— Mark Liversidge , Chief Digital and Experience Officer , The Student Hotel

stack which harmonizes between the operational systems and the actual property .”

It ’ s a system The Student Hotel has been able to stress test during the pandemic . “ COVID has accelerated the stress and flux that ’ s coming on the hotel , workspace and leisure categories . If it had been a year earlier it would have been a horror show for us because of all the singular systems , so we have been fortunate to deliver the new core systems and take advantage that part of the design has our own Api to enable fast deployment of new guest experience services . One thing that we quickly invested in was a belief that organisations would need enhanced broadcast to reach their dispersed teams and audience , so we created and delivered the TSH Media Studio , which essentially is building on the deployed broadcast quality connectivity and enables use our meeting spaces differently , which has been super , super successful already .

“ COVID has re-emphasised we ’ ve made the right decisions in the direction we ’ re taking with our technology , showing the critical need for the flexiest , most agile systems . Furthermore , COVID hit in the middle of our transformation program and created a huge challenge of project delivery , which I ’ m very proud of what was achieved , not only by my team , but our vendor partners , in still delivering on time and without any impact on business operations , really encapsulating the can-do spirit of TSH .”

As for the impact of COVID on the sector , Liversidge says , “ it will be Darwinian , those that have planned and deployed the flexiest technology architecture will thrive and grow , while the operators that are stuck with the out-of-date and linear product technology stacks will struggle to respond to the dynamic changes in the market and meet customer expectations .”

And beyond COVID-19 ? “ Space is going to be redefined . Let ’ s focus explicitly on the hotel bedroom all over the globe : you know what you ’ re going to see . You walk in the door , the wardrobe is to the left , the cubicle bathroom is to the right . Straight

215 technologymagazine . com