Latest / The Modern Hotelier / #336: What the Next Generation of Hotel Technology Looks Like | with Mark Bloomquist & Steve Burman
Transcript
- The Modern Hotelier #336: What the Next Generation of Hotel Technology Looks Like | with Mark Bloomquist & Steve Burman === Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier, hospitality's most engaged podcast. We're coming to you from the Independent Hotel Show in Miami. Make sure to follow, like, and subscribe. We're joined by Mark Bloomquist, the Chief Revenue Officer, and Steve Berman, the Director of Sales from RoomMaster. How you guys doing today? Mark Bloomquist: Pretty good, man. How about you? Steve Carran: Doing well. Enjoying the Miami weather and having a good show so far. Mark Bloomquist: Fantastic. Steve Carran: So I've been seeing a lot of things about the exciting things that are happening at RoomMaster lately. For someone looking at the platform today, how would you describe what RoomMaster has become? Mark Bloomquist: Yeah, I think that's a great question, and I'm happy to hear that you're seeing a lot of that out there. It's been a very interesting year at RoomMaster, and the reimagined version of what we want RoomMaster to be is all we can talk about, right? And I think the important place to start, though, is the fact that we're not new. It's a modernization of a platform that has been around for over 30 years, and that has a deep-rooted history in impacting the hospitality industry in a very positive way. And so from that standpoint, you know, I think there's a lot of things that are the same, but, you know, if people haven't taken a look at it in a while, I think what they're gonna find is a more modern, a more user-friendly, something that's faster, easier, right? But with all the same value that it's always had. And so, you know, for people that don't know, RoomMaster has always been full of people that are from the hospitality industry, that have worked the front desk, that have ran the night audit, that have cleaned the rooms. And so they understand the needs of hoteliers, they understand what goes on in their world. And they've really built a platform that can impact it in a positive way. Steve Carran: So you talked about the modernization aspect of it and how hoteliers work at R- or how former hoteliers work at RoomMaster. What are hoteliers asking for today that's shaping what you're building? Mark Bloomquist: There's a difference between what hoteliers are asking for and what the industry's providing. But I think they run side by side, right? And so when you look at our landscape, technology's still relatively new for us, and it's been around for 10, 15 years now in a way that's really been impactful for the industry, but it's not fully developed, right? And so I think what our industry wants is they want a simple, easy, all-in-one platform where they have one business to go for when they need something, when they want something, one business to call, one bill to pay, and I think that makes a lot of sense. However, because our landscape is changing so fast, because technology's still trying to catch up, you can't really build everything fast enough to meet their needs, right? And so the current landscape looks more like a unified platform in which you can get anything you need and plug it into your PMS. And so until we have some sort of systemization in the industry where, you know, hotel A, hotel B, and hotel C all operate the same, or at least similarly, I think to really achieve that goal, but it's not gonna stop us from trying. No. Right? And so at RoomMaster specifically, you know, we have built a platform that has everything that you need. It has an RMS, it has a GMS, it has an AI concierge, it has advanced reporting, it has all of the functionality that hoteliers need to run their business. But in those instances when it may not meet the needs or we also have the ability to integrate with those who do, right? So, you know, specifically for those who haven't taken a look in a while, I think they'd be really surprised to see all of the different areas that we can impact their business. Steve Carran: I feel like every time I see a technology company, they call themselves modern. So I'm The Modern Hotelier. What does modern actually mean from the hotelier aspect? Steven Burman: Yeah, I can field that one. It's a buzzword, right? Everybody's modern, and this isn't... Everybody's got the AI thing going on, and you go to high tech, you go to any of these big, big, great shows, and everybody's talking AI. But at the end of the day, what does modern mean? Modern means today, and it means tomorrow. If you buy a car, it's old the second you drive it off the lot, right? So we are setting up our platform and our modern and reimagined version to continue to provide for hoteliers today and whatever comes in the next five, 10 years. I mean, we didn't use AI five years ago, and now it's everywhere. I planned an entire trip with ChatGPT, right? So you can build websites in minutes with Claude. It's that kind of thing where we are setting ourselves up to truly be adaptable to what's coming, and we don't know what's coming. So you have to take the steps and step back and allow AI to be able to be worked into our product, and that's what hoteliers expect. You know, 50% of people that are traveling right now are younger than me. They are the Millennial and Gen Z generation. Those are the people we're doing this for. Steve Carran: So RoomMaster is a proven system. It's been around for three decades. How does that experience shape you on what you're building today? Steven Burman: I mean, the bottom line is 30 years is a long time. 30 years is a time in which we are able to listen to people and get what they would like, and customize our business and our product around them. Our product has incredible advanced reporting. It's, as Mark said, it's been around for 30 years and has all these integrations that are native, and that's what people want. They don't want a system where you gotta pay this guy and then you gotta pay this guy, and then if you want support from this guy, you go here, and this guy over here. They want an all-in-one platform. We've heard that from hoteliers through the years that they want one ecosystem, and that's what we've done. It's made by hoteliers for hoteliers, and it's like Mark said, people that have done the front desk audit, people that have flipped rooms, people that have been at that front desk on Christmas Eve when there's a million people in front of you. These are the people that are working at our company and are building the product for the next generation to make it modern. Steve Carran: The amount of hoteliers that we talk to that want an all-in-one system, and if it can't do something, have those APIs where it's easy to connect to that integration. So you guys are definitely on the right track. So it already came up, AI, something that is obviously talked about a lot, not only in hospitality, but I think across every industry. Where do you believe AI actually belongs? Mark Bloomquist: Yeah. We hear this a lot. AI has arrived whether we wanted it to or not. And I think in certain ways we still think of it as the enemy, right? The thing... Steven Burman: That's gonna- Yeah, like in Terminator 2 where Skynet becomes self-aware, right? Mark Bloomquist: Yeah. The thing that's gonna replace our front desk person or the support call that we've all inevitably ended up on where we can't get a human on the other side of it. And it's understandable that any new technology that's disrupting our space and our industry is going to be uncomfortable, right? It's gonna ruffle some feathers. And so when we talk about it, I think it's important to understand that it's not here for those things. That's a momentary piece of what it's doing. But what it's really meant to do is to free our humans up to do what they're best at, and that's impact the guest experience. It's create an environment that's fun, welcoming, friendly. It's not to answer the phone and give somebody the Wi-Fi password. It's not to tell somebody whether or not you have a pool or if you accept pets. I think the statistic that Steve mentioned- 80%, Steven Burman: Yeah, 80% Mark Bloomquist: of queries that come in to hotels are repetitive. That eats a lot of time from our staff and our people, and it frustrates us, and it keeps us from doing the good fun things. And so I think when we look at AI, it's about making the humans more impactful, more efficient, more supportive in the ways that they were originally meant to do, and I think that's where it really belongs. Will it impact other areas? Absolutely. As we continue to grow, is it still gonna ruffle some feathers? Yeah, that's what new technology's meant to do. But I think once we start to see the impact in our revenue, the impact on our guest experience, and we feel the efficiencies that it's creating, I think we're all gonna understand that we're a lot better off. Steven Burman: At one point, all of these technologies were new. At one point we all thought computer, the internet was a big thing. Email, oh my gosh, email is here. Every generation has these things, and five years ago we didn't use AI, like I said earlier, and now we're using it and it's an adapt or die type situation. We need to get with this. And you think about running numbers. I can take our numbers and projections and put them into Claude and it does it in a graph. It's amazing. It does it so fast. We need to get to that place where we're leveraging AI. And like we said, like the highlight of a guest's trip is not gonna be when I gave them the Wi-Fi password. That's not it. You know, you go to a front desk, you see there's a million people at the front desk, and then people think, "Oh, I'm not gonna go ask my question." So it's bridging that gap and slowly getting this generation involved with it. So I think we're embracing it in a really good way. Steve Carran: I agree 100%. So one thing that we talk about a lot is automating technology. You said automating those tasks, but one thing RoomMaster is heavily investing in is account management and also human support, not AI support. So why is it still important to focus on that human side of things? Mark Bloomquist: I think it's important first to understand that again a lot of what humans do in our business, similar to the hotel, is repetitive work, right? And so there's a lot of simple questions that people wait to get answers for that AI can help with, that can make us more efficient, that can free us up to be present and available for the tougher, more difficult situations that come up in a hotelier's life. So first off, I think that's a super important part of it. But really for us, it's about starting more, better, and more productive conversations with our hoteliers and with our industry. Our hoteliers are on the front lines of the business. Their lives are changing so rapidly, not only from the introduction of technology like AI, but just from what's happening in their local ecosystem. It's important that we have a direct feed into that. And so in addition to our support mechanism, which, in our current landscape, a lot of people are moving more and more away from support, to your point, we also have account managers who do proactive outreach and conversations. We try to talk to every one of our customers at least once a quarter to hear from them, yes, but also to bring value to their lives, to help them get a more detailed picture of what's going on in their environment from what we see, from the data that we can bring to that conversation so that we can have honest discussions about what their goals are, what the plan is to achieve them, and what RoomMaster can do to help them get there faster and ultimately impact their business and their bottom line. Steve Carran: That's great. That's great. Well, thank you for not having AI support because I'm sure we've all dealt with it... and it is the most frustrating thing ever. Mark Bloomquist: Well, I think it's important to note there is a layer of AI support for our business as well. Yeah. But it isn't... It is meant to make our people more efficient. It's meant to get you to people faster when you need it. And so I think that's the difference there. Steven Burman: Yeah, we flagged it earlier with the repetitive questions. If you call in and you're like, "Hey, how do I reset my password?" There's a prompt that'll come. AI will address that immediately. You get your info, and away you go. And as you know, it learns. So when repetitive questions come in, it learns. It learns the objections involved with them, and then it continues to help. If you need an agent, if you need to talk to someone directly, someone's available, we'll get you that person right away. Yeah. And that's important, and I know people love that, and it's a big thing, and we're not gonna get away from that. Yeah. But the repetitive questions, man, that's the stuff, the Wi-Fi password question, right? So. Steve Carran: Absolutely. There's been so many times where I'm like, "Talk to someone, talk to someone." It's like... "That's not a prompt I understand." But that's a whole nother discussion. So the guest journey is really changing, and direct bookings are becoming, you know, more important than ever for hotel profitability. How can technology help independent hotels win more of that guest relationship? Yeah. Steven Burman: This is his specialty. Yeah, this is my specialty. This is where I shine, baby. Put me in, coach. The biggest elephant in the room is that, yes, OTAs are important. Your Expedias, your Booking.coms, your Travelocities, yes, they are important. They get you exposure and recognition, and knowing you're there is the first part in any brand's journey. If I have a brand-new hotel, I want everybody to see where I am and know that I'm on the map 100%. You need to be seen. But another part in that is when they see you, driving them to you and driving them to book directly is really important. We leverage that with our booking engine, enables you to be part of the meta search. So let's say I go to Google. I open up Google Maps, and I hover over Miami, and I click hotels. Yeah. That's gonna give every hotel that's on that meta search, and when you see Expedia's 300 bucks, and wait, I can book for 280 direct with the customer. And that's what we want. We wanna drive people to that. Hoteliers are losing their shirts at 20, 30% just paying right to the Expedias of the world for that exposure. But we're leveraging AI, we're leveraging the meta search to get folks to actually drive direct bookings. We do a website design, which is amazing to set up your booking engine, your channel manager right on your website. It looks great, it integrates, it's embedded, and that'll get your customers to go to the front desk, which is your website at this point, since we know that 90% of people start their journey online, and that number is going up. No longer are we looking in Yellow Pages for hotels. It's all online. So a good online avenue to book direct is what we are championing, and we are so passionate about that. Steve Carran: Switching PMSes is one of the biggest technology decisions hotels make. It is one of the hardest things to switch for a hotel. It's removing the brain of the hotel... putting a new brain in. Coming from the PMS space, I have heard some wild horror stories, but what should hotels really be evaluating before switching a PMS? Mark Bloomquist: This one, we deal with this one a lot. Steve Carran: Yeah, I can imagine. Mark Bloomquist: What we see is we see a lot of people that come to that conversation looking for answers, right? Looking to compare PMS A to PMS B to PMS C and trying to make a decision based on what's available, not based on what's going on in their business, right? And so the first thing that I think is really important for anybody is to take a good hard look at what's going on inside of your four walls, and an honest look, right? Knowing where you excel is one thing. Knowing where you struggle is probably the more important thing. Knowing where you wanna go. All of these are super, super important, and we get so stuck kind of where we are all the time, that it's important that you have that information and you come ready to share. Be honest. It's okay. Everybody has a struggle inside of their business, no matter who you are, where you are. And so once you get to that point, it's a lot easier to evaluate the right system to partner with. Who can have the impact on your business in the way that you want it to so that you can hit your goals? And I think we see a lot of people changing all the time, right? And it's usually because they didn't do that in the first place, or, and I think this is almost the more important piece, is they chose a PMS for where they're at, not where they're going, right? And, you know, you have to choose somebody who is growing with you. You know, we've talked a lot about the modernization of RoomMaster. I don't know if we were always the right PMS for where people were going, but we are today. That's part of our modernization of a company. And so as we have more and more conversation, that's what's important for us to tell people is, "Look, we are the same great PMS that we have been." Although now we're built to grow with you. We're built to meet your needs today, tomorrow, and into the future. And so that's a big part of those conversations that we're having now is bring us the information of where you are, yes please, but also bring us the information of where you wanna go, and we'll do the same for you, and hopefully it lines up and we can build a beautiful partnership. Steven Burman: It is hard. Like it is, it's tough to switch. Absolutely hear customers on that one. The thing for RoomMaster is we know that we've been in the game 30 years. We wanna come off like a trusted advisor, a real consultative approach to how can we help you achieve those future goals, those modern goals. But we are very cognizant of the fact that it is a big decision, but we wanna be with our customers every step of the way through that and make it as easy as possible. Steve Carran: So are there any hotels that RoomMaster works really well with, or is it more of a broad gamut of hotels? Mark Bloomquist: RoomMaster's built to work with all levels of hotels. You know, we certainly have our niche that I think is best fit for us, that medium size to large size hotel, that is growing, that's evolving with the industry, that's looking to be modern and, you know, has a good understanding of where they're headed. I think that's probably our best fit. You wanna add anything to that? Steven Burman: Absolutely. No, that's perfect. I think that we get pigeonholed with, "Hey, it's gotta be eight rooms or 50 rooms or 100 rooms." Especially our new system is modernized perfectly to deal with any sort of hotels. We have great relationship with large groups, and we thrive in a large group environment with our advanced reporting. But listen, anybody in the United States, Canada, the UK, overseas, we're open, we're ready, and RoomMaster Reimagined is a great product. It looks so good. It's so fast. So we really invite everyone, if you haven't taken a look at us, do so, and if you were before, we'd love to see you back, and we're ready. Mark Bloomquist: Yeah. Now's a great time to come back and take a second look. Steve Carran: I love it. So speaking of taking a look, Mark, Steve, this has been a lot of fun. For those that are interested in learning more about RoomMaster, how do they get ahold of you? How do they check out RoomMaster? Yeah. Plug away. Mark Bloomquist: Easiest way is probably to go to the website, right? roommaster.com. You can sign up for a demo. You can see screenshots of the new system. You can get an understanding of things that are, you know, different changes, things that have come up. But ultimately, you know, the best way to get in touch with us is there, and one of our team members will reach out to you and set up a call and get to know you and get to understand your business better so we can show you how we can help. Steven Burman: LinkedIn, YouTube, the whole deal. We're available. We're ready. And the other thing that we champion is speed of service. Reach out to us, we'll get back to you immediately. This isn't gonna be three weeks later. Yeah. We're ready to go. Steve Carran: Love it. Love it. And I wouldn't be doing my job, show those kicks off. The kicks in the game at the Independent Hotel Show, Miami. Well, Mark, Steve, thanks for stopping by, chatting with me. I had a lot of fun. This has been another episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Make sure to follow, like, and subscribe, and we'll see you next time. Thanks a lot, gentlemen. Thank you. Awesome. Mark Bloomquist: Thanks for having us.