IHG Hotels & Resort

Raj Balaguru

Could you share your journey in the hospitality industry before IHG?

I started my career in the hospitality industry about 25 years ago in Malaysia and have worked with multiple global brands in various Asia-Pacific regions, such as Radisson, GHM hotels, Marriott, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Wyndham destinations, and minor hotels before landing the role of IT director in IHG.

What are the challenges and trends currently existing in the travel and hospitality space post-pandemic?

The pandemic made the hospitality industry a bit more agile and robust by presenting an opportunity to upgrade business operations with the evolving industry. For example, the post[1]pandemic video conferencing capabilities of the social media platform were in progress to enable remote working. The hotel owners utilised this time to upgrade the technology and refresh their infrastructure equipment to incorporate the new millennial travel trend.

As per the recent Oracle study in hospitality, a global shortage of skilled workers has led to technological development which automates tasks that used to be laborious, whereas post-pandemic majority of people prefer contactless service over manual assistance. Many hotels stepped up to implement the evolving contactless technology to assimilate the new travel trend and change in travelers behavior.

The major challenges the hotel industry faces are keeping pace with changing travel trends while upgrading hotel infrastructure with a shortage of supplies. And to convince the hotel owners or technology vendors to spend money on incorporating technology that enhances the guest journey and delivers an increased return on investment and return on experience.

Could you share a scenario where you have incorporated these technologies and trends and how it helped your company?

By upgrading the technologies specifically to align with the new travelling pattern for future-proofing to provide a stable and consistent customer journey. By taking advantage of the new technologies to deliver a better guest experience and better ROI for the owners, I am focusing on driving major digital transformation in all the hotels under the Salter brothers, who own six of the IHG hotels in Australia. Currently, we are upgrading the guest wifi experiences and digital television signage to offer better guest room entertainment with the benefit of cost and energy efficiency.

Is there anything you'd like to share with your colleagues to help them adapt to new technologies and provide a better customer experience?

Based on my experience, I advise my peers to convince hotel owners to upgrade technology by focusing on commercials, ROI, and energy-saving solutions that provide speedy performance and a better customer journey. The technological information should be presented in a very simple language as it is important for hotel owners or asset managers to understand the offerings of the solutions. For example, we purchased over a thousand televisions for three different hotels, and I chose three major brands to compare; after analyzing, I discovered that new technologies in televisions now save 50 percent of current energy consumption, resulting in energy savings and eco-friendly benefits.