It’s not new that technology has always played an important role in the hotel industry. But many hoteliers are not up-to-date on the latest trends and technology upgrades that they should be implementing for their hotel. Using the right technology not only enhances guest experience, but also improves hotel functions and ultimately drives revenue.
Here’s how you can use technology to impact guest experience in 2022 and beyond positively
- Giving your guests access to a guest app
A white-label guest app will make your hotel stand out, and boost guest experience, along with making hotel back-end operations smoother.
So what is a guest app?
A guest app is a new technology hotels use for their guest journey. It presents itself as either a browser or an app that gives guests access to all hotel information, amenities, communication, and more. You can use a guest app, like Duve, so guests can save time, plan ahead, and communicate with hotel staff more seamlessly. In turn this also frees up time for hotel staff to help them work more efficiently and provide the best guest services possible.
Having a guest app means providing your guests with an overall hub for everything they might need before, during, and after their stay in your hotel. The right guest app will provide all the information your guests might look for, actively interact with your guests, provide customized services, and way more. Look at it as the modern hotel pamphlet that goes above and beyond the needs of your guests.
- Utilizing mobile check-in and check-out
COVID-19 has brought about many new ways for contactless services. The new trend of mobile check-in and check-out is one that is here to stay. Providing a digital option for check-in and check-out saves time for both staff and guests while also giving customized options for each guest that respects their time.
How does digital check-in respect guests’ time?
- Whether on vacation or on a business trip, guests want to get to their destination, organize their things and start their day. Having to wait in line or causing any type of delay in their schedule automatically draws negative feelings from guests. Digital checking-in allows guests to enjoy their time at your hotel right away.
- Not all guests plan to arrive or leave at the exact same time for check-in or check-out. Having the option to change the check-in or out times that best align with their schedule eases their travel and also gives your hotel an upsell that increases revenue.
Aside from increasing guest satisfaction and saving them time, you are also freeing up time for your staff that is usually spent on check-in/out, and altering check-in/out times. Instead, your staff can use this time for other important tasks at the hotel.
- Providing customized guest experiences
Not all guests are coming for the same reasons. Some might be on a family vacation, others a business trip, others a honeymoon, etc. Knowing your guests helps you provide the best experience for them.
Technology can be used to create more personalized experiences for hotel guests. For example, hotels can use data collected from online booking to create custom profiles for each guest. This information can then be used to tailor things like room assignment, in-room amenities, welcome letters, offered activities, and more.
If you know who your guests are, you can offer them the services, upgrades, and amenities they’ll be interested in. This makes for an unforgettable experience for guests, as well as drives revenue for the hotel since most upsells will be ones guests actually want.
- Having open communication with guests
Most guests have various questions and requests throughout their stay. Staying responsive to guests is a big part of providing high-quality service.
Using technology, you can have tools that help escalate the right requests to the right departments in a more timely and effective way. For example, instead of guests calling the front desk for extra towels and being transferred to housekeeping services, they can send a message that they need extra towels on a guest app or any active messaging tool so that your hotel staff can send the request to the right department and quickly provide the service.
In addition, many questions are commonly asked among guests, like what is the hotel’s address? What are popular restaurants in the area? Does the hotel have a pool? Etc. Create automatic replies to these common questions so that guests will quickly have a response and your hotel staff save a ton of time.
- Staying in touch with guests
Using technology like a guest app, or communication hub, you can communicate with guests long-term. Returning guests are a sign of satisfied ones. Keep in touch with your guests to see how they enjoyed their stay, what areas they think you can improve in and where they think you excelled.
Showing interest in guests’ overall stay at your hotel gives you insights and makes the guest feel like you care. If a guest leaves with a feeling of a bad stay you can still turn it into a good one with how you react. Things like offering a free first night for their next stay or a complimentary dinner at your hotel can change a negative review into a positive one.
Staying in touch with guests also gives you the chance to send discounts, promotions, events, and more–which also increases occupancy at your hotel.
Take away
The hospitality industry is always looking for ways to improve the guest experience, and technology plays a big role in this. Looking ahead, it is clear that by implementing new technology, hotels can provide more innovative ways to serve their guests. We are already seeing quite a few examples of how technology is being used effectively to provide more choice and control for guests and staff alike and expect to see an even bigger increase in the future.
About the author
Adir Ron is the Chief Marketing Officer at Duve, an advanced guest app platform built for hotels to elevate guest experience and hotel performance.
Adir is an international speaker and lecturer on Digital and Social Media Marketing and has spoken at multiple panels and given courses on how to improve your ROI through Marketing and Analysis. Adir is an expert in marketing, having over 17 years of experience leading high-tech companies with smart digital marketing strategies and tactics.
