Hospitality Industry Turns to Tech to Lure Guests Back

The initiatives, overseen by information technology executives, are aimed at helping hotels dig out of what has been a dire season, with steep declines in occupancy, staff layoffs and a fear among some guests of contracting Covid-19. "Without technology, there's no way those companies recover fully," said Les Ottolenghi, who was chief information officer at Caesars Entertainment Corp. until last November. Caesars merged last month with Eldorado Resorts Inc. The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. U.S. hotel occupancy collapsed from about 60% in February to roughly 22% in April, according to data analytics firm STR, owned by CoStar Group Inc.