2024 was an eventful year for the global hotel technology industry with significant levels of M&A activity and investment.
Hyatt and Marriott International continued their migration from Oracle’s on-premises, self-hosted Opera V5 system to the Opera Cloud property management system (PMS).
Cameron Hammond, senior VP of technology, Hyatt, commented: “By moving to Opera Cloud and extending our long-standing collaboration with Oracle, we will be able to provide a modern, secure platform to deliver better data insights and elevate the roles of our colleagues with more ease and efficiency.”
If these migrations appear a little on the slow side, there’s a reason, said John Burns, president, Hospitality Technology Consulting: “Opera Cloud took a substantial amount of time to develop and bring to a level of completeness and confidence that would allow big brands to embrace it. So the big brands are cautious. If you can trust anyone it’s Oracle, but you still want to be like Ronald Reagan and his famous quote: ‘Trust but verify.’ Let’s make sure it actually works.”
He added: “Some of the big brands are a little late to the party potentially, but then, on the other hand, they’re exhibiting the caution that they should.”
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, also rolling out Opera Cloud, announced the activation of its guest engagement platform Wyndham Connect at 2,000 US hotels.
Powered by Canary Technologies, Wyndham Connect, which reportedly comes at no extra cost to hotel owners and franchisees, includes generative AI text messaging, upselling, smart mobile check in/out, online reviews, and mobile tipping.
IHG Hotels & Resorts named HotelKey as its first approved cloud-based PMS for limited-service brands in the US and Canada.
The news follows Hilton’s announcement in 2023 that it is phasing out its legacy OnQ PMS at 7,000 hotel and implementing HotelKey’s Property Engagement Platform by 2027. The Dallas-based tech provider also has contracts with Red Roof Inns, G6 Hospitality, and Extended Stay America.
“HotelKey is the company no one has ever heard of and it’s doing remarkably well,” commented Burns. “They’re not like some of their competitors in terms of having high visibility. They're quiet, and quietly successful.”
With 4,300 hotels in 100 countries, BWH Hotels was the first global hotel brand to select Mews as one of its certified PMS providers.
Mergers and acquisitions
M&A continued to be a key strategy for ambitious tech firms to either increase their market share or absorb new talent, knowledge, and capabilities.
Mews took its acquisition total to 11 with a further four deals during the year, buying the PMS Frontdesk Anywhere with 1,000 US hotel clients, and HS3 Hotelsoftware with 3,500 hospitality clients in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
In addition, Mews bought Quotelo , a MICE and group booking software; and the revenue management system Atomize. Why is Mews buying these companies when they already offer a large API marketplace to their hotel clients?
Burns commented: “The Mews core system started out very lean, and they have realized that they need to expand it. There are some capabilities that they now want to have under their direct umbrella, so they’ve been cherry-picking prime assets, like Atomize and Quotelo , to bring into the Mews family and, of course, landing $110m of investment allows them to do that.”
The Access Group is another ambitious company making multiple acquisitions and gaining a strategic foothold in the US. In 2024 it bought Paytronix and SHR Group. The latter deal adds SHR’s 2,000 US hotel clients to the 3,000 properties mostly in the UK and Europe that use Access’s Guestline PMS.
Agilysys bought the spa management software provider Book4Time for $150 million. Agilysys President and CEO Ramesh Srinivasan commented: “While we share some industry-leading customers, such as Marriott International and Hilton, there is minimal overlap of properties in our respective customer bases, presenting opportunities to introduce additional software solutions to a wider range of existing customers.”
Atlanta-based IBS Software bought Above Property Services (APS) for $90 million. The acquisition allows IBS Software to add CRS, PMS and RMS capabilities to its established booking engine and distribution platform, used by 36,000 hotels worldwide.
Cendyn acquired Knowland, a US-based provider of meetings and events data for hospitality. Knowland’s platform takes data from 7,500 hotels across the U.S. and a select handful of international markets.
Jack Blaha, CEO of Cendyn, said: “To effectively sell group business, hoteliers need immediate access to data, and Knowland’s event intelligence platform is undoubtedly the market leader in this area. Its sales intelligence complements our Sales CRM, helping hoteliers find their target audience. Then, using our Proposals and Grouprev platforms, hoteliers can complete the booking process.”
Investment
Lighthouse, the business intelligence platform formerly known as OTA Insights, announced a $370 million growth investment led by KKR. The Lighthouse platform, used by 70,000 hospitality businesses, processes over 400 terabytes of travel and market data daily and leverages AI to deliver real-time insights to help hoteliers make better operational decisions.
Lighthouse CEO Sean Fitzpatrick said: “This investment significantly accelerates our ability to enhance our commercial platform through expanded AI capabilities and additional data sets.”
Another significant deal was the acquisition of Duetto, the revenue management system, by private equity firm GrowthCurve Capital.
GrowthCurve said it will partner with Duetto to further accelerate its AI strategy, including the development of new AI products, the launch of new business lines, and expansion into new markets.
David Woolenberg, CEO of Duetto, said: "We are excited to partner with GrowthCurve whose expertise in machine learning and AI, coupled with their experience in high-growth businesses, aligns perfectly with our vision.”
In other investment announcements, as previously mentioned, Mews raised $110m; Canary Technologies $50m; StaynTouch $48m; and Apaleo $20m.
Burns noted that the levels of M&A and investment in hospitality technology were somewhat higher compared to recent years: “The pandemic disrupted things and as we move further away from it, we have been talking about the likelihood of this kind of activity, and now it's coming to fruition.”