TRAVHOTECH’s Mark Fancourt sat down with Bill Healey from Gaming & Leisure to discuss the state of technology today and the future possibilities.
The article, ‘International Trends & Futures:Gaming & Hospitality Technology’ is published in the Spring Edition of Gaming & Leisure in Bill’s section – International Roadtrip.
In the five page article Bill and Mark discuss a range of topics including the potential of Blockchain, the differences between Hospitality and Gaming Hospitality gaps in the current technology offerings and required innovation. They also discuss the Hospitality Startup environment around the world.
Mark recently reconnected with Bill where he established his Las Vegas base and joined the Testbed.Vegas community. They originally met when they were both based in Asia where Mark was the head of technology for Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts in Singapore and Bill was based in Bali with lifestyle software company Concept Software Systems in the early 2000’s.
Fancourt noted, “It was great to reconnect with Bill after so many years on a personal level. Also to talk about a growth journey we’ve both traveled over 20 years in the hospitality technology space. Much has changed but there really is so much opportunity remaining for competitive advantage through technology. Also to make a contribution to a publication that is central to the gaming and hospitality space in my home city.”
An excerpt of the article appears here. The full article can be downloaded at Gaming & Leisure.
International Trends & Futures: Gaming & Hospitality Technology
Bill Healey | Gaming & Leisure – How is the current market for technology startups in hospitality?
Mark Fancourt | TRAVHOTECH – Vibrant is the word I would use. There is no shortage of companies entering the market with ideas for technology that they believe could change or improve the way the business runs.
The ongoing trend is guest facing solutions that could positively impact or smooth the experience. We observe that the solutions tend to be niche or addressing a narrow functional area of the overall hospitality operation. The other factor we have found peculiar is many of the ideas come from persons not from industry but saw a problem or a challenge from the guest perspective.
It’s easy to forget that most people only experience hospitality from the guest perspective and that the business processes involved in making a small town or city operate, as I refer to hotels and resorts, is not widely understood. As a result, we see fewer solutions that are oriented towards the operation as that requires internal knowledge
Mark Fancourt, TRAVHOTECH
It’s easy to forget that most people only experience hospitality from the guest perspective and that the business processes involved in making a small town or city operate, as I refer to hotels and resorts, is not widely understood. As a result, we see fewer solutions that are oriented towards the operation as that requires internal knowledge.
Europe is a powerhouse of new ideas and technology solutions for the industry. The market there is more diverse from a customer base than North America and we see products being built for different layers of the market. For example, there are perhaps five new Property Management Systems being delivered out of Europe at the moment that addresses many layers of the physical hospitality product.
I touched on the lifestyle space earlier in our discussion and there is a mass of technology coming into this market space, which is across industry sub-sectors related to booking lifestyle experiences. Perhaps Hotel Booking Engine part two could be an apt description. This space has far less structure to the movement and storage of inventory and pricing. Eventually, consolidation will determine a standard for data movement.
One of the motivations behind Testbed.Vegas is to see companies choosing Las Vegas as a headquarters for their industry technology. In Las Vegas, we have the relevant audience for new technology companies aiming to solve industry challenges at scale. If you can build for the scale of Las Vegas, then your product will work anywhere.
Read the full article at Gaming & Leisure.
About TRAVHOTECH – Knowledge | Experience | Execution | Realization –Utilizing 30 years of global current and practical experience. TRAVHOTECH is the next generation travel technology & hospitality technology consultancy for the modern travel and hospitality world. TRAVHOTECH provides consulting services globally to travel and hospitality operators and technology vendors.