From registry books to AI: The evolution of tech in the hospitality industry

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The first documented case of overbooking and the consequent denial of service to a guest can be traced back to the occasion of the pregnant woman and her husband, who was forced to look for alternative accommodation because the inn where they wanted to stay was fully booked. The wife gave birth to her child in the next-door stable, and well, you know the rest.

Fast forward a few 100 years to the 1400s, we see a formalisation of the hospitality industry when England and France passed legislation that required hotels and inns to keep a guest book or registry – essentially the start of customer relationship management.

The rise of reservation, automated electronic systems

Before the 1940s, reservations were made by telegram, mail or telephone, and often resulted in lost or forgotten bookings. It was only in 1947 that Westin introduced the first hotel reservation system, called ‘Hoteltype’. Roughly ten years later in 1958 Sheraton introduced the industry’s first automated electronic reservation system, named ‘Reservatron’ – it also had the first toll-free reservation number.

It was the airlines that were to spark hospitality’s interest in electronic distribution. Hotels began to look at tools for automating the booking process in the early 1950s and developed their own computerised reservation platforms - Reservec and Sabre. However, hotel systems were far from sophisticated with only a limited number of room types on offer, added to this, users were reluctant to learn new terminology, believing that telephonic communication was more efficient.

Seeing the need for more efficient platforms and systems, the first property management systems (PMS) in the hospitality industry appeared on the market in the 1980s. During this time, other GDS systems were being developed, such as Amadeus and Compuserve.

The increase in travel agent hotel reservations and the introduction of smaller and more powerful desktop computer systems prompted the creation of hotel reservation systems that could be conveniently located at the hotel front desk.

Revolutionising management system capabilities

As electronic distribution entered the 1990s, issues continued to arise. Hotels seeking to do things ‘their way’, wanted improved functionality, customisation, third-party interfacing, payment gateways, personalisation, guest interaction, reporting and superior automation.

Ian Lumsden, director of Protel hotel software distributor, Ankerdata says that the hotel reservation system makes business easier, enabling hoteliers to work more accurately and efficiently. “As customers demand more convenience, more choice, and greater customisation, these systems guarantee that hoteliers have the right technology in place to maximise efficiency, revenue opportunities and ultimately, remain competitive.”

He adds that with the progress of cloud computing, property management systems for hotels have expanded their functionality towards new service areas like guest-facing features.

These include online check-ins, room service, in-room controls, guest-staff communication, chatbots, mobile concierges and more. Mobile concierges and booking platforms can be designed based on a hotel’s requirements and internal management flows and processes, and in keeping with its corporate identity. Electronic distribution is still evolving and growing and there is an ongoing focus on connectivity through mobile and social media channels to meet the needs of the consumer – the millennials.

Artificial intelligence will be the future of guest engagement - a must for hotels wanting to attract and connect with a younger generation of travellers.