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How Is Digitization Changing & Shaping The Hospitality Industry?

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Salma Shaikh, Manager, Marriot international, Pune

Courtyard Marriott Pune Chakan is a modern & eco-friendly hotel with its world-class amenities offering spacious guest rooms & suites with plush bedding, highspeed Wi-Fi, marble bathrooms, 24-hour room service and others facilities for their guests.

Digital transformation has expanded its footprints in all the sectors like healthcare, banking, automobile, and many others, but hospitality and travel industry are one of the most benefited sectors by this recent digitization. Gone are the days when one had to stand in long queue for reservations, with the advent of digitalization, planning a leisure trip is done with merely few taps on smartphones. Recent mushrooming of online travel portals has enabled customers to get the best deals in just a few clicks. It offers an overview of all the hotels across the location and makes it convenient for the travelers to schedule a trip. These Online Travel Agents (OTAs) facilitate customers to plan a hassle-free and cost-effective trip, as they get a chance to browse different hotels in real time. It is very important for the hotels to have their presence on these distribution sites as they bring lots of traffic to the hotel’s website.

It is a necessity to have a SEO-friendly website that is quite informative. Detail description of the property is mentioned on the website. It also provides the prospective travelers with in-depth insight about the restaurants and café that the

property houses and provides online booking as well. In the age of digitization, it is very important to stay connected and a website which is designed efficiently, quick and easy to access, elevates the browser experience and converts them as their guests.

In the era of digitization, when smartphones have already penetrated the market, it is important to connect with the next-gen travelers digitally on mobile platforms during their travel. Mobile is one of the fastest growing platforms and to leverage this, mobile applications are designed to make the travel easier and more personalized for the guests across the globe. This dynamic mobile application makes travel easy and convenient by enabling guests to do mobile check-in, check-out and providing them with room ready alerts. This mobile check-in facility saves time as the guests need not stand in the long queue and can have easy, quick, and hassle-free check-ins.

In the age of digitization, it is very important to stay connected and a website which is designed efficiently, quick and easy to access, elevates the browser experience and converts them as their guests


Social Media has fundamentally changed the way we communicate and has a great impact on travel and hospitality industry in reshaping the marketing and promotions. Apart from their innovative digital strategies and technological platforms, it is very important to stay active on social media pages like Facebook and Instagram. These social media platforms are highly interactive and prompt in facilitating customers with information. To stay in sync with the millennial generation, it is important for the companies to share engaging content on social media to grab attentions. To encash the interactivity feature of social media, some of the bigwigs of hospitality sector also run campaigns and invite their guests to participate in it. Guest experience and reviews on social media help in creating lots of engagement from the audience. These honest and unbiased reviews help travellers to choose their stay effectively and help the property to work on the feedback and improve their services. With the onset of the digital era, travel bloggers are playing an important role in influencing travel and hospitality industry. These bloggers have a huge list of followers and they update their blogs & vlogs with regular reviews of hotels. These reviews available online plays a significant role in influencing guests’ choices. Digitization has changed the consumption habits and choices of travelers, thus it is very important for travel and hospitality industry to imbibe digitalization in their services for their survival.

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