Under the leadership of Kevin King, CEO, Shiji Group, the company is revolutionising hotel operations across the Middle East, offering a new wave of technology to enhance hotel offerings that promise to elevate the guest experience to unprecedented levels of personalisation and convenience.
Founded in 1998, Shiji Group has long been a pioneer in hotel technology, particularly in property management systems. Their API-first, cloud-native infrastructure has set a new standard in the industry, offering scalability, resilience, and advanced security tailored to the unique needs of luxury and hyper-luxury hotels.
Shiji's PMS introduces a paradigm shift in how hotels interact with guests. Imagine checking into a hotel in Dubai, providing your preferences at the reception, and then travelling to a sister hotel in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else in the world within the same group, where all your preferences are already known and catered to. This level of hyper-personalisation is made possible through Shiji's single, global guest profiles, which intelligently merge and update guest information across all properties in a hotel group.
"Guests today expect more than just a comfortable stay - they expect an experience tailored specifically to their needs and preferences," says King. "Our PMS allows hotels to deliver that experience seamlessly, ensuring that every interaction, from check-in to check-out, is personalized and consistent across all locations."
This system is particularly well-suited for the luxury market in the Middle East, where guests demand the highest standards of service and personalisation. Shiji's platform enables hotels to offer enhanced personalisation before, during, and after each stay. For instance, a returning guest who prefers hypoallergenic pillows will find that request already fulfilled at any property within the hotel group, without needing to ask again.
One of the key strengths of the Shiji Enterprise Platform is its ease of deployment. Built with global hotel companies in mind, the system allows for central configuration updates that are automatically implemented across the hotel group. This means adding a new hotel to the system can be done in just a few clicks, significantly reducing the time and effort required to set up and maintain the PMS.
In Riyadh, Shiji successfully implemented the system in a 700-room hotel within a month, a testament to the platform’s efficiency and the company's dedicated support team. However, King acknowledges that implementation can be more challenging in fully operational hotels, where downtime is not an option. "We understand that change management is a big concern for many hotels, particularly those in the luxury segment. That's why we offer comprehensive support to ensure a smooth transition, even when dealing with complex integrations and existing systems," he says.
Shiji's expansion into the Gulf market comes at a time of rapid growth in the region's hospitality sector, particularly in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where new hotels are opening at a remarkable pace. The company's success in the luxury segment positions it as a key player in the market, offering a PMS that not only meets the current needs of hotels but is also built to adapt to future technological advancements.
Looking ahead, Shiji Group plans to expand its presence in the Gulf and beyond further. "We're investing heavily in new hotel-related data technology products and companies with the potential to be market leaders," the CEO states. "Our goal is to establish a global data platform that can provide innovative solutions to hospitality businesses in the region, and worldwide."
As Shiji Group continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in hotel technology, the company is poised to set a new standard for guest experiences in the Gulf region, delivering the kind of hyper-personalisation and operational efficiency that today's luxury hotels demand.