Why new technology is coming to hotels

Imagine stepping into a hotel lobby and breezing through a check-in powered by facial recognition technology. With a key in hand, your app-ordered room service is delivered promptly by a robot.

In some hotels this is already reality.

For instance, guests at integrated resort Marina Bay Sands can skip the queue and check in by scanning their faces and unlocking their hotel rooms with the same phone. In the Rolling Hills Hotel on the outskirts of Seoul, hotel guests can place their room service orders through Kakao Talk, a popular messaging app, and track their delivery by a robot in real time.

These technologies aren’t just enhancing the guest experience. They’re also addressing the labor shortage plaguing the hospitality industry.

As demand returns in the coming years, the acute shortage of workers needs to be urgently addressed, says Sashi Rajan, Executive Vice President, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.

“What hotels are focusing on now is implementing actionable technologies to solve these challenges in the short term,” says Rajan. “The goal isn’t necessarily to restore the workforce to pre-pandemic levels, losing some of the relevant efficiencies gained, but rather to bring it back to a level where they can operate effectively to a required standard with the support of technology.”

As such, technology upgrades are the top priority of hotel operators in 2024, according to a recent JLL survey.

Key functions where hotels struggle to find talent, such as food and beverage and front desk, are expected to gain most from new technologies, according to Rajan.