Big hotel chains understood the benefits of technologies in the hospitality industry and adopted hotel management systems years ago. Unfortunately, they can’t rest on their laurels for lon. The following tech advancements will shape the hotel industry in 2022 and beyond.
Guest Apps
Guest mobile applications empower hotel visitors to make the most of their time in various ways. These apps improve the end-to-end customer journey from hotel discovery and booking through the point of their arrival to check-out and social media communication. Here are the most common features of guest mobile apps:
- Optimized booking
- Mobile check-in
- Contactless keys for room access
- Invoicing and check-out
- Ordering room service
- Placing housekeeping or maintenance requests
- Accessing special offers and information
- Adding preferences
- Creating user profile
- Accessing a loyalty program
A hotel mobile app works on both sides: for guests and hotel staff as well. Typically, it integrates with a hotel management system and addresses one-off customer requests to hotel personnel. Moreover, it accumulates a substantial amount of user data hoteliers can use to level up hotel services.
Personalized Experience
This feature is rather a component of a mobile guest app or a website than a standalone tool. It can be as simple as providing options for a hotel stay, such as baby cribs, drinks in the mini bar, extra pillows, and others. But if you want to play big, bet on big data.
Every time customers log in using their social media accounts, you get access to their personal information. You know what they like, how many children they have, what’s their dog’s name, and where they spent their last vacation. All this data allows you to personalize a hotel stay according to your guests’ preferences.
But hold on, there’s more. Your guest app and website can also gather user data and transfer it to hotel management system or analyze it in-app. Depending on your budget and preferences, you can choose an off-the-shelf solution or develop custom software. Whichever option you choose, remember: mobile application development and web development open more opportunities for functionality customization to suit your business processes and needs.
Once data collection is underway, you need to evaluate staff performance in accordance with collected insights. Sounds complicated? Trust me, it pays off: customers will appreciate your attention to detail and favor your services over hundreds of competitors.
Contactless Payments
Mobile payment technology is becoming more widespread, and for a good reason. It offers many advantages for restaurants and hotels, namely securing and speeding up the payment process. The cool thing is customers can leave their wallets behind and only carry their phones. Just link your credit card to a mobile payment app, and enjoy!
Digital wallets such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal have two layers of protection: the device itself and data encryption. If you think about it, this is a lot safer than carrying around a physical card that could be stolen. For a consumer, it’s a double win. Besides, contactless payments take less time than chip card transactions. And since customers hate to wait, even for seconds, less time per transaction ensures higher customer satisfaction.
For a hotelier, adopting contactless payments is almost as easy as for customers. First, purchase a POS terminal that supports NFC technology. It will cost you around $49 for a simple NFC reader and $149 for an advanced one. Next step, update your payment processing plan so it will accept mobile payments. Voilà! You’re one step ahead of the competition.
