Digital Transformation in Commercial Real Estate: What the Industry Can Learn from Tourism
Introduction
Booking a hotel in Tokyo from a smartphone in thirty seconds, getting your boarding pass without going to a ticket counter, and accessing your room with your phone: the tourism industry has reinvented every point of contact with the customer. The commercial real estate sector, on the other hand, still requires its tenants to go to a physical reception desk, fill out a paper registration form, and wait for a key card to be printed.
This discrepancy is not insignificant. The digitization of commercial real estate is currently one of the most underestimated strategic challenges in the service sector. As real estate companies, real estate departments, and facilities managers seek to maximize the value of their assets and build tenant loyalty, the tourism industry offers a proven, replicable, and directly applicable model.
This article analyzes the structural reasons for this lag, the practical measures to address it, and the measurable benefits that commercial real estate stakeholders can expect to gain from it.
What Is the Digital Transformation of Commercial Real Estate? Definition and Challenges
The digitization of commercial real estate refers to the process by which industry stakeholders (owners, real estate companies, property managers, and tenant companies) replace their physical and manual processes with digital solutions that cover the entire lifecycle of an asset and its occupants.
Specifically, this includes: digital access control, real-time space reservations, digital visitor management, collection of usage data, internal communication, management of services and concierge operations, and tracking of maintenance incidents.
There are two key issues at stake. For property owners and asset managers, occupancy data is becoming an asset in its own right: it enables them to optimize space, reduce vacancy rates, and demonstrate a building’s value to investors. For tenant companies, digitalization directly shapes the employee experience and, by extension, the appeal of office spaces in a context where hybrid work is becoming the norm.
This expectation is no longer optional: employees now demand the same digital ease in the office as they do in their personal lives—the ability to book, access, or report an issue in just a few seconds from their phones. Yet the reality falls far short of this. According to Reworked’s 2026 State of the Digital Workplace study (https://www.reworked.co/digital-workplace/whatever-happened-to-digital-employee-experience/), which surveyed 700 digital workplace leaders, only 19% of organizations describe their employees’ digital experience as “seamless and productive.” The remaining 81% report friction or shortcomings. The gap between expectations and reality is structural—and it’s widening.
Tourism: A Model of Digital Maturity That the Commercial Real Estate Sector Has Yet to Embrace
A complete transformation of the customer journey in less than fifteen years
The tourism industry underwent a complete digital revolution between 2008 and 2023. Booking.com, Airbnb, low-cost airlines, and international hotel chains successively digitized every step of the customer journey: search, comparison, booking, payment, check-in, room access, additional services, check-out, and loyalty programs.
What stands out is the systemic logic behind this transformation. The tourism industry hasn’t simply digitized a single touchpoint; it has reimagined the entire experience around data and seamless flow. As a result, according to HOTREC’s hotel distribution study (https://www.hotrec.eu/en/news_hotrec-hotel-distribution-study-2022.html), online travel agencies (OTAs) alone account for nearly 29% of hotel reservations in Europe, with Booking.com alone representing more than 70% of that total: a sign that the purchasing journey has shifted overwhelmingly online.
The mechanisms that made this transformation possible
Three factors account for the rapid pace of digitization in the tourism industry:
- Direct competitive pressure. Comparison platforms have made price transparency and quality of experience key criteria for choosing a hotel. A hotel without a mobile app loses direct bookings to OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), which capture the profit margin.
- The Centrality of Customer Data. Players in the tourism industry realized early on that every digital interaction generates actionable data: preferences, behaviors, and frequency of visits. This data drives personalization and customer loyalty.
- Adopting a platform-based approach. Major players have shifted from selling a product (a hotel room, a flight) to selling a seamless experience, enhanced by additional services accessible through a single interface.
Why the Commercial Real Estate Sector Is Lagging Behind Structurally
Long cycles and a culture of resistance to change
Commercial real estate operates on long decision-making cycles: 3-, 6-, or 9-year leases, multi-year renovation projects, and multi-stakeholder governance. This structural inertia slows the adoption of digital innovations. Whereas a hotelier can roll out a new app in a matter of weeks, a real estate company must coordinate the interests of the owner, manager, tenants, and technical service providers before launching any project.
Added to this is an industry culture that has historically placed little emphasis on the user experience. The commercial real estate sector has long sold square meters, not uses. The concept ofthe occupant experience—the direct equivalent of the customer experience in tourism—is still viewed as an optional differentiator rather than a market standard.
A fragmented ecosystem that hinders digital consistency
The other major obstacle is the fragmentation of tools. Today, an average office building uses between 8 and 12 separate applications to manage its operations: access control software, a room reservation tool, a visitor management system, an internal communication platform, an FM ticketing tool, a package management module... Each of these tools has its own provider, its own contract, and its own interface.
The proliferation of tools also takes a toll on users: according to Deloitte (https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/improving-digital-employee-experience.html), the average number of systems an employee must use on a daily basis has risen from eight to eleven. This fragmentation generates significant hidden costs: team training, integration maintenance, data loss between silos, and, above all, a degraded user experience.
Tenants: The Forgotten Link in the Real Estate Value Chain
The tourism industry has placed the customer at the center of its digital strategy. The commercial real estate sector, on the other hand, has long viewed tenants as a fixed component of the lease rather than as users whose needs should be met and whose loyalty should be fostered.
This perspective is changing under the influence of two converging forces. On the one hand, the widespread adoption of flexible office arrangements and hybrid work is forcing companies to justify the value of the physical office to their employees. On the other hand, the rise of flex-space properties (coworking spaces, managed spaces) is creating direct competition in terms of the experience offered to occupants.
According to the CBRE-Le Moniteur study (2018, more than 1,000 French employees) reported by Décision Achats (https://www.decision-achats.fr/Thematique/environnement-travail-1231/Breves/Espaces-travail-salaries-veulent-petite-revolution-335565.htm), 69% of employees believe that updates to the technological tools made available to them are necessary to improve their day-to-day work. The digital aspect of the office is becoming as much of an HR issue as it is a real estate one.
Practical Steps to Bridge the Digital Divide
Adopt a unified platform approach
The most directly applicable lesson from the tourism industry is that of the unified platform. Marriott, Accor, and Hilton don’t offer ten separate apps to manage reservations, room access, room service, and billing. Instead, they offer a “super app” that centralizes the entire customer journey.
The commercial real estate sector can—and must—adopt the same approach. A single platform capable of managing access control, space reservations, visitor management, concierge services, internal communication, and usage reporting offers three key advantages:
- A fluid and cohesive experience, with no friction between the different stages of the journey.
- Centralized data collection, enabling the analysis of usage patterns and the optimization of space accordingly.
- A reduction in operating costs by eliminating redundancies between tools and simplifying IT maintenance.
That’s exactly what SaaSOffice promises: a Workplace Experience Platform that combines access control, space booking, visitor management, incident reporting, services, and reporting into a single application. Its AI voice assistant, NOVA (https://saas-office.com/fonctionnalites/nova), allows each occupant to trigger these actions using natural language, while managers oversee everything from a unified console—essentially bringing the hotel “super app” concept directly to the office.
Leveraging Usage Data as a Strategic Asset
The tourism industry realized before the real estate industry that data is an asset in its own right. A hotel that knows 60% of its guests order room service between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. can optimize its inventory, staffing, and promotional offers. An office building owner who knows that 40% of their space goes unused on Fridays can rethink their offering, reduce operating costs, and provide flexible spaces on demand.
The collection and analysis of data on property usage, actual occupancy rates, traffic flow, peak room usage, and booking patterns enable asset managers to make decisions based on facts rather than estimates. This is precisely what the SaaSOffice reporting module makes possible, consolidating these metrics in real time for both property owners and facility managers.
Digitizing the employee journey from start to finish
The hospitality industry has eliminated friction at every stage of the customer journey. The commercial real estate sector can do the same, and that’s exactly what SaaSOffice covers, step by step.
Upon arrival at the building, the hotel’s mobile check-in serves as a digital access control system, using an NFC badge or a QR code on a smartphone, eliminating the need for a physical key card. Access to the various areas—equivalent to a digital room key—is also granted via the phone. And where the hotel offers online room reservations, guests can reserve a room or a workspace by simply sending a few words to NOVA, which immediately suggests an available time slot and space.
The visitor check-in process follows the same model as a hotel front desk, but is fully digitized: pre-registration, scanning a QR code upon arrival, and real-time notifications to the host. Additional services (concierge, dry cleaning, local partners) are grouped together in a service marketplace, much like the concierge desk at a luxury hotel. And reporting an incident—the equivalent of customer service—takes just one sentence: NOVA categorizes the request, creates a ticket, and routes it to the right team.
Finally, when the hotel collects post-stay reviews, SaaSOffice provides managers with a real-time dashboard. Throughout the entire guest journey, the guest never has to switch interfaces.
ROI and Measurable Results: The Concrete Benefits of Digital Transformation
The benefits of digitizing the commercial real estate sector are not merely theoretical. Several industry studies have quantified them.
An academic study conducted by economists at Maastricht University and MIT, reported and analyzed by Cove (https://cove.is/blog-press/how-to-elevate-tenant-experience-in-commercial-properties), based on more than 39,000 satisfaction surveys covering 2,900 buildings between 2009 and 2022, findsthat a one-point increase in tenant satisfaction is associated with an 8% higher probability of lease renewal and a 15.8% lower probability of move-out. The correlation between the quality of the tenant experience and tenant retention is now well documented.
In terms of asset performance, McKinsey (https://proptechconnect.com/mckinsey-provides-real-estate-players-with-6-new-imperatives-for-success/) reports that the implementation of digital technology can increase a building’s net operating income (NOI) by 10% or more: a significantly greater lever than traditional ones, driven by more efficient operations and better utilization of space.
Finally, in terms of market appeal, Knight Frank (https://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/articles/knight-frank-scottish-office-rents-hit-record-highs-amidst-flight-to-quality) observes a clear “flight to quality”: premium buildings, rich in services and amenities, are capturing the bulk of demand and seeing their prime rents rise, while older, less-equipped properties are falling behind.
SaaSOffice: The Office Workflow Orchestrator
In response to the digital lag in the commercial real estate sector, SaaSOffice offers an approach directly inspired by best practices in the tourism industry: a unified platform that covers the entire tenant journey, from building access to the management of day-to-day services.
Specifically, SaaSOffice enables the deployment of NFC-based access control without physical badges, a desk booking system with a real-time interactive floor plan, 100% digital visitor management, and a services marketplace connected to local partners. All of this is accessible through a single interface on a smartphone.
For property owners and asset managers, the usage data dashboard provides accurate metrics on actual occupancy rates, booking patterns, and usage peaks—the same data that hotel chains have been using for years to optimize their revenue.
This entire system is powered by NOVA, SaaSOffice’s AI voice assistant. Occupants make their requests in natural language—such as booking a room, reporting an incident, announcing a visitor, or picking up a package—and NOVA carries them out. It’s the equivalent, on a building-wide scale, of a high-end hotel’s concierge service: available around the clock, seamlessly, through a single interface.
Conclusion: Turning a Setback into a Competitive Advantage
The tourism industry did not invent a technology that is out of reach for the real estate sector. It simply adopted earlier an approach that the service sector can adopt today: putting the user at the center, unifying tools, and leveraging usage data.
The commercial real estate sector’s digital lag is therefore not inevitable. It is an opportunity. Players who digitize the tenant journey from start to finish reduce their operating costs, minimize rental vacancies, and enhance the appeal of their assets—precisely the benefits that the tourism industry has reaped over the past fifteen years.
The gap still favors the hotel industry. But it is closing rapidly. Real estate investment trusts, real estate departments, and facility managers who commit now will gain a lead that will be difficult to catch up with, in a market where tenant experience is becoming a selection criterion as decisive as location or rent.
The question is no longer whether the commercial real estate sector should go digital, but how quickly—and with which platform.
Take Action
SaaSOffice applies the experience standards that have made the tourism industry so successful to the commercial real estate sector: a unified platform, powered by the AI assistant NOVA, that covers the entire tenant journey, from building access to service management.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should you start when digitizing an office building?
The first lever is unification. Rather than piling up isolated tools (access control, reservations, visitor management, ticketing), the goal is to consolidate the tenant experience into a single platform. This foundation then makes it possible to digitize every step—from building access to service management—and to collect truly actionable usage data.
What is a workplace experience platform?
It is a unified solution that centralizes all interactions between a building and its occupants: access control, space reservations, visitor reception, incident reporting, services and concierge, internal communication, and usage reporting. The equivalent,
How does usage data increase the value of a real estate asset?
Usage data (actual occupancy rates, traffic flow, peak space utilization, and booking patterns) is transforming building management. It enables the optimization of space, the reduction of operating costs, the adjustment of service offerings, and the demonstration of an asset’s value to investors based on facts rather than estimates.
Does NOVA, SaaSOffice's AI assistant, replace existing tools?
No, it unifies them. NOVA is the voice-activated AI assistant that coordinates the entire occupant experience from a single interface, integrating with existing tools (Microsoft 365, access control, CMMS, payment). Occupants make requests using natural language; managers oversee operations from a centralized console.
Photo credits: Liubomir, Andrey Popov, Petinovs – stock.adobe.com
