In a nutshell

The Hospitality Tech Stack is a free resource to help hospitality operators to understand, plan and consolidate the digital products they use. It is a plain-English guide to each application, including an overview, critical functions, integrations and users, with recommendations of relevant providers.

It was developed by Rob Kidd of Rubikon Consulting, a technology strategy, business change and project consultant who focuses on retail and hospitality brands. To find out more about Rob, or for help with your technology project, check out his LinkedIn or drop him an email.

Hospitality is changing…

Hospitality operators now have a wealth of tools at their disposal to help them run, promote and manage their businesses. As technology continues to develop at a blistering pace, the capabilities, sophistication and accessibility of these digital products have grown exponentially. Keeping on top of these developments is essential for operators large and small to stay ahead of the competition.

…and so are customers

Great food and charming service are no longer enough (though they’re still the most important thing). Customers now expect to be able to interact with hospitality brands online. This includes discovering new brands, locating venues and even ordering ahead for delivery or collection. Avoiding social media and not having an online presence are simply no longer an option.

A complex landscape

The growing number of digital tools is bewildering. Fixing one problem can sometimes feel like it creates new ones we didn’t know existed. Enter: the Hospitality Tech Stack. A ‘stack’ is a techie term meaning ‘the combination of technologies, programming languages, applications and hardware that collectively make up a system.’ For hospitality operators, this means the combination of hardware (tills, cash drawers, receipt printers), software (POS, inventory, accounting) and services (card payments, reservations, social media) you use to run your business.