American Airlines plans to implement Amadeus’ cloud-based accounting system to track passenger sales.
09.02.2024 - 11:25 / skift.com / Justin Dawes
The CEO suite in the Choice Hotels headquarters is about to get a new wall decoration — a framed piece of an old data server.
Brian Kirkland, chief information officer for the company, kept the metal plate with plans to commemorate a technological era at Choice that’s now come to a close.
Choice decommissioned its last data server on January 19. It’s the end of a five-year project to fully migrate all of the company’s systems and data to the cloud, paving the way for next-generation technology like generative AI.
Choice was the first hotel company to make this full migration commitment with Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud storage and more. The move is a first among hotel companies, most of which still operate significant portions of their businesses on local servers.
“Those systems served us well,” Kirkland said. “It’s time to move on.”
Choice has more than 7,500 hotels within a portfolio of 22 brands, like Radisson and Comfort Inn.
Choice decommissioned 3,729 servers over the last five years. Those servers powered past tech initiatives, like a hotel website with real-time rates in 1995, and a mobile app in 2009 about two years after the first iPhone was released.
Choice retired more than 300 older software programs that were based on those servers over the past five years, and upgraded the other 250 as they were migrated to the cloud.
Now, being based in AWS’s cloud means Choice can more effectively experiment with and implement new tech.
The company is a pilot customer of Amazon Connect, a platform that uses AI to streamline operations in customer-service contact centers. Choice is connecting that system with hotel and loyalty data and guest profiles, with plans to power next-generation initiatives for personalization.
“That wouldn’t be possible if we weren’t in the cloud,” Kirkland said.
“Everything you’re seeing around gen AI — there’s so many opportunities there, whether it’s call center, website, or guest experience, or operations back-end, or even our own content creation. It’s the starting line for a lot of teams that have been excited; now, they can run.”
There were many staff whose job was to manage the servers. The transition to the cloud meant that those roles were eliminated over time, and those workers were assigned other roles within the company. Those workers, along with everyone else at the company who touches hotel tech, have had to receive training along the way.
Choice trained more than 500 people on the latest relevant technologies in partnership with AWS, Kirkland said.
Though some experts disagree, Kirkland sees the latest technology as a path for increasing efficiency and “upskilling” employees. The company’s newer pricing tool, for example, suggests hotel
American Airlines plans to implement Amadeus’ cloud-based accounting system to track passenger sales.
This upcoming spring instead of just seeing historical sites in European cities, why not also stay in some cultural landmarks while you’re there. Major cities like Berlin, Zurich and Amsterdam have hotels in centuries-old buildings allowing you to immerse yourself in rich architectural details and notable surroundings. Here are four hotels to enjoy contemporary comforts and sleep in a piece of history:
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaclyn Sienna India, the founder of the luxury travel concierge Sienna Charles . The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Our Megatrends series continues today as Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit is joined by Skift Travel Technology Reporter Justin Dawes, and Colin Nagy, a Skift contributor and host of The Skift Ideas Podcast, to tackle three of Skift’s Megatrends for the year.
We hope you love the hotels we recommend! Just so you know, Matador may collect a small commission from the links on this page if you decide to book a stay. Listed prices are accurate as of the time of publication.
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