REPORT FROM THE U.S.—As the hotel industry looks to recover from the pandemic, the technology hoteliers use and how they use it could help them along the way.
During the “Technology & what it means for hotels” session of the CHRIS+HOLA Connect online conference, hotel and travel tech experts spoke about the evolving tech needs of guests and what the hotel industry can do to adapt.
Booking behavior
Even before the pandemic, the ongoing shift of moving almost everything to the digital space has changed the traveler’s path to booking, said Rob Torres, travel industry director at Google. There really is no one path to purchase anymore.
Travelers visit multiple sites across many online sessions before they make a purchase, and every journey is unique, he said. The average user could visit 45 sites before making a decision, and that was pre-pandemic.
“Because of this, brands need to adapt to some of these changes,” he said. “More than ever, you’ve got this omni-channel shopper that’s jumping across mobile and desktop.”