Job outlook for maintenance specialists in the United States

What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Maintenance Specialists in the next 3-5 years?

Del Ross: 3-5 years is an eternity in technology. Even so, we should expect that tomorrow's technology will be much "smarter" than today's. This will show up mainly in tech's ability to predict future conditions and to anticipate scenarios, needs, opportunities, and challenges. We will continue to see significant changes in guest-facing technologies from how they shop and buy travel, how they pay for it, and how they consume it. Guests will assume that hoteliers will anticipate their needs and preferences and tailor the experience's delivery to reflect them - all without even being recognized for doing so.

On the operations side, smarter technology will replace old-school, "the way we have always done it" processes and programs in every area. Front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, F&B, back-office - every one of these areas will be directed and enabled by data-driven technology in ways that we could not have anticipated just a few years ago. This will make the workplace more efficient but may make individual jobs more complicated. Managers will have to be taught new ways to support and develop their associates to attract, retain, and deploy effective teams. "Simple" tasks such as weekly labor scheduling will use automated systems like Hotel Effectiveness to save time, improve productivity, and turn cost centers into profit drivers.