Why Hotels And Restaurants Struggle With POS Innovation

When it comes to implementing innovation, trying and succeeding are two different things.

This is a fact that hotels and restaurants know all too well. As much as 77.4 percent of them said they want to innovate to gain a competitive edge, while 75 percent seek to boost their sales revenue. Another 62.2 percent intend to use innovation as a way to improve customer loyalty. Simply stated, innovation ranks high on their priority lists.

However, while many hotels and restaurants have said they aim to innovate, only 20.2 percent actually have the technology at the point of sale (POS) that can help them achieve their goals. So, what’s holding back the rest from implementing the innovations they need to get ahead?

In the March edition of the Retail Innovation Readiness Index, in collaboration with AEVI, PYMNTS delves into survey response data from more than 500 hotels and restaurants to get an in-depth look at how they approach the innovation question — and how smart POS technology can help them innovate and stay ahead of the competition.

The PYMNTS survey shows that 34 percent of merchants do not yet use smart POS technology, simply because they have never heard of it, but they would be interested in adopting it if given the opportunity. This leaves tremendous room for future market growth.

Yet, not just any smart POS system will do. The assortment of features that individual hotels and restaurants expect from their smart POS systems are as numerous and varied as these businesses. Two-thirds said they want their smart POS systems to be easy and intuitive to use, 55.8 percent said they want the systems to enable cashless payment acceptance and 44.8 percent said they want the systems to allow continued cash acceptance. These round out the top-three, most common, in-demand POS features among hotels and restaurants.

With so many boxes to check off, many hotels and restaurants understand that shopping for the right fit can take some time and careful consideration. The question is not whether to adopt a smart POS system, but how to go about finding the right one.

To learn more about how hotels and restaurants can go about finding suitable POS systems that fit their innovation needs, download the report.