With continued economic uncertainty, labor challenges and increased costs across the hospitality industry, hotels are looking for ways to improve efficiencies and save expenses. But how can they cut back or make changes without sacrificing guest satisfaction? This topic was top-of-mind at HITEC 2025 last week, covered throughout sessions and across the exhibit hall.
Welcoming Guests
First impressions are key (pun intended). Whether onsite staffing is limited or guests just want to avoid the lines and head to their room after a long day of travel, offering digital check-ins with keys via mobile wallets is a powerful upgrade that can be made to enhance guest experiences. In fact, the 2024 Customer Engagement study found that sixty percent of respondents want to use their mobile devices as room keys.
Additionally, hotels are now also moving toward immediate Wi-Fi authentication so guests’ devices are automatically authenticated any time they return to the hotel or any of the same brand around the world. Through Passpoint technology, this can offload hotels from answering Wi-Fi questions and can also send personalized messages (think upsell opportunities) based on preferences.
One overarching piece to the welcome experience is security – physical and digital. The 2025 Lodging Study showed that ninety percent of hotel professionals survey respondents indicated that enhancing data security is either very or extremely important, while 77% rank improving physical safety of guests and staff as a top technology initiative. Why not address this requirement at the same time? Nomadix and Vingcard both offer solutions to support these needs.
Automation Support
In the face of continued labor challenges, technology can support and supplement tasks for smoother operations. Whether it’s back-of-house technology like housekeeping scheduling tools, staff safety devices or inventory management, or guest-facing applications including self-check-in kiosks, reservations and digital concierge services, technology can streamline and offload tasks from staff – creating better experiences across the hotel.
One important thing to consider is each piece of technology added to a hotel has to stand on its own merits for guest or staff ease-of-use, functionality and cost benefits. They must be able to easily “talk to each other” in order to optimize automation.
Most automated technologies rely on a connection to the Wi-Fi, so it typically needs to have reliable access while also segmented to ensure security across the network. It’s critical for the hotel to have a robust and secure network to accommodate the increasing usage, bandwidth and automation in a secure manner.
Luckily, the Lodging Study also found that 67% of hotel professions have initiatives to enhance bandwidth and connectivity. This is on track with supporting trends in automation, IoT and other technology support in hotels.
Efficient Operations
With challenges to ADR and rate stability, hotels are adopting technologies to help cut costs, eliminate waste, and provide more efficiency across operations.
In terms of operational efficiency, the next frontier in hospitality technology will be the conversion of guestroom thermostats from the traditional Zigbee or proprietary mesh networks to Wi-Fi connected, smart systems. This is going to be a game changer by managing energy use from the cloud using real time conditions and information for better control of idol room heating and cooling for greater cost savings. This is especially important for automatic system changes when guests check in and out of the hotel. In fact, Energy Star notes that for heating and cooling, “EMS can enhance guest comfort while reducing energy costs by 35 to 45 percent.”
These updates also align to the focus on environmental impacts of hotels and how to create more eco-friendly experiences – with 81% of travelers choosing a sustainable accommodation.
We participated in some interesting conversations and enjoyed the education sessions at HITEC 2025 that focused on these areas. There’s a lot of great opportunities for technologies to support industry challenges for hotels, while creating better experiences for guests and staff. Interested in learning more about how Nomadix can help enhance guest experiences? Feel free to reach out or book a meeting. Let us help you bring connected experiences to life.
Mike Gray is Global Vice President – Strategic Partnerships at Nomadix, an ASSA ABLOY company, and is recognized as a global technology leader in the AHLA Global Technology 100 (T100).