Future-ready hospitality
Author: Laurence Glen | Date published: May 21, 2025, UK | Read est: 5 min read
Hospitality is an industry known for its service and experiences, and digital transformation is becoming increasingly important in meeting evolving guest expectations. As a result, many small and medium-sized hospitality businesses are now exploring ways to enhance their services and operations by building new technology skills within their teams.
Great service is no longer just about a comfy room and friendly demeanour. Now, it requires the power of technology to bring personalisation and simple, quick processes.
Yet, many hospitality brands still lag in adopting modern systems
This puts them at a competitive disadvantage compared to those that are quick to explore and adopt the latest technologies. Globally, 22% of hospitality business leaders confirmed their business is behind the market in technology innovation, while only 20% considered themselves tech leaders.
Despite these figures, nearly two-thirds of hospitality businesses acknowledged that technology could improve operations – from easing payments to simplifying ordering. Which means hospitality brands know they shouldn’t sleep on modern solutions.
Technology is a game-changer in the industry, supporting guest and employee experience, as well as cost and operational efficiency. So why are many hospitality businesses struggling to implement and benefit from the latest tech?
Digital skills are in development
Technology is tough. It can be complex and confusing, and for many small hospitality businesses, it isn’t an IT expert that’s wearing the IT manager hat.
The reality is most small hospitality brands don’t have a dedicated IT team or tech consultant on hand. The role often falls to the general manager or owner by default, who has a huge number of other responsibilities, while also not necessarily being an IT expert. The result is a significant digital skills gap within the business.
In a 2024 survey of hospitality operators, over a quarter reported that modern tech was too difficult to implement and use. It’s understandable that this is then reflected in the absence of digital technologies used in the industry.
And it’s not just the small businesses struggling to get started with the latest innovations. Even for hospitality brands with larger resources, modern technologies can require a specialised set of skills and knowledge for effective deployment, maintenance, operation and compliance. Which may be beyond the skillsets currently in the business.
But progress doesn’t wait. With innovative technologies such as AI, AR and IoT expanding in use cases and enhancing experiences for employees and guests –now’s the time to explore your options and look for partners that can support you through the modernisation process
Bridging the tech gap is worth it – for guests and business
Adopting innovative technologies in hospitality is essential for staying competitive, continuing to attract customers and boosting growth opportunities. Today’s guests expect seamless personalised digital services, from online bookings to fast Wi-Fi.
Hotels, restaurants and venues that fail to modernise risk losing business and additional revenue, as almost two-thirds of UK hospitality guests would pay more for available and easy-to-use technology.
High-speed hotel Wi-Fi is the most valued technology by guests,1 and upgrading can reduce complaints about connectivity speed, encourage repeat bookings and improve recommendations. In addition, contactless payments are now seen as a necessity for customers.
It’s not just about guest experience. Implementing a cloud-based property management system can also increase operational efficiency by up to 30%, and using AI, such as chatbots, can reduce teams’ workloads by up to 70%.
Top floor opportunities
To adapt – delivering the experiences that guests expect and gaining the operational benefits – over 48% of hospitality managers are prioritising the acceleration of hospitality digital transformation.
And there is plenty to be excited about. Stronger connectivity can enable data-driven decision making for personalised customer experiences and improve staff coordination. While AI and automation can be used for dynamic pricing and predictive maintenance to support cost management.
Whether you’re running a hotel, restaurant or venue, the right hospitality technology solutions can help you to improve reservation management, enhance guest experience and simplify payment and ordering.
And you don’t have to go it alone. Focus on Hospitality, powered by Focus Group, can help you explore different technology options, discuss which will best fit the bill and work with you beyond delivery in maintenance and support.
A warm welcome to your digital future
Here at Focus on Hospitality, we have our finger on the pulse of new and emerging technologies. We can support you to explore and secure the solutions and infrastructure you need to build a tech stack that takes your guest and employee experiences to the next level.
From IT and telecoms to mobile and IoT, we can tailor bespoke hospitality solutions to your needs so you can implement the technology you need with the support of an expert. Our end-to-end approach helps guide you through the complexity and ensures a simple process for your business – while guaranteeing security, reliability and innovation.
Get in touch with our team.
Laurence Glen
IT Director
Our IT world, together with the ongoing development of this business-critical portfolio of services, is in very capable hands with Laurence at the helm. IBM-trained and with a 22-year track record of proven success in the IT sector ensures Laurence is perfectly placed to lead the overall IT strategy for Focus Group, ensuring we’re at the forefront of product development and service innovations in order to deliver the best possible IT technologies for our customers.
