October 6, 2025 • 28 mins
What if your team could double productivity—without adding a single new hire? In this episode, Diego Fernández, CEO of Port Hotels, reveals how his 11-property Spanish hotel group is scaling smarter by automating repetitive work and treating technology as an investment, not a cost.
Takeaways:
- Build for scalability, not complexity: Learn how Port Hotels is using a unified PMS ecosystem to operate 11 hotels as efficiently as one.
- Free your team from repetitive work: Discover how AI and automation are helping staff shift from manual data entry to guest-facing, value-creating roles.
- Rethink ROI on tech: Hear Diego’s simple but powerful framework for pitching new technology projects to owners—turning “costs” into high-return investments.
Port Hotels even tested service robots—not to replace staff, but to give them back time to connect with guests, showing that smart automation can enhance hospitality rather than depersonalize it.
Subscribe to Hotel Tech Insider for more real-world lessons from forward-thinking hotel leaders like Diego who are redefining what operational excellence looks like in the digital era.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is going to cost 10,000, but we are going to earn
1,000,000. Nobody is going tosay no to that. So we need to
start thinking as an investmentin terms of technology.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Today, we connect with Diego Fernandez, the CEO of
Port Hotels. After leadingrevenue management at Palladium
for a decade, Diego is now incharge of Port Hotels' 11
properties and nine fiftyemployees based in Spain. Diego
shares his best practices as thecompany works towards
scalability and eliminatingrepetitive manual tasks. Let's
(00:45):
dive in. Well, thank you, Diego,so much for being on the
podcast.
Really looking forward to ourconversation. To start things
off, I would love for you tointroduce yourself, tell us a
bit about your career journeyand your role right now at Port
Hotels.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Now, first of all, thank you to you for the
invitation. It's a pleasure toshare that minutes with you and
try to give my special opinionabout the technology, about
systems, about all these thingsthat in some cases I love a lot.
But first of all, let meintroduce myself during a couple
(01:24):
of minutes. I'm Diego FernandezPredeponga. I'm the CEO of Corf
Hotels.
I have been working in the hotelindustry for the last twenty
years. I just became CEO oneyear at my house for the first
time. So I'm in this test time,I'm testing, or they are testing
(01:47):
me. So I hope I'm doing a greatjob here. But before that, I was
the former Director of RevenueManagement at Palladium.
I spent almost twelve years ofmy career doing revenue
management, corporate level. AndI studied a lot of time ago,
auto management. So I started tobe a GM. I love this industry
(02:11):
and I knew it a lot of yearsago. On the other hand, Port
Hotels, we are a Spanish companybased in Spain, we have 11
hotels.
This is only to put perspectiveto that numbers, almost 2,000
rooms across the CommodioValenciana, which is an area of
(02:32):
Spain. We have in our peakseason almost nine fifty
employees, which is a largenumber of people. We have some
of our portfolio, our cityhotels, another part of the
portfolio are research hotels,and three and four and four are
Star Superiors hotels. So we tryto cover all our guests, all our
(02:55):
segments possible. Ourheadquarters are located in
Benidorm, which is a reallyimportant place in Spain in
terms of tourism, because almostsixty years ago, almost seventy,
the tourism started in this areain Spain.
So this is the birthplace oftourism in Spain. So it's a
(03:17):
really nice area. And we haveour headquarters, our commercial
team and our GMs, and some morestuff here at our headquarters.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, thanks for the intro. And I am excited to
unpack all the exciting thingsyou're doing at Port Hotels. So
to get started, given that youhave a sizable portfolio, some
variety in the hotels that arein that portfolio, What would
you say is the most criticaltechnology partner to the
success of a hotel and why?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I'm going to say something really, probably easy
to say, which is the PMS. Whenyou ask me that, they said,
okay, we cannot wear some fancystuff, but not, it's our PMS.
Because the PMS is like theheart of the company right now.
(04:12):
And I'm pretty sure that it'snot in our case. It's in a lot
of hotels, the PMS, and a lot ofindustry companies, the PMS is
the central point of the life inthe hotel.
Because probably 80% of all the,all the things that happen in a
hotel, you use the PMS. At leastin our case, at least in the
(04:33):
cases where I worked in mycareer. If you are having the
first contact with the clientand you are incorporating a
reservation, a booking in thesystem, probably you use the
PMS. Okay. You are only onehotel, you don't have a CRS, you
have a PMS where you incorporateyour reservation.
(04:54):
In our case, we have acentralized PMS. So we
incorporate the reservation inthe PMS. Once the client goes to
the hotel, what do you use? ThePMS to make the check-in. So the
first contact with our clientsin front of us in the reception,
you use the PMS.
(05:14):
Probably in the 95% ofopportunity, you use that
system. If you want to make roomchange, what do you use? The
PMS? If you have a problem inone room, probably in some
occasion, you use the PMS. Inour case, we use the PMS.
When we have a problem, we usesome part of the PMS where we
(05:35):
can, tell the problem that allour rooms have. To charge
something to the minibar, if youwant to charge something in the
swimming pool, you use the PMS,or POS connected to the PMS. And
last but not least, if you wantto make a checkout, a billing
process, probably you use thePMS. So at the end, at least in
(05:58):
our case, and what I have workedin the industry, the PMS is the
central system that you use. Andthis is critical.
Because once the PMS is notworking, nowadays, with all the
technology that we have inplace, we will almost die in the
hotels. We will almost die. Butthirty years ago, a lot of
(06:20):
things happened manually thereception. So you can't run a
hotel without internet. Nowadaysit's impossible, because this is
critical.
If lose internet in your hotel,probably you will have a really
bad day, the reception in thehotel. Answering that, and
probably the easiest way toanswer that, which is the most
(06:42):
critical technology that youhave opinions. I can be more
fancy, or there is a lot ofstaff, a lot of fancier stuff in
the industry. But at the end,all comes through the PMS.
Sometimes we lose a lot, orbetter said, we spend a lot of
time thinking in anotherplatforms, thinking how can we
(07:04):
improve the customer journeywith a lot of stuff going there.
A lot of technology, fancytechnology, AI technology
nowadays. But at the end, 80%,85%, 90% of your operations goes
through the So for us, it's withno doubt the PMS because in
(07:25):
that, in that technology, wehave the POS connected to the
PMS with the same vendor. And wehave a lot of stuff from that
vendor in the PMS. So if we losethe PMS, I have a problem, you
know. And I have, I want tothat, I think it was two months
ago, we had in Spain massiveblackout of electricity.
(07:49):
I don't know if it was somethingremarkable in Europe, but we
have almost one day of blackoutof electricity in the whole
country. Okay. So it was reallycomplicated to operate without
premiums. Some part of theportfolio could work personally
because we have anotherstructure to give energy to the
(08:09):
buildings. But a couple ofhotels were shut down completely
the electricity.
So we couldn't run properly thehotel without the It was
everything manual. It was reallycomplicated. And at that time
you realize, if the PMS falls,your hotels at that moment will
start to struggle. And itdoesn't matter which PMS do you.
(08:33):
Because all PMS in the world hasproblems, has good things.
But with no doubt, at least inmy opinion, it's the PMS
technology.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I'm curious, which PMS does port hotels use?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
We have everything in the company is centralized. We
have only one PMS for the entireportfolio. It's a local PMS
called STEA, and all the suitesthat we have. We have the POS
from that vendor, we have a lotof things. Technical services
maintenance system is also fromthem.
So we have a lot of stuff fromthat vendor, which gives us a
(09:11):
lot of good points becauseeverything is in the same place.
I mean, everything has the sametechnology. Everything in every
single property will have thesame technology. So this gives
us a lot of advantages rightnow.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah. I would love for you to walk me through the
tech stack. So in addition tothe PMS, what other systems are
used to generate command, handlerevenue management? I'm curious,
each step of the guest journey,which systems are in place?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
We have a CRM where we collect all the data from our
guests. Also our loyaltyprogram. The loyalty program is
the industry CRM. This CRM isconnected to the PMS. In the
PMS, we have everything.
We have the CRS or the bookingcenter model. We have the call
(10:03):
center model also. We have thePO system integrated in that
PMS. We have the technicalservices maintenance program
also in that same ecosystem.Also, have the booking engine is
provided by Panati, which is oneprovided here in Spain, a really
(10:24):
famous one, connected in twoways with our Channel Manager,
which is SiteMander.
SiteMander is connected to thePNS. And in terms of sales, we
don't have anything more. We arerunning manually in terms of
revenue management right now.And we are starting a third of
SP, cost for commercial to haveprobably in the next half year
(10:51):
area, an awareness in thecompany, which will help our
sales team to improve, improvethe sales with no doubt. We have
also chatbots connected to thewebsite.
So some part of the question areasked by AI agents right now in
the company. Nothing morerelated to sales. On the other
(11:14):
hand, in terms of billing andall these profits is managed by
VBS also. And something big, Imean, sometimes having less
things is better than having alot of things in a tech stack.
Okay.
Because sometimes the companywants to have every new system
(11:39):
that appears in the market wantsto have it. You start to collect
programs because every singledepartment wants to have the
best technology possible. So inour case, we try to, once we add
the technology, it must give usa lot of value to have it.
(11:59):
Because if not, you arecomplicating your tech staff so
much that they want to changesomething in the future, you
will be not able to do that.Because it's so complicated that
you want to change the opinionsin the future.
You will not be able because youhave 50 other programs connected
(12:20):
to the PMS. So we try to don'texpand a lot our tech stack.
Once we enter something, it'sbecause this is giving value to
our teams. And these arescalable systems with APIs, open
APIs, which can connect witheverything. And also because I
(12:42):
forgot completely some very,very important area, all the
data is managed by Microsoftwith Power BI.
We have everything in Power BI,in terms of reports. And with
that, we are able to run acompany in a good way. So
sometimes there are a lot ofvendors, new vendors with all
the AI ecosystem, or AI systemthat came from the industry. You
(13:07):
can buy every single week, onenew feature, or one new system.
It's getting really complicatedto swim in that, in that ocean
right now.
There are other vendors sellingthings daily. You realize that
in 90% of the occasions, that'sin chief value, real value to
(13:28):
the company.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I was also wondering about guest facing technology at
your hotels. Is there like anapp that guests use or anything
in the guest room that'sinteractive?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
We have with no doubt a web app where all our clients
were making a pilot. In that, weare testing that technology in
one of our hotels because, andit's a web app, not an app. And
this is a really importantdifference because the apps in
(14:03):
the hotel industry are notworking well because we have 100
apps in our mobile. So we don'twant to have another one. So we
are developing a new web appwhere we can sell to the clients
all the information related tothe hotels.
Also, are doing pilot withRefrieder, which is a cool
(14:25):
system where you can have thenewspapers, magazines, and so on
for free in our hotels. It'sdeveloping right now in the
company. But we don't want toadd a lot of things to the
client, the customer journey. Wetry to add value to that
customer journey. Because onceyou are making holidays in our
(14:48):
resorts, or going to a meetingin our city hotels, I mean, you
want to be relaxed.
You don't want to be touched bya lot of things. Because you use
technology in the check-in.Better say, You use technology
in the pre check-in. Okay.Because we send them an email,
trying to give all theinformation to the guests.
(15:09):
We use technology in thecheck-in. Okay. Because we have
obviously, stable to, tabs tomake a paperless checking. Okay.
We have tabs to make a checking,paperless checking.
Also, we have, based on ourportfolio, the team is ready in
place to use technology in that.But we don't need a lot of
(15:33):
things more. We have a web app,we have screens, a touchable
screen. We are making a pilotwith robots in one of our
hotels, and one robot in therestaurant to deliver dishes to
our guests, trying to see howthis technology is working. But,
I mean, we try to give space tothe clients.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
So with the pilot, with the robot, what was the
decision process on testingthat? It sounds like it must add
a lot of value if you'reconsidering it.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
It's really nice. Because as I said, love it and
Malay, once I entered thecompany, said, we need to try
robots. Okay. Because maybe theindustry is not great right now
for having robots in the hotels,because we are face to face
industry. We need to see peoplein front of us.
But in this case, we haveincorporated one robot to help
(16:32):
waiters to bring dishes to thekitchen. Okay. So instead of
having our waiters bringing backdishes to the kitchen, these
waiters are giving service toour clients. Okay. And the
leases are managed by thisroute.
(16:53):
Okay. And it's working. We arereally happy with that test. At
least all the news that theyhave are good news because it
also gives to the clientssomething cool. Because we have
a lot of kids in that hotel,which is the poor vineyard, and
a lot of kids want to have aselfie with the robot.
(17:14):
It's something also good, butit's given to our staff the
opportunity to stay more withthe client. Instead of going to
the kitchen and going back withdishes, they are able to spend
more time with our guests. Thedecision was, sorry, because I
realized that I didn't answeryou properly. The decision was
(17:35):
releasing is a test. We aregoing to try it with a company
where we want to try new thingswith no fear.
I mean, if you try, I mean, itdoesn't work. Okay. Nothing
happens. And it works, youimplement in the third company.
So it was an easy one in thistime.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
So are you planning on rolling this out to
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, the rest of the we will love it. We will love it
because also the waiters aremore, at the beginning, they
start to think that they want toreplace them via machines, but
it's not the case. It's not theidea. The idea is that our staff
use the time and the efforts inbig things, in important things,
(18:20):
not bringing dirty dishes intothe kitchen. I mean, speak with
a client, try to speak withthem, try to see how they are
going to the hotel, how they arein the hotel, how they are happy
or not.
Try to give value to thatexperience in the hotel for
that.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
That's really exciting. I would love to zoom
out a little bit and hear aboutone or two high priority
business objectives that you'refocused on. I think as CEO, you
have a unique perspective onwhat's happening throughout the
company. And I would love tohear some of your goals and how
technology will help you getthere.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That's a great question, Leanne. Thank you. To
ask that, I can resume in twowords, scalability and eliminate
repetitive manual work. I mean,I'm a little bit obsessed about
scalability. Okay.
Once we incorporate a system,once we incorporate a new
(19:21):
portfolio, once we incorporatesomething in the company, we
need to start thinking if, okay,we are running 11 hotels right
now. Can we run 20 hotels withthat? Can we do that for 20
hotels? No, we can't do it. Sothis process is not valid for
me.
We need to be scalable. We needto be more efficient in our
(19:44):
processes. Not for being a CEOwhen I was Director of Revenue
Management, I was thinking thesame. We need to do more with
the same resources, which is notthe same that with less
resources. We don't want toeliminate resources in our
company.
We want to, with the sameresources that we have now, to
(20:05):
be able to get more results,nothing more. And sometimes in
the industry is not scalable. Soif we are managing right now in
the evening that headquarters,11 hotels, and we want to manage
20, maybe we need to double ourpeople in the headquarters. This
is a mistake in terms ofbusiness. So we're working
(20:27):
really hard to incorporate newtechnology to our company, to
our technical departments, inorder to be more scalable, to do
more with the same.
We are incorporating AI systems.Some part of our headquarters
have access to top GPT business.So we are trying to help our
(20:50):
teams to do more with the same.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And is growth in the future for Port Hotels?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
If not, maybe I will lose my job. We need to grow a
little bit. Yeah, we want togrow. As a company, we are a
family owned business. We workfor our family and we are really
proud of that.
And we will work at least theobjective is 30% in the next
five years, try to have three,four hotels in the portfolio and
(21:23):
try to do it in the same waythat I was speaking with you,
with the efficiency. So workwith efficiency. Try to
eliminate all our manual tasks.Try to eliminate all repetitive
tasks that can be done by themachine. And we don't want to do
that to eliminate position inour structure.
(21:46):
We don't want to do that. Wewant that our people start to
make the processes that addvalue to the company. Because I
have been head of researchfifteen years ago. I was head of
reservation at Palinotto Group.Some part of the reservation
department was to incorporateinformation from an Excel file
(22:10):
to the PDF.
I mean, Lunobody is working likethat eight hours. I mean, seeing
with two screens, one Excel, onePDF, and in the other screen,
one reservation. And starttyping eight hours per day,
doing the same. I mean, thiscentury, in this year, with all
(22:32):
the technology that we have, allthis process can be done by the
team. And we are not seeking toeliminate that person in
reservation.
No, we will move that person to,for example, a contact center,
to speak with the people, to thecall center, to give service to
the people in that kind ofservice that these people, or
(22:55):
this person, this worker couldfeel better doing their job.
Okay. And like that, a lot ofpositions in the industry. I'm
not speaking about portfolioright now. I'm speaking about
the entire industry, which has alot of staff that are making
repetitive tasks daily fromeight to three.
(23:18):
They are doing the same. Sosometimes this kind of job, from
at least my perspective, couldbe bored. So try to give to our
teams or to your teams bettertask.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Switching gears a little bit, I wanted to ask, and
again, drawing on your entirecareer, what would you say are
one or two of the most importantskills someone should have to be
successful in today'senvironment?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I can give you one, a real one, which is adaptability,
resilience. I mean, we work withpeople. We serve people, okay,
or we serve our guests, We serveour employees. We serve our
coworkers. We're serving people.
So we need to adapt to thatneeds. Every single client needs
(24:13):
completely different things. Soas a professional, at least in
my career, all that I have donehas been about to the needs that
my clients needed. And myclients sometimes in math is my
boss also. My client is my teamalso.
So in this industry, sometimeswe focus on the client and we
(24:38):
don't realize that the one ofthe most important clients is
your colleague, your colleague,your boss, your team, your data
reports. So you need to adaptconstantly to their needs. And
also being a team leader orrunning a department, the key of
your success is adaptability. Asa leader, you need to adapt to
(25:02):
your team. And at least, in myopinion, and this is very
personal opinion, it worked forme.
So I'm trying to adapt the needsthat our clients ask for. I try
to adapt the way that I lead myteam to that team. I'm not the
same leader with one person thatwith another one. I try to adapt
(25:24):
everything I can to the others.I can't do one.
And this is a powerful one.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Well, very last question, which is one of my
favorite ones to ask. What isone thing you believe about
hotel technology that otherpeople in the industry might
disagree with?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I have another one, a good one here also, Arlene, to
finish that podcast. I haveenjoyed a lot. I need to say
thank you very much. But I willfinish with that technology is
an investment, not a cost. And Ithink that this is a very
powerful message because when weare trying to ask to our GM or
(26:09):
to our owner to ask a newsoftware, we plan as a cost.
No, this is a huge mistake. Weneed, we need to plan an
investment with a return ofinvestment. In my entire career,
I think that nobody has stoppedme to do a technological
(26:33):
project. Because once I enterthe office of the person who
needed to validate that cost, Istarted, okay, this is going to
cost 10,000, but we are going toearn 1,000,000. Nobody is going
to say no to that.
Nobody, you know. So we need tostart thinking as an investment
(26:57):
in terms of technology. I mean,the technology needs to be an
invest, not a cost. And I thinkthat this is another useful tip
to all the people who is askingfor permission to buy new stuff,
new cool stuff in the hotel.Start thinking about ROI in
terms of investment in yourtechnology.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Great. Well, thank you so much, Diego. This was
such a great conversation. Ireally appreciate everything
you've shared. I think ourlisteners will get a lot of
value out of this episode.
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Thank you, Benoit, today.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all of our listeners
(27:53):
to go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
(28:16):
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
This is going to cost 10,000, but we are going to earn
1,000,000. Nobody is going tosay no to that. So we need to
start thinking as an investmentin terms of technology.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Today, we connect with Diego Fernandez, the CEO of
Port Hotels. After leadingrevenue management at Palladium
for a decade, Diego is now incharge of Port Hotels' 11
properties and nine fiftyemployees based in Spain. Diego
shares his best practices as thecompany works towards
scalability and eliminatingrepetitive manual tasks. Let's
(00:45):
dive in. Well, thank you, Diego,so much for being on the
podcast.
Really looking forward to ourconversation. To start things
off, I would love for you tointroduce yourself, tell us a
bit about your career journeyand your role right now at Port
Hotels.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Now, first of all, thank you to you for the
invitation. It's a pleasure toshare that minutes with you and
try to give my special opinionabout the technology, about
systems, about all these thingsthat in some cases I love a lot.
But first of all, let meintroduce myself during a couple
(01:24):
of minutes. I'm Diego FernandezPredeponga. I'm the CEO of Corf
Hotels.
I have been working in the hotelindustry for the last twenty
years. I just became CEO oneyear at my house for the first
time. So I'm in this test time,I'm testing, or they are testing
(01:47):
me. So I hope I'm doing a greatjob here. But before that, I was
the former Director of RevenueManagement at Palladium.
I spent almost twelve years ofmy career doing revenue
management, corporate level. AndI studied a lot of time ago,
auto management. So I started tobe a GM. I love this industry
(02:11):
and I knew it a lot of yearsago. On the other hand, Port
Hotels, we are a Spanish companybased in Spain, we have 11
hotels.
This is only to put perspectiveto that numbers, almost 2,000
rooms across the CommodioValenciana, which is an area of
(02:32):
Spain. We have in our peakseason almost nine fifty
employees, which is a largenumber of people. We have some
of our portfolio, our cityhotels, another part of the
portfolio are research hotels,and three and four and four are
Star Superiors hotels. So we tryto cover all our guests, all our
(02:55):
segments possible. Ourheadquarters are located in
Benidorm, which is a reallyimportant place in Spain in
terms of tourism, because almostsixty years ago, almost seventy,
the tourism started in this areain Spain.
So this is the birthplace oftourism in Spain. So it's a
(03:17):
really nice area. And we haveour headquarters, our commercial
team and our GMs, and some morestuff here at our headquarters.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, thanks for the intro. And I am excited to
unpack all the exciting thingsyou're doing at Port Hotels. So
to get started, given that youhave a sizable portfolio, some
variety in the hotels that arein that portfolio, What would
you say is the most criticaltechnology partner to the
success of a hotel and why?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I'm going to say something really, probably easy
to say, which is the PMS. Whenyou ask me that, they said,
okay, we cannot wear some fancystuff, but not, it's our PMS.
Because the PMS is like theheart of the company right now.
(04:12):
And I'm pretty sure that it'snot in our case. It's in a lot
of hotels, the PMS, and a lot ofindustry companies, the PMS is
the central point of the life inthe hotel.
Because probably 80% of all the,all the things that happen in a
hotel, you use the PMS. At leastin our case, at least in the
(04:33):
cases where I worked in mycareer. If you are having the
first contact with the clientand you are incorporating a
reservation, a booking in thesystem, probably you use the
PMS. Okay. You are only onehotel, you don't have a CRS, you
have a PMS where you incorporateyour reservation.
(04:54):
In our case, we have acentralized PMS. So we
incorporate the reservation inthe PMS. Once the client goes to
the hotel, what do you use? ThePMS to make the check-in. So the
first contact with our clientsin front of us in the reception,
you use the PMS.
(05:14):
Probably in the 95% ofopportunity, you use that
system. If you want to make roomchange, what do you use? The
PMS? If you have a problem inone room, probably in some
occasion, you use the PMS. Inour case, we use the PMS.
When we have a problem, we usesome part of the PMS where we
(05:35):
can, tell the problem that allour rooms have. To charge
something to the minibar, if youwant to charge something in the
swimming pool, you use the PMS,or POS connected to the PMS. And
last but not least, if you wantto make a checkout, a billing
process, probably you use thePMS. So at the end, at least in
(05:58):
our case, and what I have workedin the industry, the PMS is the
central system that you use. Andthis is critical.
Because once the PMS is notworking, nowadays, with all the
technology that we have inplace, we will almost die in the
hotels. We will almost die. Butthirty years ago, a lot of
(06:20):
things happened manually thereception. So you can't run a
hotel without internet. Nowadaysit's impossible, because this is
critical.
If lose internet in your hotel,probably you will have a really
bad day, the reception in thehotel. Answering that, and
probably the easiest way toanswer that, which is the most
(06:42):
critical technology that youhave opinions. I can be more
fancy, or there is a lot ofstaff, a lot of fancier stuff in
the industry. But at the end,all comes through the PMS.
Sometimes we lose a lot, orbetter said, we spend a lot of
time thinking in anotherplatforms, thinking how can we
(07:04):
improve the customer journeywith a lot of stuff going there.
A lot of technology, fancytechnology, AI technology
nowadays. But at the end, 80%,85%, 90% of your operations goes
through the So for us, it's withno doubt the PMS because in
(07:25):
that, in that technology, wehave the POS connected to the
PMS with the same vendor. And wehave a lot of stuff from that
vendor in the PMS. So if we losethe PMS, I have a problem, you
know. And I have, I want tothat, I think it was two months
ago, we had in Spain massiveblackout of electricity.
(07:49):
I don't know if it was somethingremarkable in Europe, but we
have almost one day of blackoutof electricity in the whole
country. Okay. So it was reallycomplicated to operate without
premiums. Some part of theportfolio could work personally
because we have anotherstructure to give energy to the
(08:09):
buildings. But a couple ofhotels were shut down completely
the electricity.
So we couldn't run properly thehotel without the It was
everything manual. It was reallycomplicated. And at that time
you realize, if the PMS falls,your hotels at that moment will
start to struggle. And itdoesn't matter which PMS do you.
(08:33):
Because all PMS in the world hasproblems, has good things.
But with no doubt, at least inmy opinion, it's the PMS
technology.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I'm curious, which PMS does port hotels use?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
We have everything in the company is centralized. We
have only one PMS for the entireportfolio. It's a local PMS
called STEA, and all the suitesthat we have. We have the POS
from that vendor, we have a lotof things. Technical services
maintenance system is also fromthem.
So we have a lot of stuff fromthat vendor, which gives us a
(09:11):
lot of good points becauseeverything is in the same place.
I mean, everything has the sametechnology. Everything in every
single property will have thesame technology. So this gives
us a lot of advantages rightnow.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah. I would love for you to walk me through the
tech stack. So in addition tothe PMS, what other systems are
used to generate command, handlerevenue management? I'm curious,
each step of the guest journey,which systems are in place?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
We have a CRM where we collect all the data from our
guests. Also our loyaltyprogram. The loyalty program is
the industry CRM. This CRM isconnected to the PMS. In the
PMS, we have everything.
We have the CRS or the bookingcenter model. We have the call
(10:03):
center model also. We have thePO system integrated in that
PMS. We have the technicalservices maintenance program
also in that same ecosystem.Also, have the booking engine is
provided by Panati, which is oneprovided here in Spain, a really
(10:24):
famous one, connected in twoways with our Channel Manager,
which is SiteMander.
SiteMander is connected to thePNS. And in terms of sales, we
don't have anything more. We arerunning manually in terms of
revenue management right now.And we are starting a third of
SP, cost for commercial to haveprobably in the next half year
(10:51):
area, an awareness in thecompany, which will help our
sales team to improve, improvethe sales with no doubt. We have
also chatbots connected to thewebsite.
So some part of the question areasked by AI agents right now in
the company. Nothing morerelated to sales. On the other
(11:14):
hand, in terms of billing andall these profits is managed by
VBS also. And something big, Imean, sometimes having less
things is better than having alot of things in a tech stack.
Okay.
Because sometimes the companywants to have every new system
(11:39):
that appears in the market wantsto have it. You start to collect
programs because every singledepartment wants to have the
best technology possible. So inour case, we try to, once we add
the technology, it must give usa lot of value to have it.
(11:59):
Because if not, you arecomplicating your tech staff so
much that they want to changesomething in the future, you
will be not able to do that.Because it's so complicated that
you want to change the opinionsin the future.
You will not be able because youhave 50 other programs connected
(12:20):
to the PMS. So we try to don'texpand a lot our tech stack.
Once we enter something, it'sbecause this is giving value to
our teams. And these arescalable systems with APIs, open
APIs, which can connect witheverything. And also because I
(12:42):
forgot completely some very,very important area, all the
data is managed by Microsoftwith Power BI.
We have everything in Power BI,in terms of reports. And with
that, we are able to run acompany in a good way. So
sometimes there are a lot ofvendors, new vendors with all
the AI ecosystem, or AI systemthat came from the industry. You
(13:07):
can buy every single week, onenew feature, or one new system.
It's getting really complicatedto swim in that, in that ocean
right now.
There are other vendors sellingthings daily. You realize that
in 90% of the occasions, that'sin chief value, real value to
(13:28):
the company.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I was also wondering about guest facing technology at
your hotels. Is there like anapp that guests use or anything
in the guest room that'sinteractive?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
We have with no doubt a web app where all our clients
were making a pilot. In that, weare testing that technology in
one of our hotels because, andit's a web app, not an app. And
this is a really importantdifference because the apps in
(14:03):
the hotel industry are notworking well because we have 100
apps in our mobile. So we don'twant to have another one. So we
are developing a new web appwhere we can sell to the clients
all the information related tothe hotels.
Also, are doing pilot withRefrieder, which is a cool
(14:25):
system where you can have thenewspapers, magazines, and so on
for free in our hotels. It'sdeveloping right now in the
company. But we don't want toadd a lot of things to the
client, the customer journey. Wetry to add value to that
customer journey. Because onceyou are making holidays in our
(14:48):
resorts, or going to a meetingin our city hotels, I mean, you
want to be relaxed.
You don't want to be touched bya lot of things. Because you use
technology in the check-in.Better say, You use technology
in the pre check-in. Okay.Because we send them an email,
trying to give all theinformation to the guests.
(15:09):
We use technology in thecheck-in. Okay. Because we have
obviously, stable to, tabs tomake a paperless checking. Okay.
We have tabs to make a checking,paperless checking.
Also, we have, based on ourportfolio, the team is ready in
place to use technology in that.But we don't need a lot of
(15:33):
things more. We have a web app,we have screens, a touchable
screen. We are making a pilotwith robots in one of our
hotels, and one robot in therestaurant to deliver dishes to
our guests, trying to see howthis technology is working. But,
I mean, we try to give space tothe clients.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
So with the pilot, with the robot, what was the
decision process on testingthat? It sounds like it must add
a lot of value if you'reconsidering it.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
It's really nice. Because as I said, love it and
Malay, once I entered thecompany, said, we need to try
robots. Okay. Because maybe theindustry is not great right now
for having robots in the hotels,because we are face to face
industry. We need to see peoplein front of us.
But in this case, we haveincorporated one robot to help
(16:32):
waiters to bring dishes to thekitchen. Okay. So instead of
having our waiters bringing backdishes to the kitchen, these
waiters are giving service toour clients. Okay. And the
leases are managed by thisroute.
(16:53):
Okay. And it's working. We arereally happy with that test. At
least all the news that theyhave are good news because it
also gives to the clientssomething cool. Because we have
a lot of kids in that hotel,which is the poor vineyard, and
a lot of kids want to have aselfie with the robot.
(17:14):
It's something also good, butit's given to our staff the
opportunity to stay more withthe client. Instead of going to
the kitchen and going back withdishes, they are able to spend
more time with our guests. Thedecision was, sorry, because I
realized that I didn't answeryou properly. The decision was
(17:35):
releasing is a test. We aregoing to try it with a company
where we want to try new thingswith no fear.
I mean, if you try, I mean, itdoesn't work. Okay. Nothing
happens. And it works, youimplement in the third company.
So it was an easy one in thistime.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
So are you planning on rolling this out to
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, the rest of the we will love it. We will love it
because also the waiters aremore, at the beginning, they
start to think that they want toreplace them via machines, but
it's not the case. It's not theidea. The idea is that our staff
use the time and the efforts inbig things, in important things,
(18:20):
not bringing dirty dishes intothe kitchen. I mean, speak with
a client, try to speak withthem, try to see how they are
going to the hotel, how they arein the hotel, how they are happy
or not.
Try to give value to thatexperience in the hotel for
that.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
That's really exciting. I would love to zoom
out a little bit and hear aboutone or two high priority
business objectives that you'refocused on. I think as CEO, you
have a unique perspective onwhat's happening throughout the
company. And I would love tohear some of your goals and how
technology will help you getthere.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That's a great question, Leanne. Thank you. To
ask that, I can resume in twowords, scalability and eliminate
repetitive manual work. I mean,I'm a little bit obsessed about
scalability. Okay.
Once we incorporate a system,once we incorporate a new
(19:21):
portfolio, once we incorporatesomething in the company, we
need to start thinking if, okay,we are running 11 hotels right
now. Can we run 20 hotels withthat? Can we do that for 20
hotels? No, we can't do it. Sothis process is not valid for
me.
We need to be scalable. We needto be more efficient in our
(19:44):
processes. Not for being a CEOwhen I was Director of Revenue
Management, I was thinking thesame. We need to do more with
the same resources, which is notthe same that with less
resources. We don't want toeliminate resources in our
company.
We want to, with the sameresources that we have now, to
(20:05):
be able to get more results,nothing more. And sometimes in
the industry is not scalable. Soif we are managing right now in
the evening that headquarters,11 hotels, and we want to manage
20, maybe we need to double ourpeople in the headquarters. This
is a mistake in terms ofbusiness. So we're working
(20:27):
really hard to incorporate newtechnology to our company, to
our technical departments, inorder to be more scalable, to do
more with the same.
We are incorporating AI systems.Some part of our headquarters
have access to top GPT business.So we are trying to help our
(20:50):
teams to do more with the same.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And is growth in the future for Port Hotels?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
If not, maybe I will lose my job. We need to grow a
little bit. Yeah, we want togrow. As a company, we are a
family owned business. We workfor our family and we are really
proud of that.
And we will work at least theobjective is 30% in the next
five years, try to have three,four hotels in the portfolio and
(21:23):
try to do it in the same waythat I was speaking with you,
with the efficiency. So workwith efficiency. Try to
eliminate all our manual tasks.Try to eliminate all repetitive
tasks that can be done by themachine. And we don't want to do
that to eliminate position inour structure.
(21:46):
We don't want to do that. Wewant that our people start to
make the processes that addvalue to the company. Because I
have been head of researchfifteen years ago. I was head of
reservation at Palinotto Group.Some part of the reservation
department was to incorporateinformation from an Excel file
(22:10):
to the PDF.
I mean, Lunobody is working likethat eight hours. I mean, seeing
with two screens, one Excel, onePDF, and in the other screen,
one reservation. And starttyping eight hours per day,
doing the same. I mean, thiscentury, in this year, with all
(22:32):
the technology that we have, allthis process can be done by the
team. And we are not seeking toeliminate that person in
reservation.
No, we will move that person to,for example, a contact center,
to speak with the people, to thecall center, to give service to
the people in that kind ofservice that these people, or
(22:55):
this person, this worker couldfeel better doing their job.
Okay. And like that, a lot ofpositions in the industry. I'm
not speaking about portfolioright now. I'm speaking about
the entire industry, which has alot of staff that are making
repetitive tasks daily fromeight to three.
(23:18):
They are doing the same. Sosometimes this kind of job, from
at least my perspective, couldbe bored. So try to give to our
teams or to your teams bettertask.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Switching gears a little bit, I wanted to ask, and
again, drawing on your entirecareer, what would you say are
one or two of the most importantskills someone should have to be
successful in today'senvironment?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I can give you one, a real one, which is adaptability,
resilience. I mean, we work withpeople. We serve people, okay,
or we serve our guests, We serveour employees. We serve our
coworkers. We're serving people.
So we need to adapt to thatneeds. Every single client needs
(24:13):
completely different things. Soas a professional, at least in
my career, all that I have donehas been about to the needs that
my clients needed. And myclients sometimes in math is my
boss also. My client is my teamalso.
So in this industry, sometimeswe focus on the client and we
(24:38):
don't realize that the one ofthe most important clients is
your colleague, your colleague,your boss, your team, your data
reports. So you need to adaptconstantly to their needs. And
also being a team leader orrunning a department, the key of
your success is adaptability. Asa leader, you need to adapt to
(25:02):
your team. And at least, in myopinion, and this is very
personal opinion, it worked forme.
So I'm trying to adapt the needsthat our clients ask for. I try
to adapt the way that I lead myteam to that team. I'm not the
same leader with one person thatwith another one. I try to adapt
(25:24):
everything I can to the others.I can't do one.
And this is a powerful one.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Well, very last question, which is one of my
favorite ones to ask. What isone thing you believe about
hotel technology that otherpeople in the industry might
disagree with?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I have another one, a good one here also, Arlene, to
finish that podcast. I haveenjoyed a lot. I need to say
thank you very much. But I willfinish with that technology is
an investment, not a cost. And Ithink that this is a very
powerful message because when weare trying to ask to our GM or
(26:09):
to our owner to ask a newsoftware, we plan as a cost.
No, this is a huge mistake. Weneed, we need to plan an
investment with a return ofinvestment. In my entire career,
I think that nobody has stoppedme to do a technological
(26:33):
project. Because once I enterthe office of the person who
needed to validate that cost, Istarted, okay, this is going to
cost 10,000, but we are going toearn 1,000,000. Nobody is going
to say no to that.
Nobody, you know. So we need tostart thinking as an investment
(26:57):
in terms of technology. I mean,the technology needs to be an
invest, not a cost. And I thinkthat this is another useful tip
to all the people who is askingfor permission to buy new stuff,
new cool stuff in the hotel.Start thinking about ROI in
terms of investment in yourtechnology.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Great. Well, thank you so much, Diego. This was
such a great conversation. Ireally appreciate everything
you've shared. I think ourlisteners will get a lot of
value out of this episode.
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Thank you, Benoit, today.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all of our listeners
(27:53):
to go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
(28:16):
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
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