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.

As seen in our previous article about application program interfaces, or APIs, are the “backbone of any digital network of programs. They are how we connect the various hospitality software, applications, and programs that keep our hotel operations running on a daily basis.”

Given the increasing amounts of hotel technologies being created by various vendors and utilized in the hospitality industry, integrations between the numerous software and programs in a hotel are becoming of paramount importance. Without APIs to break down the barriers between different systems, what is the point of purchasing and installing all of this hotel technology if they cannot even connect to each other?

Data is everywhere. In our computers, in our phones, in the cloud, and virtually every kind of system or software that records information. Let’s just say there is a lot of data out there. Once you have all of your data, what next? We’ve talked about data platforms and their value to the hospitality industry, but there is still one important key factor that is crucial to gaining all advantages from a data platform’s ability to analyze and visualize, which lies in business intelligence.