In the dynamic scenario of the hotel industry, hotel groups play a fundamental role in operating and managing multiple brands and establishments under the same corporate structure.
A hotel group operates or owns multiple brands or properties under a single entity—whether directly, as owner and manager, through franchising, or a combination of both. Large global hotel companies often partner with groups or chains to maintain cost control and benefit from brand positioning.
Hotel groups must define, for their operation and brand identity, the administrative characteristics that guide them and identify: target audience preferences (luxury, family, business), average length of stay (short, long, intermittent), services offered (accommodation only, accommodation with food and beverages or multiple amenities) and whether one or several brands will be established according to the characteristics of the enterprises that comprise it.
To innovate, it’s essential to adopt and integrate new technologies into operations and guest interactions—seeking not just efficiency, but a complete reinvention of the customer experience, which is vital to remaining competitive in a constantly evolving industry.
Main challenges for hotel groups
Hotel groups face interconnected challenges that require clear strategies and technology adoption:
- Define the management, control and operational efficiency model
- Comply with local and international regulations
- Addressing labor shortages and high turnover rates
- Recreate the guest experience
Hotel groups must define whether management will be carried out using their own assets or through contractual arrangements, such as franchises, management contracts, leases, or joint ventures, among others. It is also necessary to determine whether operations will be centralized or decentralized, whether multiple brands will be managed under a single entity, or whether the identity of a single hotel group brand will be standardized and unified, without losing the uniqueness of each unit. This definition determines whether information for each property will be comparable at the group level, maintaining its unique identity, or whether it will be managed independently.
If centralization is chosen, it’s necessary to advance data standardization and mapping. To achieve comparability across properties, a hotel group must implement a master data model, which serves as a common language for all properties. This model defines a set of standardized attributes and categories for key elements, such as room types, services, traveler profiles, market segments and sources, among others.
The centralization process also involves registering agencies, operators, OTAs, and companies, as well as creating a single customer database for all establishments. This data collection requires time, dedication, and precision, and should therefore be leveraged and shared across all units—enabling the identification of new opportunities, especially in less developed establishments, through analysis of sales channels and the market.
Compliance with local regulations
Hotel groups must adapt to local, national, and international regulations in each region where they operate. This involves considering aspects such as licenses and permits, labor, tax, and fiscal laws, as well as health, hygiene, and safety standards.
To ensure compliance, it’s essential to identify the specific laws and regulations applicable to each destination. Subsequently, internal policies and procedures, such as a compliance management system, should be established, and ongoing training of teams should be ensured so they can identify and correct any non-compliances.
To achieve this, operations must be supported by modern hotel management systems (PMS), prepared to monitor indicators and track the group’s diversification and geographic expansion, ensuring efficiency and compliance in all markets where it operates.
Managing a hotel chain requires a dual operation: on the one hand, there are activities that can be centralized and, on the other, those that need to be carried out in a decentralized manner, in the places where they are actually consumed.
The first group includes marketing, financial management, treasury, and central reservations control, among others. All of these functions are subject to strong economies of scale and, therefore, are typically physically concentrated and performed by professionals with higher technical qualifications.
The second group includes activities directly linked to accommodation, food, or any other service that requires the guest’s presence—a characteristic that prevents centralization. These activities rarely benefit from the advantages of centralization, as they must be performed at the very location where the service is provided.
Hospitality is a labor-intensive industry, and finding qualified and motivated professionals can be a major challenge. Hotel chains often face high turnover and a shortage of skilled personnel in operational and service areas.
This challenge requires investment in training, competitive salaries, adequate benefits, and clear opportunities for professional development and growth.
These actions foster talent retention and help maintain a positive work environment, generally resulting in improved network standards and the quality of customer service.
Hotel groups must go beyond simply offering accommodations to create unique and memorable experiences for their guests.
To enhance the guest experience with each use, it is essential that statistical data from each visit to the group’s properties be recorded in a single, properly registered container. This data must be accessible and centralized for all hotels, identifying: reservations and their status (made, canceled, no-show); number of guests in each property; average number of days; revenue generated in each area (accommodation, food and beverage, ancillary services); assigned rate; guest status in the group (Standard, Preferred, VIP); among others.
To overcome this challenge, groups must adopt and integrate new technologies into their operations and incorporate management systems (PMS) that enable the storage, control, and timely availability of data. This seeks not only efficiency, but a complete reinvention of the customer experience. Using the information collected to anticipate needs and personalize the guest experience is vital and allows them to differentiate themselves and remain competitive.
Paths to Innovation
The main paths to innovation focus on technology and sustainability
Adopting new technologies is essential to improving efficiency, productivity, and communication within a group, as process automation streamlines data management and enables better decision-making by providing access to unified, real-time information.
This translates into reduced errors and costs, greater information security, and improvements in customer service and team collaboration.
Some technological systems that drive innovation in hotel groups include:
- Central Reservations System (CRS): Central reservations systems centralize the management of inventory, rates, and reservations for a hotel group, aiming to optimize revenue. They allow for the synchronization of availability across all sales channels, reducing overbooking and unwanted cancellations. They also automate processes, collect guest data to personalize the experience, and strengthen the hotel's direct sales, reducing dependence on intermediaries.
- Channel Managers (CM): Allows you to centralize and automate the management of room availability and rates across multiple online booking platforms, such as OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) and metasearch engines. This integration prevents overbooking and duplicate bookings, streamlines distribution to reach a wider audience, optimizes occupancy, and maximizes revenue.
- Booking Engines (BE): These allow you to accept and process direct reservations through the hotel's official website, social media, or metasearch engines, increasing occupancy and profitability by reducing dependence on intermediaries.
- Property Management System (PMS): Refers to the software that automates the daily operations of a hotel, covering all key processes — from reservation management, guest registration and check-in/out, and posting of charges to guest accounts, to billing, room inventory control, customer relationship management (CRM), and report generation. As mentioned earlier, hotel chains should adopt PMS solutions that enable the centralization of information across all properties, ensuring integration, standardization, and operational efficiency.
- Point of Sale (POS): A software system that manages the sale transactions of services and products, capable of processing payments across different areas of the hotel, such as restaurants, bars, shops, and laundry, among others. It can operate instantly or allow charges to be posted to the guest’s room account, to be paid upon check-out.
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): Also known as back office, this system integrates and manages the group’s financial and accounting processes, collecting data from multiple sources such as the PMS and POS, and often includes a human resources management module.
- Consolidates information for various financial statements, automates business and operational practices, and unifies operations into a single system, ensuring traceability and control across all processes.
Finally, hotel groups are adapting sustainability programs, implementing practices such as waste reduction, renewable energy use, water conservation, CO2 emissions control, and the use of single-use plastics.
These practices have become necessary to meet customer demands and offset emissions generated over time, thus contributing to a more sustainable future.
Conclusions
The success and survival of hotel groups in today’s dynamic market depends on their ability to manage operational complexity and adapt to customer demands through innovation.
- Data Centralization is the Key to Efficiency
- Technology is the Engine of Experience (and Business)
- Talent Management and Sustainability Are Competitive Imperatives
Ultimately, the hotel groups that can integrate and centralize their data, automate processes, and proactively address talent and sustainability challenges will be the ones that remain competitive and lead the industry.
