Prism Hospitality Consulting | Perspective & Insight

Thought Leadership & Industry Expertise

Perspective

Prism Hospitality Consulting brings clarity to complexity across the hospitality and travel industries, helping organizations navigate evolving hospitality technology strategy, shifting commercial models, and emerging digital opportunities. From PMS and CRS modernization to guest data platforms (CDP/CRM) and integrated distribution ecosystems, we translate complex challenges into clear, actionable direction.

As experienced advisors, we continually develop and stress-test forward-looking perspectives across hotel technology platforms, system selection and integration, and guest experience transformation. Our work spans the full ecosystem, from core systems such as PMS, CRS, RMS, and Sales & Catering, to emerging capabilities in AI-driven personalization, itinerary-based selling, and digital guest engagement.

Through these articles, briefs, and insights, we share practical, experience-based thinking with clients and the broader industry, offering a grounded perspective on hotel digital transformation, technology investment decisions, and what’s coming next in hospitality.

CDP vs. CRM

A Tale of Two Technologies... With apologies to Charles Dickens, these are the best of systems and the worst of systems. CRM and CDP working in harmony are the best of systems. Working alone or not properly orchestrated, they can be the worst. As guest and traveler expectations for personalization and frictionless recognition accelerate, hotels face mounting pressure to respond. This moment demands a fundamental question: do we truly understand our guests, and are we shapi

Customer Advisory Boards: Blessing or Curse?

Understanding the Role of CABs in Shaping the Future of Hospitality Tech In our modern hospitality world, where technology underpins nearly every aspect of operations, vendors and hotel operators alike are in a constant race to innovate, differentiate, and deliver seamless guest experiences. Property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), customer relationship management (CRM), and point-of-sale (POS) solutions are no longer just tools, they're strategic

It's Your Data!

… Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) In the spring of 2021, we wrote about self-sovereign identity (SSI). See “Whose Data Is It Anyway?” in the June 2021 issue of Hospitality Upgrade. Let’s take another look at this important technology and what it could mean for your hospitality firm. A Quick Recap Start with a decentralized identifier (DID), a sort of virtual identity that resides in a secure, encrypted and verifiable format on a blockchain. An individual owns and controls thei

ERP (2 of 2)

...Making Dollars and Sense out of ERP Implementation. Every business of any scale, and certainly any hotel, has compelling requirements for at least the basics of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, the pure accounting components of General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Financial Reporting. The capabilities of a fully featured ERP applications suite are outlined in our previous ERP article “Shine a Light on ERP” and includes another great perspective by Ron Strecke

ERP (1 of 2)

…Let's shine a light on ERP . If we here at Prism Hospitality Consulting were to have generated periodic Hospitality IT Word Clouds related to all our professional discussions, proposals, and assignments for each quarter trailing back to, say, 2015 we would have seen a recurring theme of top Words, Terms or Acronyms related to what might be described as the Bright Shiny Object of the day. Think Blockchain, IoT, Attribute Based Selling, Cloud, Touchless, and latterly the

Optimal Hospitality Technology

…we are getting closer, but we’re certainly not there yet . Making a definitive shift from legacy hospitality technologies that rely on the replication of like-type data across numerous primary business systems to a better, proven approach is still an aspiration rather than a reality. The benefits of such a shift are many, but we have not yet made the meaningful progress already enjoyed by other industries. As early as 2004, blueprints were formally drawn up for what

Touchless, yes, but not Service-less

… Striking the Right Balance in an Hotel Operations Environment that Changes Weekly . Touchless, while not a new hotel concept, has recently fast-tracked itself to a much more prominent place within the hospitality industry’s glossary of terms and practices. Just one in an array of reactive approaches hotels are employing by way of addressing the current Covid-19 pandemic, the Touchless effect on today’s hotel stay experience is poised to more assertively drive both positiv

Who’s Data Is It Anyway?

… Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) Like many of us, I recently checked into a hotel for the first time in well over a year. When I presented my ID and payment for what was supposed to be a contactless check-in experience, my first thought was that the guest service agent needed very good eyesight to be able to read the driver’s license in my hand from that distance through the poorly mounted plexiglass shield. My second thought was before long an emerging technology will be he

The Basics of System Selection…

"Hotels buy things every day, some of low value and short-term impact, like paper towels. Others are costly with a profound long-term

A CRS Where Everyone Knows Your Name!

...the challenges of operating a CRS globally. The CRS is the heart and vascular system of any meaningful hotel company. It distributes all your rates and availability [products] out to all your distribution channels, fulfills your revenue management strategies, and ultimately sends booked reservations to your properties. Without it, the business will fail and die. An effectively localized CRS lets the guest dream, shop and share in the language and manner of their choice