Last week we caught up with Mats Persson about Sirvoy's exciting plans in the US and South America and his views on what's really important in the guest experience.

So, Mats Persson, tell us what's new?

Well, we're really excited about the direction Sirvoy is taking - for the past two years my family and I have been living Mexico as we're training staff here, growing our business in the US and South America and will soon be launching Sirvoy in Spanish.

Would you say 2016 is the year of direct bookings?

It would seem that there is a definite push in that direction.  Hotels have a growing awareness of the importance of building customer relationships and loyalties that will ensure repeat business.  Additionally the recent decisions by the larger OTAs to remove their more restrictive price parity clauses will allow providers the opportunity to offer their own competitive rates and encourage them to reach out more to their prospective guests.

What would you say is the most important guest experience hotels should consider?

From personal experience I would sum it up in one word: WiFi.  I recently attended a Sirvoy conference and stayed at a very well known 5* hotel where I was only allowed to use up to 4 devices at any time.   As I was with my family we had two laptops, four iPads and two smart phones and the constant logging in and out proved a real headache.  Another 5* hotel I stayed at recently in Italy wanted $12 dollars per day for an internet code!  As my wife and I both work online there is no such thing as a day away from the office.  Now that working remotely is so commonplace there is a real need to stay connected and wifi should be a necessity not a luxury.  Things are gradually improving and it is rare that I have head off to the hotel foyer looking for a wifi connection but when it does happen it will always be my last visit; I don't make the same mistake twice!

Tell us a bit more about how Sirvoy can help hotels?

Sirvoy is a cloud based Property Management System that was originally designed to help hoteliers manage the day to day running of their property. It takes care of all the daily necessities such as housekeeping, invoicing, emailing, room availability and payments.  However it has evolved from when it first started eight years ago to doing far more than just helping staff with the daily operations.  It manages room inventory, reliably updating global OTA platforms in real time.  It's booking form allows guests the opportunity to book directly via a hotels website enabling providers to compete with OTAs, leading to an exponential increase in room sales.   It is a strategic tool that provides the hotelier with the ability to analyse their business, set targets and create digital marketing campaigns.  It is all that and much more.  We personally think that its the most indispensable tool a hotel can own and our customers happily tell us the same thing on a daily basis!

For more information, check out  http://sirvoy.com/