The second edition of this new travelling event has been a success in terms of participation and organisation. Creating mini congresses that tour the main tourist destinations in the country is, without a doubt, a great success on the part of David Val and his team at TecnoHotel.
The new proposal from the TecnoHotel team led by the tireless David Val is intelligent and simple. Hoteliers cannot always travel to attend congresses, they are not always organised nearby and this means that many of them miss the opportunity to have contact with professionals and technology companies with which to improve their business.
This is the origin of the idea of creating TecnoHotel OnTour, an itinerant event that travels to different cities in Spain to hold educational conferences where professionals can improve their knowledge to boost sales and improve the management of their hotels. The aim is to bring together leading voices and professionals in the sector to share their knowledge through presentations and round tables.
After a first event in Malaga, TecnoHotel OnTour moved to Mallorca on 21 September. Innovation, revenue management, distribution and direct sales, marketing, artificial intelligence and the main management tool in a hotel, the PMS, were the topics covered by the experts who took part in three presentations and two round tables.
The event began with a presentation by David Val , who took advantage of the first few minutes to talk to Pedro Marín, president of the Playa de Palma Hotel Association, and María José Aguiló, executive vice-president of FEHM. During the interview they talked about the increasingly difficult search for talent in tourist destinations such as Mallorca, the demonisation of the profession and consequently the difficulty of finding staff, the imbalance between the hotel offer and the services offered by the administration, the change in the profile of the tourist visiting Mallorca and the different rhythms in the digital transformation of hotel companies.
The first debate "Beyond touroperation: Exploring revenue management in holiday hotels" focused on revenue management and how technology has revolutionised this important aspect of hotel sales. The disparity of prices we find in the market, the importance of the destination, segmentation and data, and how an RMS can help us, were the main aspects that were discussed.
"Google Analytics 4, cookies and conversions" was the first presentation that focused on marketing. José María Ramón from Neobookings talked about how to use the new version of Google's programme and the importance of measuring the data we obtain through it.
Artificial intelligence also had a space in the day, thanks to the presentation "The new era of direct bookings and omnichannel service with ChatGPT", in which Antonio Hidalgo from Asksuite shed some light on the irruption of AI in the day-to-day running of a hotel.
A lively coffee break gave way to the last two presentations. Rebeca Rubio from SiteMinder addressed the topic: "Monetising guest engagement: how to turn communication into revenue", in which she talked about the importance of communicating with our customers and how this relationship ends up being beneficial for the business.
The last presentation of the day was more technically oriented. " Digitalisation and sustainability in hotels as an aid to profitability" by Sebastià Videla from QuoHotel, who explained how the use of technology and the automation of processes contribute to the sustainability of the hotel, for example, in saving the use of paper.
GuestPro at the PMS's table
To close TecnoHotel OnTour Mallorca, the panel discussion "Maximise the profitability of your hotel: How the PMS helps to optimise processes and reduce costs" allowed GuestPro to explain what our PMS is like, what our vision is and how we are committed to a model that is different from other proposals on the market. Xavier Pallicer, our CEO, participated together with Tommaso Tiberi from Mews and Echeday Medina from Noray in this round table discussion moderated by Tomeu Fiol, Global Hotel Technologies Director at Meliá Hotels International.
"An interface that is self-explanatory, intuitive and very natural and that the user already understands it and does not have to think too much to use it", this is how Pallicer defended GuestPro' s commitment to avoid large training processes with the staff. A tendency to make it natural with the necessary training and manuals but always seeking to ensure that the staff managing the hotel hardly need to consult them.
Pallicer also explained that one of the objectives of GuestPro is to save work and time for the hotel staff in terms of management and operations so that they can dedicate it to other aspects and to their guests. The fact that the client can carry out processes such as check in and check out, modify their reservation or add upgrades, request an invoice or directly make a review, will also simplify the day-to-day work at reception.
The round table ended with the topic of costs, in which the three participants agreed on the "cost per room", the need to analyse what the hotel needs when facing a change of PMS and the importance of facilitating integrations. In this sense, Xavier Pallicer explained that at GuestPro we are committed to native integration, our PMS is based on a hotel vertical with online check in and billing management to which the best specialists that the client requests can be integrated. Partners with whom we work looking for the balance required by each business.
The day ended in the lounge of the Hotel Playa Golf Mallorca in a lively cocktail with plenty of space for networking and with a great desire to repeat this kind of experiences that help to bring technology closer to those who use it in their day to day.
