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Hospitality Overview
When we look inside the hospitality industry, we can see two big cornerstones working hard to provide a memorable experience for guests: the owner and hotel staff, and there is a great opportunity for the IT department to improve the way they cater to their internal guests.
The first cornerstone is the owner, who supports the property. This is where we can see how substantially technology is transforming hotels today. Examples include online check-in and check-out; the ability to use your mobile device to open doors, book a restaurant, make room service requests (for example, request personal items or report any issues in the room), and more.
The second cornerstone is the hotel staff, which includes LEDCO, directors, managers, supervisors, and all colleagues who work internally on the property. When we consider all the areas that support guests in hospitality, the main goal of the environment is to ensure that guests receive the best experience during their stays, from the moment they arrive, stay, leave, and even after their experience. This goal is achieved through frequent training for all staff and the provision of the latest technology to support operations.
In the recent scenario of the pandemic, we have seen how adaptable the hospitality industry can be in replacing the way services are provided. Procedures such as the use of masks, face shields, gloves, disinfection with blue light, and others were quickly put in place to guarantee the operation and a safe environment for our guests and colleagues. In addition, we have been observing the increase in home offices in the hospitality industry to adapt to the new scenery. According to the United States Census, between 2019 and 2021, the number of people working primarily from home tripled from 5.7 percent (approximately 9 million people) to 17.9 percent (27 million people). This is a trend for all markets and industries, and technology has been an essential tool to make it happen.
When we consider the perspective of the IT department, we can see how many procedures are necessary to be in place to support and ensure that the company follows the best practices and that both guests and colleagues have a safe environment. Therefore, there is an opportunity for the department to improve how we care for the back of the house. While we focus on attending to the company's guests, it is equally important to support the internal team. This presents a great chance for us to see how we can care for our colleagues and provide them with the same level of service we provide for guests. We must keep in mind that we must take care of those who care for the company's guests.
While we can appreciate the beauty of the decoration, property design, great location, and politeness of the staff, we also need to examine the IT environment. We need to check the service level agreement (SLA) for supporting internal requests, how the main distribution frame (MDF) and intermediate distribution frame (IDF) are organized, how the IT team delivers their support, and how we can improve. This way, we can continue to make exponential progress in the technological area, adding more and more support for the internal team and guests, ultimately achieving our objective of helping them be their best.
Edson Silva is the Director of Information Technology at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, SPA, and Casino. He is responsible for ensuring that all areas of the hotel are supported with proper solutions in accordance with brand standards and meet internal and external audit, MOR (Management Operations Review), PCI (Payment Card Industry), and other hospitality and IT security demands. With over 15 years of experience in the technology area, including 7 hotel openings, Edson has used technology to support and care for people in a way that helps them be their best.
