Just a few months ago, Custódio Barreiros was a senior consultant working with Alliants. Since then, he has shifted to overseeing his consulting firm EIP MGT full time, building relationships with hospitality and technology companies and helping businesses grow. In this capacity, Barreiros is set to attend Hotel Management Tete-a-Tech from Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Manchester, U.K.
The proverbial elephant in the room in the tech world, Barreiros said, is AI—“from chatbots, generative AI [and] automation,” he noted. “I think that's the buzzword in our industry.” AI can help support hotels still dealing with the lingering effects of the pandemic-related downturn, including staff shortages. “I think anyone in the industry would welcome any support—AI or non-AI, for that matter,” he said, noting that technology is affecting more and more aspects of hospitality, including concierges. “They were the last department to be digitized, and now they're all embracing new ways of communicating with guests through AI tools.”
At the same time, Barreiros cautioned that suppliers and partners within the industry are “trying to do everything” instead of focusing and specializing in one sector. This can lead to unintended errors, he added, noting that just about every industry sources elements from different experts to create something. For a computer, a computer company must source numerous components from specialist companies to create a laptop. In hospitality, good partnerships and integrations can keep things operating smoothly—but these can be hard to arrange. “You are limited on what you have access to—from one provider to the other—to then create the best integration possible, to provide the hotels with the best products working side by side,” he said. These limits leave “gaps in data” that can make the final outcome of the integration less certain.
Hospitality, as an industry, is experiencing a significant shift in its relationship to technology, Barreiros noted. Not only do guests have new expectations of what kind of technology they will experience during their stay, but team members may be much more tech-savvy than the previous generation was.
The Value of Education
To facilitate these changes, Barreiros suggested that industry associations like HTNG, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals and the American Hotel & Lodging Association standardize terminologies so hoteliers know what they’re getting when they buy. For example, he noted that some companies will sell what they call a “concierge tool,” but the technology does not do what a human concierge in a hotel does. “It’s an upsell tool,” he said. “It’s a revenue tool. So let's bring some education to our industry.”
That education can come from online academies or in-person sessions, Barreiros continued, advising that technology companies ask hotels what kind of training is best for their teams. “There is a responsibility from a supplier to educate the hotelier on what the software will do, not just trying to sell them something,” he said. Selling a product or service that doesn’t meet the hotel’s needs will not help either business.
“There is so much out there at the moment that is changing at such a [rapid] pace that the next 18 months are going to be crucial to fine tune all of those points for everyone to succeed,” Barreiros said.
Barreiros attended the previous edition of Tete-a-Tech—then called HTNG Europe & Hotec EMEA—in Portugal last year, and will be attending the upcoming event in the U.K.
Hotel Management Tete-a-Tech is set to run Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, U.K. Buyers and suppliers can register here.