After the pandemic, technology trends are driving the hospitality industry

Chef Robert Irvine, who hosts Restaurant: Impossible on the Food Network, went on a tour of Minneapolis’s Midtown Global Market with the Twin Cities Comcast Business team. Irvine went to Minnesota to talk with local leaders in hospitality and technology about how to use technology to improve the guest and customer experience after a pandemic.

Irvine went to the Midtown Global Market to meet Manny Gonzalez, the owner and namesake of Manny’s Tortas, and congratulated him on winning a 2022 Comcast RISE grant. The Comcast RISE programme is a multi-year company effort to help people of colour start their own businesses.

Irvine is the host of the show Restaurant: Impossible and a successful restaurant owner himself. He has a lot to say about the restaurant business. On his mission to give restaurant owners a second chance at success, he’s seen everything, from family fights that get out of hand to frozen foods that don’t taste good.

In the past few years, a lot of these restaurant owners have made more money by using technology to make things easier for their customers. Changes were needed because of the pandemic, so many restaurants went all in with online and mobile ordering, curbside delivery, self-service kiosks, and more.

Even though people are eating out again, it hasn’t changed what network technology needs to do. In a digital world, restaurants still need to have bandwidth and connections that are strong enough to meet customer expectations.

“As restaurants have reopened after the pandemic, we’ve seen more contactless technologies like tableside point-of-sale devices that let diners pay with their phones,” Irvine said. “Restaurant owners need to make sure their networks are strong enough to handle the rise in online orders and delivery times in a paperless world.”

Wolfgang Lewis, regional vice president of Comcast Business Twin Cities, agreed with Irvine and said that the same is true for the entire hospitality industry, including hotels.

Lewis recently talked to Minne Inno about key technology trends and best practises that restaurants and hotels should think about implementing to make their operations more efficient and secure and to improve the customer experience.

Digital tools are becoming a bigger part of the hotel and restaurant customer experience, whether it’s an app that can be used as a room key or one that lets a customer order without touching a screen.

“In a world after COVID that values touchless experiences, hotel guests will increasingly use their own mobile devices to control their hospitality experience,” Lewis said. “Hotels need fast internet and security software to protect their guests from malware, phishing attacks, and ransomware, and to keep their own digital operations running smoothly.”

A strong technology infrastructure and network are needed to support the features and functions that give hotel guests a better experience from the time they book their trip to the time they check out.

“Hotels need a strong infrastructure inside and outside their own walls to take advantage of smart features and hotel integrations,” Lewis said. “It all starts with wide-area connections that are reliable and can grow as needed.”

Software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) services are the best choice for a lot of hotels. With Comcast Business SD-WAN, for example, hotels can choose the services that meet the needs of each application best because network control functions are separated from the network they are running on.

SD-WAN makes it easier to set up backup links for each connection based on what kind of connection is needed, whether it’s dedicated Ethernet, broadband, or even cellular service. SD-WAN appliances for hotel sites often come with security features like built-in firewalls or services that can find, block, and stop cyberattacks. Lewis said that these are important features for hotels that don’t have IT staff at every location.

How technology affects business operations

Lewis said that using technology to help with operational needs is just as important as using technology to help with the guest experience. A property management system (PMS) keeps track of the number of rooms, reservations, cleaning schedules, and where each room is located. Integration with other tools that add new features, like the hotel building management system (BMS) or customer relationship management (CRM) system, can make the PMS even more useful.

“These systems make it easier for managers to schedule maintenance, keep guests from getting in the way, make bookings, and use data to make future visits more personal,” Lewis said. “PMS can also connect to point-of-sale systems, payment providers, and accounting systems so that hotel financial data can be viewed without leaving the PMS interface. It also lets hotels gather and track information about their guests so they can meet their needs.

The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies play a big role in the back-office tech of restaurants. For example, they can be used to monitor the temperature of refrigerators, fryolators, and other appliances from afar. Robotics is also used to do things like fry chicken wings, flip burgers, and make salads.

Improve how customers feel.

Demand Science and Comcast Business surveyed more than 200 IT executives in the food and beverage industry in 2022. They found that improving the customer experience is the most important thing for IT executives to think about.

Respondents have plans for technology that are in line with this goal. Nearly half of respondents (47%) said that mobile ordering and payment apps are the most important among these. Omnichannel customer communications, which were mentioned by 40% of respondents, are also related. With omnichannel technology solutions, customers could get marketing messages and place orders in a variety of ways, such as through mobile apps, websites, kiosks, and the drive-thru.

Priorities in tech

According to a survey by Demand Science and Comcast Business, the following operational efficiency needs drive food and beverage companies’ technological priorities:

Producing food
Automation.
well-being and safety.
Scheduling
chain of stores.
Keeping track of stock

Lewis thinks that hotels and restaurants should look at the tech platforms they have now.

Lewis came to the conclusion that organisations in the hospitality industry that use smart technologies must have a flexible and safe IT infrastructure in place. Whether it’s the Wi-Fi in the lobby or the network in the back office, hospitality businesses can use smart technologies as a competitive advantage with the right tools. This lets them improve their operating efficiencies while also personalising and improving their guests’ experiences. “