By Nikita Jones, Global Head of Delivery, Customer Engagement, and Customer Success at Hudini - 1.31.2025
Both McKinsey and Harvard Business Review have reported that more than 70 percent of Digital Transformations fail. The number one reason: resistance to change leading to poor adoption of new technologies.
In hospitality this challenge is amplified because of the many stakeholders that are typically involved in such transformations. For example, digitizing a process at a front desk may impact hotel staff, IT teams, customers and partners. In addition, the hospitality industry is relying on age old processes that are deeply embedded in our ways of working.
Having said this, the industry is ripe for digital transformation, especially when it comes to the guest experience. Adjacent industries like airlines and car rental companies have been through this years ago and the digitalization of their customer processes is now paying off in lower cost and a much better customer experience. Digitizing the employee and guest experience is a difficult job, but it will all be worth it.
In the many tech transformations that we have supported our hotel partners with at Hudini, we see six key focus areas that are all important in making the adoption of new technologies a success.
Understand who is affected by the change and how
Is it just one person, function or department or does the change impact the entire company? This will tell you about scale and focus. Is the change primarily internally, or are customers and partners affected by the change as well? This gives you an idea of the internal versus external drivers of the change. How will the change be perceived? What’s in it for your stakeholders? With answers to all these questions, you can set up a matrix that can be used to make sure that the right level of communication and attention is given to each of the stakeholders throughout the digital transformation process. Understanding who is affected by the change and in what way gives you clarity in managing the change more effectively.
It’s all about the user experience
When planning a digital transformation, always lead with the user experience; it needs to be easy and it needs to work. Ensure that the integration with other systems is working seamlessly, which again, isn’t the same for all stakeholders. A customer requires a different experience, maybe one that is more self-explanatory than for a staff member where there may be room for more functionality and a bit more complexity. In any case, the new technology needs to come with clear instructions and excellent training materials.
Involve key stake holders in important decisions
There is nothing worse than a change that feels forced upon users. Involving them from the start will help ensure that they buy in to the change and that the product-user fit is optimal. Involvement can be done in several ways, for example through focus groups or A/B testing with a customer feedback loop. The user acceptance testing phase of a project is a great opportunity to build a relationship with the user and to incorporate any feedback they may have.
Start small and deliver
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Tech implementations often fail to meet expectations because they were set too high to begin with. It’s important that deliverables are clearly agreed and communicated and that they are delivered as promised. It’s much better to start small, with one module or one feature, and add as the program matures. Pilot testing is a good way to try out new features and fail quickly without compromising the success of the project.
Understand the value proposition for each stakeholder
Understandingly, people adopt much more easily to anything that will make their lives better. It could be a quicker way to do things, a more fun way to engage, or simply a way to make more money. This value proposition is not the same for all stakeholders. For a hotel guest, it may be saving time checking-in while the same technology is an opportunity for the General Manager to increase revenue per available room (REVPAR). When managing a tech transition, it’s important to know what is in it for whom so it can be used to get the maximum buy-in from each stakeholder.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
The one thing that underpins all the others is frequent and transparent communication, whether this is before the project starts, when something goes wrong during the transformation or at any point in between. The communication needs to be relevant and tailored to each stakeholder, and the tools to communicate need to be fit for purpose. A one-on-one meeting may work for a GM but won’t be feasible for a customer base that may need an instruction video. In any case, we always want to make sure that all stakeholders are being kept in the loop, have ample documentation and training available and make sure to celebrate successes both big and small.
Nikita Jones is Global Head of Delivery, Customer Engagement, and Customer Success at Hudini, the leading digital transformation platform for the hospitality industry. Powered by a proprietary middleware and an omnichannel (App, Web, TV) guest interface that leverages data and AI, Hudini helps increase guest engagement and hotel revenues. Through its 100+ pre-built integrations across all functionalities, Hudini delivers personalized, immersive guest experiences. Hudini is fast becoming the industry benchmark for digital transformation in the hospitality industry, having partnered with more than 400 hotels across 25 countries.
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