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This week, HSMAI's Commercial Strategy Conference is taking place, and whether or not you’re attending that (or HITEC), I think you’ll be interested in a conversation I had with one of HSMAI’s board members, Ed Skapinok, about his experience that many of us could only dream of: the opportunity to start with a blank slate and build a brand new technology infrastructure for a hot new brand from scratch.
Today, Ed, who is the Chief Commercial Officer at Appellation, shares the two questions you should start every technology project with - and a number of counterintuitive perspectives I think will fascinate you as it did me, including why he wants actually to use less technology than others are.
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The Only Two Questions That Matter When It Comes to Hotel Tech
Ed Skapinok
Today, Ed Skapinok, Chief Commercial Officer at Appellation, shares insights on building technology infrastructure for a new hotel brand from scratch. You can listen to us here on the podcast, and I’ve summarized a few of my top takeaways below.
The two questions you need to start any project with technology
Ed emphasized the importance of beginning any technology project by asking two fundamental questions that should guide the entire design and deployment process of any technology in hospitality:
We started with two questions:
What experience do we want for our guests?
What experience do we want for our employees?
Everything flowed from there.
Takeaway: Starting with the end goals in mind—guest and employee experiences—ensures that technology serves its intended purpose and enhances overall satisfaction.
The importance of simplifying
Ed highlighted the complexity of hotel operations, noting that a typical luxury hotel has so many functions—and just as many potential solutions for these functions.
"In a typical hotel like ours, a luxury hotel, there are 120 different pieces of technology for 154 business functions. We were able to design a technology ecosystem that is a third of that number."
Takeaway: Simplifying technology infrastructure not only reduces costs and training requirements but also enhances operational efficiency and guest experience.
Advice on shopping for technology
Ed shared his process of evaluating and selecting technology partners, emphasizing the importance of aligning technology choices with the specific needs and objectives of the business.
“For us, it was really insightful to think about these business functions and then solve for them in the way that was true to our ambitions of providing the right guest experience and the right employee experience using technology and making it simple and not having the tech get in the way."
Takeaway: Selecting the right technology involves understanding your business objectives and then ensuring that technology solutions align with your goals and simplify operations.
Make technology easy for your front-line teams to use
Ed underscored the importance of making technology accessible and user-friendly for frontline staff. The goal is to empower employees to provide excellent service without needing to navigate complex systems.
"If a customer is getting an espresso in the morning at our cafe, and they say, ‘I didn't realize that the hotel had a spa. I'd like to get a massage later.’ Our barista has all the tools they need right there to say, ‘I could look that up for you and book you at 2 o'clock or 4 o'clock, whatever suits your preferences.’"
Takeaway: Simplified and integrated systems enable frontline employees to deliver exceptional service efficiently, enhancing both guest satisfaction and employee effectiveness.
Put this in action:
Implement a unified system that allows your team members to access all the information they need at their fingertips.
Train your teams thoroughly on how to use these systems.
Constantly gather feedback from frontline staff to identify and address usability issues.
The power of data
Ed explained the critical role of detailed data in personalizing the guest experience. By integrating folio-level data into the CRM, hotels can tailor their marketing and service to individual guest preferences.
We don't want to just know that somebody spent $250 on dinner last night. We want to know what entrees they ordered, what bottle of wine, and have that feed our personalization engine.
Takeaway: Detailed, actionable data is essential for delivering personalized experiences that drive guest loyalty and revenue growth.
Put this in action:
Ensure that all guest transactions and preferences are recorded in a centralized CRM.
Use this data to create personalized marketing campaigns and service offerings.
Train staff on the importance of data collection and how to use the CRM effectively.
Regularly review and update data to maintain accuracy and relevance in personalization efforts.
More for you
If you’d like, you can hear more from Ed here:
And that’s a wrap! This email was handmade for you—it took me 53 minutes to write this. If you found it helpful, I’d be very grateful if you could forward it to a friend or colleague who might also enjoy it.
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A few final things:
If you have any thoughts, ideas, questions, or suggestions for Hospitality Daily, please reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you.
If you’d like a private community where you can discuss things like this and ask other hotel operators and investors questions that you can’t just Google or ask ChatGPT, the Hospitality Daily Huddle might be a good fit.
If you have a product or service that would benefit the hospitality professionals who read, listen to, and watch Hospitality Daily, let’s work together to help you help more people.
Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you here tomorrow.
-Josiah
