On The Modern Hotelier, roommaster’s Mark Bloomquist and Steven Burman share what modern hotel technology should deliver, from winning the direct booking to letting AI take the routine tasks.
On The Modern Hotelier podcast, recorded at the Independent Hotel Show in Miami, Mark Bloomquist, Chief Revenue Officer at roommaster, and Steven Burman, Director of Sales, sat down to talk about what hoteliers need from technology right now. Their message was simple: modern hotel tech should serve hoteliers today and adapt to whatever comes next, while keeping people at the center of hospitality.
The host opened with a fair question. Every technology company calls itself modern, so what should the word actually mean to a hotelier?
Steven’s answer was practical. “Modern means today, and it means tomorrow. If you buy a car, it’s old the second you drive it off the lot.” His point: hotel tech has to be built to adapt, because nobody knows exactly what the next five to 10 years will bring. Five years ago, few hotels used AI. Today, travelers plan entire trips with it.
For roommaster, that meant reimagining a platform with more than 30 years in hospitality. Mark described what returning users will find: “a more modern, a more user-friendly, something that’s faster, easier, but with all the same value that it’s always had.”
What are hoteliers asking for? Mark summed it up in a sentence: “They want a simple, easy, all-in-one platform where they have one business to call, one bill to pay.”
He was candid that hotel technology is still maturing, and no single system can build everything as fast as the industry moves. The answer is a unified platform with open integrations. roommaster includes a hotel PMS, revenue management, guest messaging, an AI concierge, and advanced reporting. When a hotel needs something more, it connects through roommaster integrations.
Thirty years is a long time to understand hoteliers. Steven said that history is what shapes the product today: “30 years is a time in which we are able to listen to people and get what they would like and customize our business and our product around them.”
It helps that the people building it have done the job. Mark noted the team includes people who have “worked the front desk, that have ran the night audit, that have cleaned the rooms.” Steven added the moment every hotelier knows: being “at that front desk on Christmas Eve when there’s a million people in front of you.”
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AI comes up at every hotel tech show, and Mark acknowledged it can feel uncomfortable. New technology usually does. But he was clear about what AI is for in a hotel.
“What it’s really meant to do is to free our humans up to do what they’re best at. And that’s impact the guest experience,” he said. “It’s not to answer the phone and give somebody the Wi-Fi password. It’s not to tell somebody whether or not you have a pool or if you accept pets.”
Steven put it in guest terms: “The highlight of a guest trip is not going to be when I gave them the Wi-Fi password.” Tools like roommaster Concierge, an AI voice agent that answers guest calls 24/7, are built for exactly those routine tasks, so the team can spend time where it counts.
The same thinking applies to roommaster’s own support. AI handles quick requests, like a password reset, and learns from repeat questions over time. When a hotelier needs a person, Steven said, “someone’s available, we’ll get you that person right away.”
Mark described the other half: proactive account management. “We try to talk to every one of our customers at least once a quarter,” he said. Those calls are about more than checking in. They bring data and insight to an honest conversation about the hotel’s goals, the plan to reach them, and how roommaster can help get there faster.
When the conversation turned to direct bookings, Mark handed it straight to Steven: “This is his specialty.”
Steven started by giving OTAs their due. “They get you exposure. And recognition and knowing you’re there is the first part in any brand’s journey.” A new hotel needs to be on the map. The next step is turning that attention into a direct booking.
His example is one every traveler will recognize. Open Google Maps, look at hotels in Miami, and compare the prices. An OTA shows the room at $300, and right beside it, the hotel offers it for $280 direct. The roommaster Booking Engine puts a hotel’s direct rate into Google through roommaster Hotel Metasearch, right next to the OTAs. Paired with a hotel website built to convert, it gives guests an easy reason to book direct.
That matters more every year. Travelers start their search online, so a hotel’s website has become its real front desk.
The host called switching a PMS “removing the brain of the hotel, putting a new brain in.” So what should hoteliers evaluate first?
Mark’s advice was to start inside your own four walls, not with a feature comparison. “Knowing where you excel is one thing, knowing where you struggle is probably the more important thing,” he said. Add where you want to go, and the right partner becomes much easier to spot.
The second lesson is about timing. Hotels often pick “a PMS for where they’re at, not where they’re going,” Mark said. “You have to choose somebody who is growing with you.” That is the thinking behind roommaster Reimagined: the same dependable PMS, now built to grow with hotels today, tomorrow, and into the future.
Steven added that roommaster aims to be a trusted advisor through the whole process. The team takes a consultative approach and supports hotels at every step of a switch. roommaster works with properties of every size, with a sweet spot in growing mid-size and larger hotels and hotel groups.
If you haven’t seen roommaster in a while, now is a great time. Explore the reimagined platform at roommaster.com or book a demo and see how it fits where your hotel is going.
Source: The Modern Hotelier podcast, recorded at the Independent Hotel Show in Miami. Guests: Mark Bloomquist and Steven Burman of roommaster. Watch the full episode.
On the episode, Steven Burman described modern technology as a platform that serves hoteliers today and adapts to whatever comes next, including AI tools that didn’t exist five years ago.
Steven’s advice was to use OTAs for visibility, then show your direct rate where guests are already searching. Google metasearch and a booking engine built into your website make the direct option easy to find and easy to book.
Mark Bloomquist said AI works best on routine tasks, like sharing the Wi-Fi password, pool hours, or pet policies. That frees the team to focus on the guest experience.
Mark recommended starting with an honest look at your own operation: what works well, where you need help, and where you want to grow. Then choose a PMS partner that can grow with you.
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