The hospitality industry is facing a massive staff shortage and while increasing wages might be a short-term fix, it's not sustainable one.
Help is at hand in the form of automation but that presents its own set of challenges from cost to mindset as well as the risk of damage to brand if it all goes wrong.
Some believe the industry no longer has a choice but to invest in technology to relieve the pressure and remove some of the manual processes.
Max Starkov, a consultant and hotel technology strategist, believes it is an exaggeration to say that guests are looking for the human touch and points to the low-touch vacation rental industry to support his view.
Projecting forward five years he believes the hospitality industry will not need half the people it needed prior to the pandemic.
Speaking during PhocusWire Pulse: A New Traveler Experience, Starkov discusses where he sees technology filling some of the gaps.
He goes on to talk about some of the technologies that hotels should implement now and whether it's right for hotels of all categories.
Starkov also touches on the mindset of hoteliers and whether the appetite to invest in technology is there.
The full interview with PhocusWire's Linda Fox is below:
PhocusWire Pulse: A New Traveler Experience - The automation of everything in hotels?