Blog
Where HotelTCS offer thoughts on the Hospitality Technology Industry, demystify the latest buzzwords and help you understand how this benefits your guest.
11th June 2020
Will Hotel Technology Ever Rule The World?
Will Hotel technology Ever Rule The World? An interesting topic that I came up with, most as a humorous, tongue in cheek look at an automated future in hotels. However, I first came up with the idea in December 2019, and planned to publish an article in March 2020. I don’t think I need to fill you in on the impact COVID19 has had on the world in that time, so of course I put this article on ice. Until now.
5th June 2020
Guest Room Entertainment Going Live!
If you’re British and a similar age to me your Saturday mornings were filled with ‘Going Live”. In this case, Going Live! was a Saturday morning TV show aimed at younger audiences. It launched the careers of household names such as Philip Schofield and provided entertainment in a pre WWW era. That’s not the Going Live I want to talk about today though.
26th May 2020
The Importance of Technology in Post COVID19 Hotel Operations
In a guest post by Frederic Van Lennep, Business Development Director MESA at IT Hospitality. In this post he gives his thoughts on Health and Safety, Technology, consumptions patterns and traveller expectation post COVID19.
12th May 2020
Hotel Technology: The Answers
Anyone who follows my personal posts on LinkedIn will have recently seen me sharing a lot of truths. This is going to continue in a similar vein, albeit focussed on Hotel Technology. The truth is, as of early May 2020, we don’t have all the answers. We may have some, but not all of them.
I talked in March about Corona Virus not stopping hotel technology. While the premise of my article was about virtual conferences, seminars and talks, Hotels as we know them, and the technology in them are now stopped for sure.
28th April 2020
Netflix in Hotels
“Netflix in hotels?” – Question number 1 in many years of designing TV systems. The drive has been lead by certain global chains, but smaller players wanted to match it as well.
Hotels have rushed to invest in Smart TV’s, support for OTT apps and content casting solutions, just so people can access their own content. The thing is when they say their own content, what they really mean is Netflix.
In 2020 though, I believe this is about to change.
21st April 2020
Sharing The Knowledge: Artificial Intelligence in Hotels
Artificial Intelligence in Hotels is the final part of our knowledge sharing series. A few weeks ago I began our knowledge sharing series with the first four articles on Hotel TV. They can all be found here. This was followed by a post all about 5G in hotels, which is here. They all talk about the succesful #LinkedInLive broadcast I did with FunnelTV. While the focus was guest room technology in 2020 we focussed initially almost totally on Hotel TV. The topic became so interesting and the excellent feedback from our viewers meant we stayed pretty much at the top of our agenda. What’s amazing, is we’ve got much more to say in the future.
This post moves on slightly, as directed by audience questions. In this post we take a look into AI, Artificial Intelligence in hotels, and of course the most popular application, Chatbots.
13th April 2020
Sharing The Knowledge – 5G in Hotels
A few weeks ago I began our knowledge sharing series with th fisrt four articles on Hotel TV. They can all be found here. They all talk about the succesful #LinkedInLive broadcast I did with FunnelTV. While the focus was guest room technology in 2020 we focussed almost totally on Hotel TV. The topic became so interesting and the excellent feedback from our viewers meant we stayed pretty much at the top of our agenda. What’s amazing, is we’ve got much more to say in the future.
This post moves on slightly, as directed by audience questions. In this post we look briefly at 5G in Hotels.
5th April 2020
Hotel TV and The Future – Part Four
The first post I made on this subject is here, the second is here and here is the third! They both talk about the succesful #LinkedInLive broadcast I did with FunnelTV. While the focus was guest room technology in 2020 we focussed almost totally on Hotel TV. The topic became so interesting and the excellent feedback from our viewers meant we stayed pretty much at the top of our agenda. What’s amazing, is we’ve got much more to say in the future.
This post is part of that future, in fact it is part four, where we continue our discussion on Hotel TV. This time we take a deeper look at content, whether that content is on demand or through Linear TV channels.
4th April 2020
Hotel TV and The Future – Part Three
The first post I made on this subject is here and the second is here! They both talk about the succesful #LinkedInLive broadcast I did with FunnelTV. While the focus was guest room technology in 2020 we focussed almost totally on Hotel TV. The topic became so interesting and the excellent feedback from our viewers meant we stayed pretty much at the top of our agenda. What’s amazing, is we’ve got much more to say in the future.
This post is part of that future, in fact it is part three, where we continue our discussion on Hotel TV. This time we take a look at who our target guests are, and what the opportunities for generating additional revenue
3rd April 2020
Hotel TV and The Future – Part Two
The first post I made on this subject is here and talks about the succesful #LinkedInLive broadcast I did with FunnelTV. While the focus was guest room technology in 2020 we focussed almost totally on Hotel TV. The topic became so interesting and the excellent feedback from our viewers meant we stayed pretty much at the top of our agenda. What’s amazing, is we’ve got much more to say in the future.
This post is part of that future, in fact it is part two, where we continue our discussion on Hotel TV. Now we are focussing on managing connections and identity!
2nd April 2020
Hotel TV and The Future – Part One
The first post I made on this subject is here and talks about the succesful #LinkedInLive broadcast I did with FunnelTV. While the focus was guest room technology in 2020 we focussed almost totally on Hotel TV. The topic became so interesting and the excellent feedback from our viewers meant we stayed pretty much at the top of our agenda. What’s amazing, is we’ve got much more to say in the future.
1st April 2020
Sharing The Knowledge
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m taking a break from many of my normal articles, to pull together some shorter, punchier ones! Amid the COVID-19 outbreak I’m going to spend some time sharing my knowledge, and encouraging those around me to do the same. As I stated before, this is probably the best thing I can offer right now.
If you, like me, think sharing of knowledge is beneficial, please get in touch. I’d love to be able to facilitate the sharing of knowledge through my site, blog and FunnelTV.
30th March 2020
Guest Room Technology in 2020
Throughout the UK we have amassed three quarters of a million volunteers into our health system, and I’m sure this is mirrored around the world. To those volunteers, along with our healthcare staff I am so grateful I cannot put it into words.
I am still working, even though a huge amount of my work is on hold. I do have a business to run though, which at this time prevents me from volunteering on a regular basis. That did get me thinking though, could I do more?
23rd March 2020
Hotel TV – Stop Paying & Start Growing
It’s easy in these times to make knee-jerk reactions, and sometimes, it really feels like they are the only ones you can make. Things are moving so quickly, that often there is very little choice in how we all react to situations.
Here’s one of the ideas that I had.
6th March 2020
Augmented Reality in Hotels
Virtual reality is something that has a very sci-fi feel to it. Certainly it conjures up images of groups of people wearing headsets. I’m not saying that’s not the case, however in recent years we have seen somewhat of a shift.
1st March 2020
Corona Virus Won’t Stop Hotel Technology
As I sit here on March 1st 2020, writing this article, we are in the middle of a global pandemic. If you’re reading this shortly after I issued it, you’ll know that pandemic is the Corona Virus. If you’ve found this in an archive somewhere, years down the line, you either have much more insight than me at the time of writing, or have completely forgotten about this event. For the sake of humanity, let’s hope it’s the latter.
22nd February 2020
Designing a Hotel with Technology at its Heart
Throughout the last 10+ years there has been a new type of hotel emerge. A hotel that brings forward the idea of “Affordable Luxury”. In fact that very statement was coined by the innovative hotel chain CitizenM.
17th February 2020
I don’t watch TV Channels Anymore
Future of TV Channels in Hotels In February 2020 I was invited to talk on a panel by Hospitality Technology Next Generation, at their Technology Summit held in Amsterdam. Sharing the stage with representatives from HTNG, Samsung & CNN was a real honour. As part of this panel, we touched on many subjects relating to …
11th February 2020
Hotel TV Channels – Construction Series
Hotel Construction is something best left to the experts, and I am not one of them. However, this article will focus on the technology for a new build hotel. Specifically whether we need TV channels in this On Demand age!
3rd February 2020
Empower Your Hotel Employees – Customer Experience
New, Relevant Experience Technology Do you want employees that strive towards new unique service excellence? Employees who drive your hotel brand upwards? Employees who create a valuable customer experience? If your answer is YES, then continue reading. This is a guest post by Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. He covers topics concerning the customer journey …
30th January 2020
First Impressions Count?
You might be able to change one’s perception along the way (or the stay), but it does get much harder to change the game once you are already falling behind. I believe that most hoteliers are aware of this. And that’s why they put so much effort and attention to make the check-in process as smooth as it can be.
28th January 2020
Artificial Intelligence for Hotels
Sliding into this new decade a scary precedence is upon us. Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, and while the general public often exhibits confusion as to what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is. I think there can be no confusion over what the latest announcement from AirBnB is all about.
21st January 2020
Smart Hotels
Smart Hotels – The Fourth Industrial Revolution You could be forgiven for thinking that I’ve completely lost my track here. Normally I talk about smart hotels. Bear with me though. Welcome to the fourth industrial revolution. At the beginning of 2020, we stand on the precipice of a new era. An era dubbed the fourth …
14th January 2020
Is Personalisation Dead in Hospitality?
If reports are to be believed, a personalised service in hotels could soon be the thing of the past, but is this the right direction of travel?
9th January 2020
Facebook Acquires Packagd
Facebook acquires Packagd – It’s 2020! Just like that 2019 is over! The news of the year, is still with us however. In this week’s FunnelTV live broadcast, of Digital with Simone Puorto we discussed the acquisition of Video Commerce startup Packagd.
6th January 2020
Hotel Construction – Wireless
A Hotel Technology & Travel Technology blog by HotelTCS. Every week we cover topics concerning Technology in the Hospitality Industry. Looking at subjects such as IPTV, HSIA, WiFi, GPON and IoT, we give you the insider info on Smart Hotels and Intelligent Hotel Deployments. Subscribe below for updates! So You Are Building A Hotel – Now What? Previously we discussed how …
31st December 2019
Hotel Technology Trends 2020
Hotels are like Elephants When adopting hotel technology, the hospitality industry is like an elephant. Interestingly it also favoured elephants in its partners as well. Same as the animal, hotels preferred to spend time with those the same as them. A Hotel Technology & Travel Technology blog by HotelTCS. Every week we cover topics concerning Technology in …
24th December 2019
Hotel Tech – Today there is no blog
Famously on Friday April 18th 1930 a BBC news presenter announced “Good evening, today is Good Friday. There is no news”. This was in response to the BBC’s news department deciding that nothing newsworthy had happened that day. Slightly different than in modern times I expect. Although they didn’t have the thrilling topic of hotel tech to cover.
17th December 2019
Millennial Technology
We could just finish this post here with one word. That word being Avocado. There’s your answer. Except that’s not it. It’s that kind of lazy stereotyping that shows that X’s and Boomers have failed to get a true understanding of what makes a Millennial tick. This has given rise to the oft quoted phrase “OK Boomer”. As a proud member of the Millennial generation myself, I love Avocado’s, so maybe there is some truth in that stereotype.
10th December 2019
Intelligent Hotels
Intelligent hotels are part of the future, that is for sure.The Internet Of Things (IoT) is everywhere. And I mean everywhere.That’s everywhere in more ways than one. It’s the acronym on everyone’s lips, it’s at the forefront of peoples mind whenever they discuss a technology project.