CSQ ADVISOR
Joseph Cardinal
Regional Director of IT
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Westlake Village, CA
Joe Cardinal is a seasoned technology professional with over 12 years of technology experience, primarily in the hospitality Industry. Joe graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Computer Systems and currently holds a senior technology position with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. He works on guest technology initiatives and oversees a region of hotels in the Western United States for the premier hotelier. In his role, he is also involved in global technology architecture and operations as well as new hotel openings and technology design and construction. He regularly attends industry trade shows and has participated in technology forums such as the Hospitality Technology Forum, CIO Perspectives, and HITEC. In his spare time, Joe is an avid golfer and skier. He also enjoys hiking and travel with his wife and young son.
Innovation in the
Hospitality
Industry
& Enhancing the Guest Experience
Innovation, as defined by Wikipedia, is “a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries. It may refer to an incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.” New innovations have always been developed, but in the last several years there have been several key drivers that have caused a radical acceleration of idea and innovation creation in technology.
The invention of the “App Store” by Apple has been the largest driver for technology innovation in history. Apple allows any individual to download a software development kit and, in a short window of time, have an “App” for sale and consumption to millions of users overnight.
The App Store opened on July 10, 2008; as of September 1, 2010, there were at least 250,000 “Apps” officially available on the App Store, with over 1.5 billion total downloads.
Another invention by Apple, which is indirectly speeding innovation, is the iTunes University. This section of iTunes originally designed only for students, allows anyone to visit and watch as many lectures they like from our best universities around the world on any subject. This access to top rate education for such a large audience speeds the time we can educate ourselves and therefore increases the speed at which we can produce inventions and innovations.
The creation of Web sites and on-line surveys for consumers to rate a company’s services and products in near real-time is also driving innovation This new channel for feedback shortens the window a company has to wait to hear about innovations needed. These tools instantly give a company an idea of how to better improve or adjust their product or service and gives them a head start and allows them to begin innovating sooner. In addition, the recently added “Like” feature on Facebook allows a huge amount of consumers to quickly share feedback with their friends. It is said that if someone you know recommends a product or service, you are significantly more likely to use it rather than seeing something on a traditional advertising channel.
The hospitality industry uses immediate online guest feedback as one of the primary tools for driving innovations. As guests experience new innovations in their daily lives, they expect to find these innovations supported and integrated when they travel. Research has found that the technology a guest owns is providing a new channel with how hotels need to interact with the guest before, during, and after their stay. It enables and empowers a guest to customize their experience and interact and order services from the hotel and surrounding area. A hotel’s product is service, but in order for its service to stay relevant it has to incorporate innovation and at the same time cannot lose the human interaction.
Applications such as Intelity ICE and Runtriz are being piloted in hotels to provide this interaction between the hotel services and guest. Companies such as Tabbed-Out are providing technology for anyone to use their smart phone for opening and easily settling their bar tab without ever taking out a credit card. Other applications are starting to come to market to help bring guest’s self-service to the hospitality industry. This technology pushes the envelope and allows a guest to use a mobile device to check-in and out of their room without ever waiting in line.
Technology innovation is fluid and changing. In the past, technology was used to simply provide a platform for business transactions, communications, and productivity. Now it has fundamentally evolved to provide location-based relevant information, which not only drives daily innovation, but actually can change how we interact with one another. This is the most exciting time in technology innovation history, and it will only accelerate faster as each innovation influences and pushes others to evolve.
