Why Technology is Significant in Hospitality?

Have you ever considered why we are surrounded by so much technology in hospitality? Ostensibly these efficiencies help us achieve results faster, but at what cost? I should say right now that I am a fan of technology that enhances our ability to perform and, in our company, we utilize many tech platforms. But it’s also worth exploring the balance between a surface understanding of some hospitality processes and deeper knowledge.

Technology in the hospitality space allows us to perform tasks faster and more efficiently. What once was done by hand and pencil for hours may now be done in a nanosecond utilizing an algorithm that thinks for us. And therein lies the rub. If these efficiencies will never become obsolete, then why take the time to learn and understand deeply the process and reasoning behind the solution?

Let’s take the process of making a reservation at a restaurant as an example. In the pencil and paper days, a guest would generally call the restaurant on the telephone, a reservationist, host or manager would answer the call, page through the reservation book, and record the guest reservation on the appropriate day and time - always in pencil in case changes needed to be made to the reservation later. They would gladly answer questions and gain a personal understanding of this guest’s needs or special accommodations. They would also pick up on verbal cues like nervousness about dining at a fancy restaurant or questions about the menu. These notes would be recorded on paper and passed along to their server at the time of seating. Today we may never speak to a guest until they walk in our front door, an online reservation with a name, and maybe a few notes, is all that we share with our guests at that point.

Is one of these processes better than the other? One allows us a deep understanding of our guests but requires a paid employee to sit by the phone all day and wait for the phone to ring. It also creates a difficult situation at the front door of a restaurant while guests are being seated. Even a skilled host or manager can go down in flames on a busy night faced with a handwritten book of reservations, a couple of highlighters, and a big eraser to make changes as the flow of reservations inevitably takes twists and turns throughout the evening. The process involving more technology (online reservations) creates a much easier, if less personal, experience for both the guest and the business. A guest can book an online reservation in less than 30 seconds and show up at the restaurant reasonably assuming the staff can easily identify their booking and seat them. The business has not had to pay someone to sit by the phone all day hoping to answer calls. Most likely no one had to carefully plot the room accounting for every guest and table turn for the entire night because the table management software now does that for us. And while that “transaction” with the guest may be seamless, what is lost? It can be a somewhat sterile experience for both the guest and the restaurant staff. The manager or host who used to pour over every reservation with great thought and care, calculating each table turn throughout the night, had to be paid for that time. Perhaps that intimate knowledge was the very best thing for the business. But perhaps the replacement of that time spent plotting the room would be better spent in another area of the business while the algorithm of table management for the night works quietly in the background.

I’m no economist, but the question this raises, at its basic level is, “where does the balance lie between deep, human understanding of processes and the richness that understanding can enhance the guest experience and, automation & efficiency which can provide unique business advantages”. The answer is ambiguous at best and, as with many issues we face in our industry, lies with each operator and the specific goals they are looking to achieve.