One of the most common refrains heard in hospitality today is the importance of delivering personalized service. But sometimes, all guests want is the freedom to take care of themselves.

Andrew Metcalfe, Chief Technical Officer at Guestline, who deliver technology solutions to hotels, offers his expertise into how the hospitality industry can stay competitive in the forthcoming year.

Hotel tech lists—Hotel Tech Must-Haves for 2020 and What All Hotels Need in Order to Succeed Next Year—are like the sloganned-out t-shirts everyone's wearing to the gym these days. Less Whine, More Wine. Already Planning What I'm Going to Eat After This. I Work Out... Just Kidding, I Take Naps. We kind of love to hate them. Maybe it's because we've been working toward a tech revolution for years now, one that leaves hotels ahead as an industry rather than continually pulling up the rear.

With voice technology disrupting hotel guest engagement and redefining how services are requested, Viceroy Hotels & Resorts is expanding its relationship with Volara to power in-room smart speakers and enable automated voice services at its luxury boutique hotels. Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills is the third property in the brand's portfolio to add Amazon Alexa devices powered by Volara in all guestrooms; Viceroy's Hotel Zetta San Francisco and Viceroy Los Cabos in Baja California are already equipped with Volara and relying on it to support their voice on command in-room initiative - with the remaining Viceroy properties to adopt the solution in 2020.

TraknProtect, a pioneer of real-time location-based technology purpose-built for the hotel industry, has announced a new partnership with Safety NetAccess, a leading guest internet and hospitality solutions provider. This news rounds out a year in which TraknProtect has solidified its position in hospitality technology, crafting strategic alliances with leading hospitality technology companies to create a perceptible shift in employee safety culture.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to the majority of the world's population: 59.66%, to be exact. That's nearly 4.6 billion people! It's a sizable market with many opportunities for savvy hospitality marketers.

D-EDGE- part of the Accor Group- and dailypointTM are pleased to announce a global strategic partnership combining the CRS of D-EDGE, one of the leading providers of digital solutions for hotels, with the CRM and guest data management platform of dailypointTM.

Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced that Whittlebury Park Hotel & Spa, in Northamptonshire, UK., has selected rGuest® Seat to improve the dining reservations experience and provide servers visibility into guest food and beverage preferences, along with rGuest Pay to ensure the security of guest payment information. Whittlebury Park is a longtime user of Agilysys Visual One® property management system (PMS) and InfoGenesis® point of sale (POS) systems.

dailypoint and D-EDGE - part of the Accor Group - are pleased to announce a global strategic partnership combining the CRS of D-EDGE, one of the leading providers of digital solutions for hotels, with the CRM and guest data management platform of dailypoint.

It's predicted that 115.6 million Americans will be traveling from Saturday, Dec. 21, through Wednesday, Jan. 1, for the 2019 holiday season. Whether they arrive at your hotel by car (104 million are expected to drive) or plane, Volara will be ready to entertain these travelers with holiday music on voice command via its integration with iHeartRadio. If the hotel features Amazon Alexa devices powered by Volara, holiday travelers can ask "Alexa, play iHeartChristmas" or "Alexa, play North Pole Radio" and the spirit of Christmas will fill the room.