Data is a critical tool to a hotel’s operations and is broken down into big data, small data, structured data, and unstructured data. Since hotels use various systems, including PMS, POS systems, guest reputation platforms, OTAs, forecast and budgeting tools, and so on, there is an enormous amount of data being produced and received daily. Add to that, hotel groups and chains who have similar data per property and sometimes use the same or different systems based on location or because they were historically set up that way. With massive amounts of data now available to hotels, it’s safe to say that all future technologies will rely on data and integrations.

HITEC Europe, the annual conference for hospitality technology by HFTP, is home to some of the brightest minds in the hospitality industry, who navigate through essential topics in the field today. Carson Booth, CEO of SnapShot, a Shiji Group Band/HFTP Global Board member, unpacked the topic of “The Future of Integration: There is a Right Answer,” during a panel session on April 10, in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. This panel session, moderated by Ally Northfield, Managing Director of Design Ltd., included thoughts from other industry experts -  Lyle Worthington, HFTP Global Past President and HITEC Europe Advisory Council member, and Ulrich Pillau, CEO of apaleo GmbH.

Given the depth of the topic, the educational panel was conducted for over an hour with detailed insights from the experienced panelists. For your benefit, we’ve highlighted the most interesting and informative ideas shared during the panel.

Big data. We’ve all heard and talked about it. Big data is a major component of every industry and hospitality is not an exception. Knowing how to recognize and utilize big data to your company’s advantage unlocks great amounts of power. However, having access to data is one thing, but to maximize big data, it needs to be actionable and clearly defined in a detailed data strategy.

Take children for example - we all have been a child and many of us have raised one. Let's use a metaphor of a child playing in a room and when you arrive, it’s a complete mess with toys, books, and clothing everywhere.You immediately start thinking of how to clean up the mess into an organized state. This is how many of today’s data points look if they’re not structured properly and well managed. Without organization of any form, big data is one gigantic room with data points scattered around and thrown everywhere - it’s a big data problem and it's time to clean up.