Uncut and in Conversation with - Javier Aguirre, UK Director, Zennio - Hospitality Tech from Spain

Hospitality has always been about personal service, care, compassion and the guest experience - that should never change but how can we be more effective? Traditionally, technology has not always been actively embraced or the first point of call for hospitality but Covid -19 has forced the industry to progress by some say 5 years in the past 3 months, rethink this and explore solutions to ensure safety and trust, for both guest and employee.

However, Spain has since 2004 actively embraced hospitality technology and innovation through the Hospitality Technology Institute - which serves to educate, support and expose hospitality to smart tech solutions - where technology is seen as a necessary to free up management and employees to allow them to focus on the most important asset of their business - the customer and the guest experience.

Zennio’s, a well established Spanish hospitality tech company aims to make smart building technology accessible to everybody, technology which is practical and sustainable. With COVID and looking to the future, technology through Zennio focuses on reducing touch points, so the guest is able to control everything (lights, TV, aircon etc.) in room from their mobile device, to the point of not even needing a physical key to access their room.

So what can the UK hospitality industry learn from Spanish hospitality? How can the UK take advantage of well established technologies and how can these be used to improve and personalise guest experiences, build trust back with the consumer and free up staff and management to truly be hospitable?