Technology
Aiming for the
‘ digitAl nAturAl ’
Contributed by Fergus Boyd , vice president , digital and it , yotel , london
W hen I came into the hotel world about two years ago , the first thing I noticed was how backward IT and digital thinking was in the hospitality sector compared to my previous fast-moving , innovative world of airlines .
I think in a lot of cases hotels are half to one generation behind airline thinking , but even airlines are half to one generation behind retail . Retail is the fastest-growing e-commerce sector because of the amount of competition in that world . The hospitality industry is more fragmented than airlines , and OTAs understandably have taken advantage of this .
I totally salute the amazing marketing and IT prowess of the big OTA players , and it is them we look up to for best practice digital and IT experience in hospitality , not hotels . One challenge
September 2016 hotelsmag . com 51