HITEC Indianapolis proved invaluable for us – an ideal forum to take the industry’s pulse, pinpoint emerging trends, and uncover unmet needs. The most surprising takeaway? Even in 2025, the dinosaurs never truly left our hotels leading to because hotels don’t dare to upgrade and don’t dare to automize some parts of their operations. Here’s what we discovered…
We spent the week after HITEC Indianapolis talking with our team and reflecting. After seeing other tools out there and talking to hundreds of people in only 3 days, it is confirmed our product fills a huge REAL gap on the market today. In 2025 there are plenty of PMS solutions and countless tools focused on guest experience and AI. Two questions stood out: How do you actually use this AI? And how do you truly deliver on guest experience? Spoiler alert: you can’t do it with a Channel Manager, PMS, Guest App plus Excel, Sharepoint, Google Sheets, WhatsApp, Emails, Phone calls and Walkie-talkies (sometimes all at once). On top of that, many large hotel groups – and independent hotels alike – still rely on very old legacy systems they’ve had for years.
Takeaway 1: Hoteliers think that a PMS and a guest app are enough for guest experience and staff. Why that’s not true:
Many hoteliers integrate a robust PMS and perhaps a sleek guest-facing app, but when it comes to day-to-day coordination, they still fall back on Excel spreadsheets, group WhatsApp chats and endless phone calls. In their minds, this “hybrid” approach should cover all bases: the PMS holds reservations and guest profiles, the app captures service requests, and any gaps can be patched with quick messages or ad-hoc spreadsheets. In reality, though, this patchwork creates information silos, introduces manual entry errors and causes critical requests to slip through the cracks. A maintenance ticket reported by a client, logged in a guest app, sent to maintenance via WhatsApp never makes it to the clients guest profile in the PMS; a VIP preference buried in a spreadsheet can be overlooked entirely; and housekeeping often races to reconcile multiple data sources before a guest checks in.
All too often, time is wasted reconciling these disparate streams, staff frustration mounts, and guest satisfaction suffers – yet hoteliers cling to this “good enough” setup because it feels familiar and low-risk.
Sure, a PMS stores every reservation, guest profile and preference in one place. Sure, a guest app surfaces in-room service requests, dining bookings and spa appointments. BUT when it comes to turning those digital entries into real-world action, the workflow still breaks down. Front-desk agents export reservations into Excel to flag special requests, managers forward service tickets through WhatsApp, and housekeeping teams huddle over printed spreadsheets before each shift. Maintenance never sees the live queue of repair jobs until someone screenshots a chat thread, and F&B staff only learn about a VIP’s champagne order when it’s manually copied into a separate document. The result? Tasks get lost in translation, handovers delay room readiness, and staff spend more time chasing fragmented information than delighting guests – all under the illusion that a top-tier PMS plus a slick app is “good enough.” All of you working in operations know what I am talking about, if you work in reception, housekeeping or any guest facing role or you probably suffer this pain on a daily basis. If you are a GM you probably lack very important data points concerning operations and you see labor costs going up while issues still occur.
Takeaway 2: The dinosaurs are still here – what is the cost?
Yes, legacy systems may look impressive, they are big, have existed for a long time and yes they are stable. BUT under the hood they’re dinosaurs: they lack built-in automation, forcing staff to keep juggling manual handoffs. They are not flexible and they surely don’t adapt to the hotels real structure. The team either finds workarounds in the system or manually outside of the system. We even met hotels during HITEC, some using one operations system for cleanings, another for maintenance, yet another for facility management, another for auditing of the property and finally Monday (which isn’t even built for hospitality) for preventative maintenance. The larger your property grows, the bigger the drag on your bottom line and the slower your workflows become.
These dinosaurs also have very little to no customization or personalization capabilities. Yes you have some basic reports with the top 20 tasks, yes you have your stayover cleaning that are generated, but you don’t have stayover cleaning for a honeymoon that extends the room credits based on room category because I have to put flowers on the beds and also I have to have pictures of how it should look like… Puh… that was a long one… Everyone working in the hotel industry knows what I am talking about here.
Yet hoteliers cling to these “tried-and-true” platforms simply because they’ve always been there. On the hospitality market in general I remember one of the first thing that our CEO told me when I started as head of sales before becoming COO, “Sandra, in hospitality there is a they-have-it-so-I-want-it mentality”, but the question is who is really winning here. The ones that have just always been there and the new ones that invest in sleek sexy UIs and sleek design or the systems that invest the highest % in R&D each month? Longevity is mistaken for rock-solid stability, while the notion of painless, low-code automations sounds too good to be true. As a result, teams end up doing more manual entry, cross-checking and error-fixing than they ever bargained for. However, well in 2025, it is not too good to be true, other solutions exist.
And let’s not forget the old “pen-and-paper never crashes” refrain. Fair enough – so why keep paying for hotel software if every process still defaults to printouts and Post-its? There’s almost no ROI in a system that demands analog workarounds.
What we discovered is that most of the time, in the end, hotels bend their operations to fit the rigid constraints of outdated tools – prioritizing perceived “stability” over genuine efficiency. That “they’ve always had it” mindset keeps properties from exploring modern, flexible solutions that could automate routine tasks, eliminate errors, and free staff to focus on what really matters: exceptional guest service. Hotels always have this PMS and Guest Apps in mind, but look by other solutions that could actually help staff, guests and the brining together all of that information under one operational roof.
The real price of inaction on Takeaway 1 and 3:
When your core systems lack flexibility and automation, the toll falls on your on ground team. Day after day, staff members endure tedious manual processes – juggling multiple spreadsheets, double-entering requests, hunting through outdated logs – only to discover that crucial details have slipped through the cracks. If you work in reception you are probably sick of having 12 different windows open. Over time, this frustration erodes morale, driving turnover higher and making it harder to retain the very people who deliver your guest experience.
Meanwhile, guests notice the cracks, too. A half-bottle of champagne promised in celebration never arrives. A baby cot is nowhere to be found when a family checks in. These aren’t isolated mishaps; they’re symptoms of a system that treats every request as an afterthought rather than an integral part of the workflow. Each forgotten task or misrouted note undermines your brand promise and fuels negative reviews – at a time when online reputation drives 70 percent (or more) of booking decisions.
The most striking irony is that your property management system already holds the answers. If the booking record flags a newborn guest, it should instantly trigger a housekeeping task for a baby bed. If a VIP’s arrival includes a champagne package, that request belongs on the front-of-house dashboard the moment check-in completes. With the right automation in place, these workflows run themselves, freeing your teams to focus on personal touches that no software can replicate. By shoring up the gaps in your technology stack today, you’ll protect staff engagement, elevate guest satisfaction, and secure the revenue that follows flawless execution.
Your hotel has a structure – use it!
Your hotel is more than a list of room numbers – it’s a carefully designed ecosystem, and your technology should reflect that. Legacy tools often flatten your property into a single “floor” or “building,” ignoring the nuances that keep operations running smoothly. Take Room 1001 and Room 1890: yes, they both sit on the first floor, but they’re worlds apart – separated by corridors, service elevators, and hundreds of other rooms. Assigning them to the same housekeeper or maintenance technician not only wastes valuable footsteps, it risks delays and missed tasks.
Now consider Room 2001 and Room 2020: both labeled “second floor,” but housed in separate wings or even distinct buildings. A single task list won’t account for differing travel times, staff assignments, or service priorities between Building A and Building B. What you need is a system that lets you define sections, subsections and zones – mapping your property down to the smallest detail. By modeling each hallway, wing and annex, you can automatically route cleaning requests, maintenance orders and VIP preparations to the right team member in the nearest service area. The result? Faster response times, fewer walk-and-wait cycles, and a cohesive operation where every request arrives exactly where – and when – it needs to be.
Dare to upgrade and dare to automize, for your staff’s and your clients’ sake!
Many systems today can’t handle these nuances. What hotels need now is more than just another housekeeping tool; they need a platform that truly solves the limitations of legacy systems.
