Game on - the top business focus for hotel owners this year is to increase their direct bookings and improve their online presence.
The finding, indicated in the annual Global Hotel Business Index from SiteMinder, sees other considerations for a hotel such as mobile bookings and introducing personalisation tools down the pecking order.
Perhaps rather annoyingly for tech provider SiteMinder, the lowest priority for hotels during 2017 was "exploring new hotel technology systems".
CEO Mike Ford says:
"Outdated technology and systems – and the high costs that typically come with those – are rampant in our industry. As the consumers, hoteliers are in a unique position to change that.
"However, it is on us, as an industry, to understand the reasons for these sentiments and to make our technology more affordable, more accessible and ultimately more beneficial for the hoteliers we design the technology for."
The survey saw 2,100 captured responses by hoteliers from both independents and chains properties.
The top-line findings cover the following key areas:
Business focus
Budgeting
Challenges
Wider issues
Focus
Industry developments
NB:Luxury hotels image via Pixabay.