Technology is consolidating its position as an essential ally in the recovery of tourism.
Five technology companies took part in the first Hotel Tech Summit in Valencia on Thursday 7 October. The centrally located Ateneo Mercantil hosted this new generation meeting combining the latest trends in hotel technology with a classic and "analogue" environment.
The event, through its five speakers, presented the keys to how technology can help tourism recovery and how it has become an accelerator for business in recent years.
Technology as a response, especially after a pandemic that has left the tourism sector mortally wounded and which is now seeing how recovery is slowly arriving. But also to accompany companies in the digitalisation processes, to provide them with the essential training for change and, finally, to provide them with the software they need to carry out the transformation.
Miguel Hita from Fideltour was the first to present his customer loyalty platform. A CRM designed especially for the travel sector that accompanies the customer in their contact management with guests from the origin to their post-stay. The objective is to offer the possibility of creating a personalised loyalty club to interact with the client and compete with the OTAs in sales and guest relations.
Javier Quesada from FlexMyRoom spoke about this Benidorm-based start-up that is dedicated to including travel insurance in bookings and covering the risk at the destination. Its aim is to reduce cancellations by adding value to the hotel proposal through a flexible rate, which responds to the trend of cancellations, short-term and non-refundable bookings that has taken hold in the sector after the pandemic.
Roibos is a new distribution channel that started its trajectory a few days after the closure by COVID-19 in March 2020. Rebeca Artidiello told how they are revolutionising B2B distribution by giving total control to the hotelier. They provide the technology with no implementation cost in an automated service that allows the hotelier to distribute their rooms in a unified way. "We are a global brand that acts globally, proving it is easy and at no cost," said Artidiello.
Xavier López of Eisisoft took a look at the evolution of tourism management to give the keys to how to help the digital transformation of the hotel sector. López is very clear: consultancy, training and software; three basic elements that go hand in hand to ensure technological transformation. Eisisoft is contributing to this change with a technology that digitises hotel operations by centralising all services in a single dashboard.
The host of the event, GuestPro, with its CEO Xavier Pallicer, brought the presentations to a close. Its new generation PMS "helps the hotelier to automate and be more competitive; from booking to billing, without doing anything else". Its 360º in cloud platform is a clear example of how technology can help the tourism sector to overcome "the chaos of the last two years", with a technological tool that helps the hotelier and allows him to be reactive throughout the guest journey.
The event closed with a brief talk on issues such as sustainability or incidents in virtual POS payments and a networking space for those attending the event, where the recovery and growth of the hotel sector were the focus of the conversations.
