Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed enormous growth in cloud adoption by hotels in India. Not only are bigger international hotel brands that are expanding their footprints in India, leveraging the power of the cloud but domestic hotel brands – both groups and even standalone properties are taking the lead when digitising operations with the cloud.
Cloud-led digital transformation in hotels
As per our observation, two significant factors are worth considering when we examine the reasons behind the accelerated cloud adoption among Indian hotels. Firstly, hotels were and are under tremendous pressure to innovate and quickly adapt to their guests’ changing needs amidst increasing competition. Secondly, at the same time, hospitality technology providers have also made rapid advancements when it comes to offering matured, all-in-one comprehensive solutions while ensuring ease of implementation.
Like other organisations, hotels also aim to boost their business process agility and data-driven decision-making capabilities. In this context, for them, opting for a cloud-based hotel property management system along with several other cloud systems make absolute sense. Here are some critical benefits hotels have seen after migrating to the cloud.
- Significant cost savings with lower software ownership costs
- Faster go-live timeline
- Ability to access hotel data and execute operations on the go
- Capability to work with multiple third-party solution providers
- A substantial amount of time-saving
- Enhanced guest services capabilities
- Improved data security
In short, as an enabler, cloud solutions help hotels across size, star ratings, and offerings scale quickly, operate profitably and grow rapidly.
Where do Indian hotel groups stand in this whole development?
Well, they are the frontrunners in this. It won’t be wrong to say that they have spearheaded this trend in the industry to go cloud. Hotel groups have experienced numerous benefits from cloud-based hospitality solutions that were otherwise impossible with on-premise options. For example, let’s look at a Cloud Hotel PMS with multi-property management capabilities. It helps them to:
- Gain centralised control over group operations with a single sign-on
- Manage reservations across all the properties from the central call centre
- Centrally handle travel agents and corporate clients
- Access group-wide operations business-critical reports to make data-driven decisions
- Centrally access guest profiles/history to know their preferences and serve them better
- Centrally manage rates, revenue, and distribution for the group
- Add new properties and go live quickly
Another vital reason for hotel groups relying heavily on cloud solutions is this – many emerging and growing Indian mid-size hotel groups are transitioning to an ‘asset-light’ business model. It allows them to focus on operations rather than investing in costly physical assets. When they acquire and add a new property to their group, a cloud-based multi-property management system is the only thing they need to expand while significantly lowering IT costs.
What are they saying about cloud adoption?
While many established domestic hotel groups are slowly moving from on-premises to the cloud, new-age brands are prompt. “Hospitality establishments are now well versed with the importance of technology and the power of cloud. In our case too, when we started in 2019 with two properties, we were clear about adopting a cloud- based solution to support our well-defined growth plan. Today, we manage 13 properties pan India with cloud technology powering our chain’s operations,” says Deepika Arora, founder of Rosakue Hospitality, India.
Echoing the same sentiment, Pranav Mehra, partner at the Residency Hotel, Fort, Mumbai, said, “The cloud revolution has started in the Indian hotel industry. From now on, it will gather pace with intense competition to stay attractive in the market and serve guests better. 80% to 90% of hotel groups will migrate to the cloud in the next five years.”
Cloud-based hospitality technology solutions are essential for digital transformation, whether it is a Hotel PMS, channel manager, revenue management system, or booking engine. They offer faster deployment and improved connectivity compared to legacy systems. For hotels aiming to drive growth, the cloud is the only key to operational scalability, performance stability, data security, and earning guest loyalty. With cloud adoption set to grow, as hotels’ technology partner, we are extremely happy to be part of this promising transition.
