and database access.
Flaw in budgeting
By proper budgeting, management has money in hand for future emergencies.
Moreover, they can use money properly to reach their goals and make better financial decisions.
Hotel managers have a habit of focusing on technology only when it fails or when situations demand quick action.
If an innovation project isn’t adequately funded to bring together teams, discuss ideas, do quality testing, and so on, it will fail.
Only focusing on technology and ignoring its impact on staff, employees and guests cause failure.
Several times relevance of initial training, ongoing training, and programmatic retraining are undervalued.
Thus, making it more difficult to meet the goals and targets of the hotel.
Hence, to properly budget, plan and set aside money in the annual budget for maintenance and growth projects.
It will not reduce opportunities for revenue inflows.
Conclusion
Deploying new technological innovation with the intention to improve sales, operations and guests expectations will not always work in our favour.
Many times it happens that we deploy innovative technology to get abundant results but the opposite happens.
We fail misreably. Hence, to avoid that always consider few things before implementing new technologies.
Firstly, plan your budget and scalability not only by looking at the financial outcomes but also at the intangible measures.
Benchmark a standard outcome to determine the implementation of the technology is successful or not.
Provide valuable training to staff and provide relevant materials to them in training programs.
Last but not least always look for the solution. For this reexamine the operating practices before implementing new technology.
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