Alison Guillot
Gaps between the PMS and CRS have created a gap that prevents the personalization guests desire from their hotel stay
By: Francisco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, President, Hospitality, Amadeus
Originally published in Hospitality Technology
Hospitality has an exciting future, despite the ongoing uncertainty around COVID. People will continue to travel and will need somewhere to stay. But the exact configuration of that future is uncertain, other than the fact that the industry needs better technology to meet both known and unknown changes yet to come.
The hospitality sector is often described as fragmented, and Amadeus’ success with airlines comes from using technology to address fragmentation, provide consistency, remove friction and support standardization. But hospitality is a sector of its own; with a wide product variety (big box conference hotels, resorts, boutique B&Bs …) each of which has a different price point, service ethic, business model (including management and ownership structure), target market and competitive set.
Developing a cloud-based platform that knits together a CRS, PMS, and other components of the hospitality stack from scratch, which can accommodate all these enterprise use cases, requires a tech partner that not only has a genuine commitment to partnerships, collaboration and community, but also a proven track record and the ability to heavily invest in R&D and innovate. Recently, Marriott International became the second major hotel group to agree to move to the Amadeus Central Reservations System (ACRS). In this article, we explore why that is exciting as well as our vision for a fully integrated future.
History lessons
A brief look at how that fragmentation came into play can offer a roadmap towards consistency. Hotels have always had two main technology systems – a property management system for operations and internal use, and a central reservation system which handled all guest interactions before they arrived on-site.
The gaps between these two systems have become embedded in how the industry operates. Being treated like a stranger at check-in when you are a top tier loyalty member sits uneasily with the current travel trends around personalization and experience; and is a result of the highly fragmented technology solutions that exist today. Aligning the historically disparate functions of the CRS and PMS into a single platform is a must for any forward-looking hotel or chain.
