The Technology Hospitality Never Had
The hospitality industry has a technology problem, and it is not the one most people think. The problem is not that operators resist technology. It is that the technology available to them was built by people who do not understand their work.
Recruitment platforms designed for office jobs get repurposed for restaurant hiring. Property marketing tools built for suburban real estate get stretched to cover boutique hotels. Website builders optimised for e-commerce get forced onto venue operators who need something fundamentally different.
The result is an industry full of workarounds, where talented operators spend as much time fighting their tools as using them.
I saw this firsthand for 25 years. As a consultant for Hakkasan I facilitated one of China's most successful restaurant launches, and managed the campaign through tools that had no concept of what a restaurant launch requires. Developing EQUIS, a 3,000-square-metre venue for Four Seasons Beijing, I built the brand and the project plan using software designed for completely different industries. From Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen and Maze Grill in Hong Kong to independent craft bars in Shanghai's French Concession, every venue I worked with hit the same wall: the tools did not fit the work.
The specific frictions are worth naming because they explain every product in the Glia portfolio. Discovery is broken; that is why Samui Beach Club exists. Recruitment drains operators; that is why Shift Happens exists. Healthcare documentation should not require a PDF editor; that is why MyPBM exists.
Glia Hong Kong Holdings Co., Limited is headquartered in Hong Kong with a development office in Thailand and a distributed team across multiple countries. A shared design system runs through every product. We build for specific problems where careful design and considered technology make a measurable difference.
Products, team, and company details at glia.digital ->
How 25 years of operating experience became a technology company ->