IT in Hospitality

The courses in this certificate explore how digital transformation and emerging information technologies (especially AI, blockchain, and security) foster innovation, particularly by leveraging technology to achieve a competitive edge in the hospitality industry.

Hospitality is not what it was even a few years ago.  Understanding emerging information technologies and their impact on the hospitality industry, and the roles and responsibilities of IT and non-IT stakeholders in leveraging these emerging technologies in light of the digital transformation, will be at the heart of all of the courses.


The Digital Hospitality Certificate focuses on the use of IT to enhance the strategic, tactical, and operational elements across the hospitality industry value chain.

Naturally, having accurate, accessible, secure data is fundamental to a successful AI initiative, thus providing additional topics addressed in this program.  This certificate prepares candidates (IT and non-IT) for challenging careers in the hospitality and tourism industry as it progresses through the digital transformation. The certificate provides a comprehensive curriculum that focuses on the impact that emerging information technologies are having on the hospitality industry, combined with the essential IT management skills necessary to leverage IT in the back office and front office, while providing valuable new customer services.

  1. Reputation Management 
  2. Revenue management, pricing, and predictive analytics 
  3. Sales & Marketing
  4. AI robot concierge
  5. Chabot’s & virtual assistants can provide personalized services, recommendations, and assistance  
  6. Smart Room  
  7. Guest Experience Management 
  8. Frictionless booking processes
  9. Making reviews actionable

Tourism remains a growing industry with a wide array of unique new IT services that are leveraging emerging information technologies. The courses in this certificate will develop important IT management related skills including hospitality industry specific analytical, strategic, communication, organization, time management, human resource management, and service management. Candidates will also develop specific hospitality industry technical leadership and management strategies and skills related to finance, accounting, marketing, services, as they gain knowledge of industry specific subject matter such as restaurant management, club management, hotel management, and tourism management.

The Hospitality Management Certificate is designed to prepare IT and non-IT candidates for managerial positions that are prepared for the IT changes underway in the hospitality industry, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, and private clubs.  The courses are designed for IT and non-IT professionals in the hospitality industry whose roles involve leveraging digital hospitality industry opportunities to provide demonstrable value from their IT investments, in light of the digital transformation and emerging information technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain, social media, analytics, big data), while addressing important considerations like providing a secure infrastructure and hybrid work environment. 

GIIM will work with you to derive the appropriate focus & content for the courses within this certificate, based on the specific hospitality industry (e.g., hotel, cruises, restaurant, entertainment), and the backgrounds and objectives of the candidates.

The following is the template describing the 4 courses for this certificate:

(All courses are available live/synchronously face-to-face & online)

1. The IT in Hospitality Industry Trends and Issues

The certificate starts with the business imperatives of companies operating in this sector, and their approach to creating an IT strategic plan and project roadmap intended to create worthwhile business value encompassing the entire value chain. The unique challenges of competition, regulatory compliance, lifestyle changes, security, massive data sets, business analytics locations etc. are addressed. The impact of emerging technologies (e.g., blockchain, robotics, AI, cognitive computing, analytics, big data) will be focused on.


2. The Hospitality Industry Technical-Processes

The certificate then deals with the technologies involved in the hospitality technical systems for building, maintaining, and scheduling the infrastructure. Understanding how to leverage emerging technologies (e.g., blockchain, social media, analytics, big data) is essential.


3. The Hospitality Industry IT Back Office Operations

The third course addresses the business functions that support finding, development & production, such as Finance, HR, Production Accounting, Legal, Tax, Treasury etc.


4. The Hospitality Industry Best Practices

The fourth and final course deals with best-practice execution, in terms of organizational governance, marketing, hospitality, restaurant & tourism management, incentives/clubs, sourcing & vendor management, portfolio & project management, and service delivery.

As Hospitality organizations accelerate the digital transformation of their industry, they are focusing their investments in leveraging information technology to improve customer/client products/services while lowering overall costs. In today’s highly regulated, increasingly resource-constrained, and cost-focused environment it is essential to understand how to effectively and efficiently manage an organization’s information technology (IT) resources. There are numerous strategic, tactical, and operational choices to be made about managing Hospitality IT resources and it is essential to ensure that IT and non-IT executives across the organization work in harmony.


Experience has made it clear that Hospitality organizations need well-conceived organizational structures, skills, processes, and decision rights to ensure that IT investments are appropriately leveraged across the organization, especially when considering the impact of emerging information technologies. 


This course prepares Hospitality executives by providing a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental decisions related to the management of IT resources in the Hospitality environment. The course will also provide an overview of current and future information technologies and their potential impact on customers/clients, organizations, and associated stakeholders.


The course is designed to be delivered live/synchronously (face-to-face or online) with a total of twenty (20) contact hours. While the schedule is flexible, it is usually delivered in approximately ten (10) 2-hour modules/lectures/sessions.


The IT-Hospitality topics include:

  • Deriving IT-business strategies
  • Considerations for types of
  • organizational structure
  • sourcing
  • governance (i.e., decision-making and decision rights)
  • roles/responsibilities
  • processes
  • Leverage emerging digital technologies; especially AI, blockchain, and security
  • The business value of IT
  • The definition, concepts, and contexts of Hospitality IT
  • Enhancing business-IT alignment
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