Why the hotel industry is ripe for tech innovation
As large as the hotel industry has become and as steady as it has grown over the years, the technology powering it has not kept pace. Innovation has come from companies focusing on the consumer side of travel.
Online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia have grown to become multi-billion-dollar players dominating the customer shopping experience, and many others have tried following suit, from emerging companies like HotelTonight to retail giant Amazon, which recently launched its own hotel booking portal.
That trend isn’t slowing, but it seems others are beginning to realize there is an incredible opportunity for technology innovation within the industry.
In the past 18 months, billions of dollars have been invested by a wide array of companies targeting many of the different kinds of systems hotels use to run their businesses.
These companies, many just entering the space and others doubling down on it, show that the global hotel business is massive, growing and hungry for better technology.