Articles tagged “oracle”

Oracle Hospitality's Alex Alt sees two gaps in his company's suite: distribution services and customer relationship management tools. Yet the opportunities with both are dynamic, not static, because of fast shifts in hotel company priorities and traveler behaviors. That will require Alt to be one very adaptable executive.

Legacy property management systems (PMS) missed the boat when tech innovation started ramping up. Now they are playing catch-up. Cloud computing, open APIs, marketplaces, and middleware layers are shaking up this stale corner of hotel tech, and it’s crazy exciting.

Hotel tech innovation has been partly hampered by high tolls that property management systems charge for accessing critical data. Impala, Hapi, and other companies hope to bring that connectivity cost down, which could be a windfall for vendors.

Game on, Oracle. But like everything in the hotel sector, the battle between next-generation hotel tech players and established titans will take years to play out.

Oracle Hospitality sells the world's most widely used hotel property management system. But it has ambitions to expand into additional services. Senior executive Laura Calin says her company is upending entrenched processes by rolling out fresh solutions, migrating to faster and smarter platforms, and drafting new commercial models.

The hotel tech group that Jonas Hospitality has put together through acquisitions of Leonardo, MSI, Springer-Miller, and BookAssist is admittedly small. But its creation says a lot about the pressures to consolidate in hotel tech. Experts debate the pros and cons of such roll-ups.

Beijing-based Shiji serves more than 47,000 hotels outside of China. This is the first time it has spoken candidly with independent English-language media about its acquisition strategy. This year its subsidiaries have won deals with MGM Resorts, Radisson, and other major brands. Reading between the lines, it has big plans in the works.

The revenue management industry picked an odd time to have an identity crisis, given the opportunity for additional profit that new rate-setting and distribution software could bring.

Meliá has followed the path of Disney and Carnival to introduce wearable tech. But it has taken the concept further, enabling nearby merchants like Starbucks to also accept payments made by guests via its new smart wristbands.

Oracle Hospitality is the market leader in selling hotel tech software. But the company has made some missteps. It is adjusting course, and two weeks ago it appointed a new top boss, Greg Webb. The industry will watch his moves closely.