NEW YORK— The lodging Industry will need to devise ways to better utilize technology to provide tighter security at hotels following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to panelists at the IH/M&RS seminar “Technology 2001: What Happened?,” which was moderated by HOTEL BUSINESS® Editor, Ruthanne Terrero. Panelists— who included Danny Hudson, independent advisor to the lodging industry; John Paul Nichols, Cendant Hotel Division; Dwayne Ingram, IBM Global Services/Travel and Tourism Industries; Scott Anderson, SWAN; and Mark Haley, High Touch Technologies— also agreed that hotel companies need to be more prudent in their technology decisions now. On the subject of security, Hudson believes, “Blind check-in, curbside check-in, checking in from PDAs may go away, as we go back to the basics, or may even, in the future, be forced to provide police logs like at some of our properties [abroad]. But I hope that they don’t.” To that, Nichols stated, “Those things will go away. Especially since there was an Executive Order signed by President Bush in early October mandating that businesses [including the lodging industry]must not and cannot do business with a specific list of 100 individuals or organizations. “Because of that, we need to know who our guests are. We know now if a guest checks in, but we don’t know who they are, if they are walk-ins. It’s a problem; big network businesses especially will need to re-evaluate their business practices. And this will get significantly worse; there will be significant intrusion into our business practices, but one that needs to happen.” Other panelists agreed with Ingram, advising that the best way to combat this security problem going forward is to gather more information on your guests. He said it should be easier now, as people are more willing to give their information out for security purposes. Just “don’t be opportunistic about it.” Haley noted that information gathering would be easier, as long as guests are given something of value in return. Ingram added that any information gathered could be used for CRM, as well, as he noted, “The more you know about guests, the better you can serve them.” Hotel companies will also need to be prudent in their future tech decisions, given the tech fall-out and the recession propelled by Sept. 11. Panelists all agreed that hotel companies need to make sure that any technology installed, whether it’s high-speed Internet access or something else, is something that guests are asking for, and something that makes sense for the company’s business strategy. Hudson said more thorough research and development will be needed to determine the necessity of various technologies and avoid the tech version of amenity creep. Lastly, panelists also warned hotel companies to first look internally to see if they can develop and implement new technology in their properties. If not, they should only partner with tech companies that have financial staying power and goals that mesh with their company’s goals.
