As business travel slowly ticks up, hotel companies can no longer expect a steady stream of minimum-wage workers to uphold service standards. How can hotels get workers and keep them this year?

For example, global hospitality companies can unify multiple employee software platforms across brands, allowing employees to easily transfer to different hotel locations or even different locations under different brand names. This would allow hotels to catch up to the “future of work” flexibility that many hospitality workers are craving as they leave the industry.

To make this happen, hotel companies will need to direct much more of their focus to software and data. In order to develop a strategy around which brands to partner with and what the back-end platform should look like, companies need to understand what their employees want—whether it is more flexibility around hours, location or job function.

Agile ways of working, new tech capabilities and data processes will all be crucial in the development and continuous optimization of these employee ecosystems. Hotel companies that can successfully integrate internal worker management platforms into a one-stop ecosystem, and provide employees with an excellent experience, will benefit from employee loyalty.

At the same time, hospitality workers can take better ownership over the guest experience through cloud-based tipping, referral and review programs. In order to compete for employees with restaurants and other customer service industries and provide a more personalized, human guest experience, hotels need to incentivize better service and make tipping easier.

Today's hospitality tipping process is ripe for disruption. Guests are eager to build relationships with hotel employees, especially as extended stays become more popular, according to research from Lodging Econometrics.

Yet there are often no options to tip the majority of hotel workers outside of cash. While some hotels created mobile tipping options for housekeepers, mobile tipping for front-of-house staff has yet to be implemented, despite the fact that front-of-house staff often have the most interaction with customers.

By 2024, hotel companies will need to upgrade their mobile guest technology, giving guests the option to tip or leave reviews for employees conveniently and in the moment.

From hotel chatbots to iPhone-controlled lighting, more and more of the hotel experience is being digitized—but that doesn’t mean it should become less human. As new luxury hotel developments accelerate in the Middle East and international inbound travel continues to increase in the region, domestic and international tourists will expect a delicate balance of advanced technology and a personalized human touch.

What does this mean?

Hotels need to go back to the basics when it comes to customer service, looking at the guest experience journey holistically.

For example, mobile hotel room service can allow guests to track their order time, see photos of the food and put in orders automatically to the kitchen on the back-end. But if mobile room service doesn’t allow for menu modifications, this digital-first approach is no longer customer-centric.

Hotel companies will also need to modernize their tech stacks—from contactless check-in to cloud infrastructure—to continue offering digital-first, customer-centric experiences.

To meet ambitious 2050 net-zero emissions targets set by regulators in the E.U., U.S., and Canada, hotel companies will need to address sustainability in 2024, starting with new construction, using IoT technology.

Embodied carbon in the construction and renovation of buildings is a significant contributor to global emissions, with hotel construction accounting for another 2 percent of global carbon emissions, bringing the total footprint of the hospitality industry to 3 percent, according to the EHL Business School in the Hotel Yearbook 2023.

For example, constructing hotels made of timber, reused materials, or even opting for major renovations over new builds can heavily decrease GHG emissions. At the same time, avoiding deforestation and disruption to natural wildlife and ecosystems through regenerative tourism goes a long way.

In 2024, hotel companies, especially in the luxury sector, will need clear greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions strategies in place for new construction, as financial valuation and consumer sentiment are increasingly linked to sustainability practices. By implementing IoT technology, hotels can work back from current measurements to determine how to approach new hotel builds, how to approach modifying current hotel practices, and how to market these new strategies to consumers.

Sustainability in construction will require a highly automated tech solution for transparency in deriving measures, monitoring progress and sharing data.

As event-based travel heats up with concerts like Taylor Swift’s global tour or athletic games like the 2024 Olympics hosted in France, hotels need to centralize guest booking data and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize booking experiences for music and sports fans.

According to forecasting from CoStar Group, hotel occupancy rates in the U.S. and overall travel demand in Europe will increase marginally in 2024, as business and leisure travel rates steadily climb toward pre-pandemic levels, albeit more slowly than previously predicted.

Utilizing occupancy data requires front-end and back-end software transformation. For example, geolocation technology tracking guest arrival could allow hotels to control traffic flow at the front desk, decreasing wait times and creating a more personalized check-in experience.

In 2024, hotels that offer connected guest experiences will need to focus on convenience, affordability and sustainability. Centralized data capabilities and AI will create even more opportunities for personalized customer service.