Swire Hotels Hackathon 2023

Application period: January 9 - February 15

Webinar: February 13 & 18

• The Hackathon invites industry mentors to provide participants with more inspiration and advice, to help them further optimize the solutions.

Submission deadline: March 1

Hackathon day: March 25

The Swire Hotels Hackathon is comprised of two stages, using a case competition format. In the initial round, participants will work virtually in teams to conceptualize and develop a digital solution for one or more of the case studies. These idea proposals will be submitted to the judging panel and shortlisted teams will then proceed to the second round: an in-person presentation at one of our Hong Kong hotels for Hackathon Day.

How to enhance and retain the hotel luxury experience in the digital era?
In the luxury sector, the focus is not on maximizing efficiency or automation. Instead, guests value human contact and interaction. For example, an automated check-in system lacks the same warmth as a personal welcome from front desk staff as the guest arrives. However, at the same time, this does not mean that hotels should avoid innovation and digitalization. Swire Hotels endeavors to use technology to elevate the guest experience by enhancing personal interaction and empathy rather than replacing it with automation.

Directions for Consideration
Teams should design and propose digital solutions that combine human interaction and the latest technology such as Generative AI (LLM), Machine Learning, Web3, Blockchain, VR and AR to enhance the guest experience. You may also consider using big data and/or real-time data to conduct analysis and guide strategies.

How can we use new technology and data to provide a personalized experience and communication that enriches the overall guest journey?
Swire Hotels aims to increase guest satisfaction and loyalty through personalized communications. We believe that each guest is special and deserves to be treated as an individual. From booking a stay to arriving home after holiday, we'd like to ensure each guest enjoys services tailored especially for them. By embracing new technology and data-driven approaches, the proposed solutions should help identify the guest's needs, the best time and way in which to contact the guest, and what should be communicated.

Directions for Consideration
Teams should devise customized campaigns using big data and cutting-edge technology such as ChatGPT and Dalle-2. Be creative but practical at the same time. Think of what type of communication you might enjoy when you are travelling to a new destination. Also, consider the entire luxury hotel journey from start to end and what different kinds of communication could be employed throughout. Where you might need data that Swire Hotels might not have yet, please outline what data are needed, how it should be collected and how such data would be used to reach the right guest segmentation. 

How can we use technology to acquire talent and assess career paths for employees in a rapidly expanding hotel group?
Swire Hotels Group is expanding rapidly. It is crucial for the company to develop its people strategy to attract qualified candidates from various industries and create tailored career development opportunities for each employee. Using technology, what can Swire Hotels do to ensure top talents know about the group and would like to join? How can Swire Hotels find the best successor for key positions in an objective and data-driven way? Overall, how can Swire Hotels use technology to build talent pools that help identify the right talent to the right role at the right time?

Directions for Consideration
To attract external candidates, how can technology such as Machine Learning be used to help Swire Hotels to find the best candidates? Can other technology such as Blockchain or Generative AI be used to attract talents and simplify the hiring processes? Chatbots have their flaws but can they be leveraged in candidate management? How can we improve on other candidate systems to create a better recruiting experience for both the People & Culture team and the candidates? 

To retain employees and to find successors, it is vital to capture key information about each employee, including their career goals. How can we use technology to understand our employees best without intruding on their privacy? How will we best present such data? Can Machine Learning help to do this? Take into consideration the company's current size and what metric People & Culture uses to track employees is important.