Cloud Series: Cloud for Hospitality

The cloud has transformed the hospitality industry in ways that has mutually benefited the guest's experience and hotelier's operations. Now, guests are able to check-in, order services, and check-out with their mobile device without the need to speak to another human. The cloud's Software as a Service (SaaS) has provided ways for customer's front facing experience to be seamless and customized. It also enables hoteliers to restructure their costs by enabling the movement of these initial capital expenses of on-premises hardware to operational expenses. Hoteliers can utilize the "pay-as-you-go" cost structure offered by cloud SaaS, providing a way to select the right storage capacity and computing power that best fits their business needs. As the cloud platforms keep their systems updated, gone are the days where hoteliers would go through the expensive pain of keeping their on-premises hardware modernized.

The guest's experience is enhanced. If you've stayed at a hotel in the previous number of years, you'd notice control of your entire stay with the use of your mobile device. Whether by app or by website, you can conduct your stay at your convenience without the need for human contact. Contactless is still a rising need demanded by guests two years after the global pandemic's start. And with customer's growing more demanding, their preferences and behaviors can be stored and analyzed in the cloud to provide a better tailored experience. Insights can be gained from analyzing how customers interact with hotel services from spas to room service in order to make their trip more personalized the next time they stay. The modern traveler expects to have connectivity and ease of access at their own convenience.

Where the hospitality industry also saw tremendous value is the cloud's remote data storage capabilities. Especially, during the pandemic. As remote work spurred in industries, companies were looking to provide secure access to conduct inventory management, order-processing, and human resources. Hoteliers expect their data safe and with cloud offering enterprise-class firewall capability, cyber threat mitigation and disaster recovery are features that are part of the cloud package. These features are just ways that hoteliers can customize their cloud bundles to best fit their business needs and to scale at will to gain a competitive advantage in a market with a modernized customer base.

These are two brief snapshots on how cloud SaaS has transformed the hospitality industry. Hoteliers are looking to stay profitable while meeting the growing demands of customers, and the cloud offers solutions to cater for their guest's needs while reducing costs.