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FEATURE
EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTORS
These hotel trends have got the
industry talking, but are they
gimmicks or gamechangers?
Are glossy tech products just passing fads, or are they offering genuine and important changes
that will irreversibly change the hotel business for the better? By SIMON BOTTO
R
unning a hotel is far from an and therefore far improves the hotel allowing hotels themselves to maximise
easy feat. The long list of daily experience for guests. revenue and benefits.
responsibilities, combined with the
Not only this, but clever new
Whether creating a custom hotel
need to ensure a hotel’s services and management software can automate a app or working with a larger industry
facilities are always up to date, means number of menial tasks, freeing up staff player, there’s no doubting that
a good hotelier always has one eye on time so they can address the needs of mobile convenience and the increased
their establishment, and one eye on the paying guests, and ensure they receive accessibility it allows is a key tech
industry as a whole. the highest level of customer service element that hotels need to pay
throughout their stay. There’s little attention to. Hotels of all sizes have
advances is a crucial part of this, and is doubting that cloud-based management to make the customer experience as
entirely necessary if a hotel is to stay systems are the way to go for hotels, easy as they can, before, during and
current. An entire industry is now thriving and that they’ll be around for some time after their stays; and as speed and
on the business of improving our hotels as they constantly improve their tech to accessibility become ever more important
with the help of tech. Innovative products meet hotels’ evolving needs. in our daily lives, hotels need to put
Making the most of technological
are being designed to streamline
Another tech product taking the hotel
themselves in people’s hands or risk
being left out entirely.
managerial processes, better entice trade by storm is the personal hotel potential guests, and make the day to app. While many hotels don’t have apps day running of our hotels smoother and of their own, instead working through embraced by a number of hotels is
more efficient. aggregators such as Booking.com or ‘chatbot’ technology, similar to (and in
Another piece of tech being
Trivago, larger hotel chains and some places including) Google’s ‘Echo’ and
are these glossy tech products just boutique hotels have introduced bespoke Amazon’s Alexa. In the hotel setting,
passing fads, or are they offering mobile apps through which guests can these Artificial Intelligence-powered
genuine and important changes that will book rooms, discover deals, and browse ‘chatbots’ can be used to ask questions
irreversibly change the hotel business the range of rooms and services on offer. and make requests, or to increase the
However, looking at the long term,
For some hotels, the effort and comfort and convenience of the guest’s
expense involved in creating a custom experience — for example, by changing
extremely popular among hotel owners app is simply not worth it; but for room temperatures, turning lights on
and managers is the introduction of many it can be justified as it presents and off, and controlling TV and speaker
cloud-based management software. an interesting new approach to hotel systems.
This kind of technology has grown in operations. The main argument in favour popularity over the last decade, and of hotel-specific apps is its convenience becoming a firm fixture in many of our
it’s not difficult to understand why. By for the consumer, allowing them to make day-to-day lives, and it’s only logical to
enabling remote access and the instant or change bookings, access information expect to see more of it in our hotels.
sharing of information and data, the quickly, ask questions and make requests However, if the tech only goes as far
right cloud-based management system with ease from their phone or tablet. A as enabling guests to control small
can make processes immeasurably bespoke app also means no services are elements in their rooms, is it really
more efficient for managers and staff, required from ‘middle-man’ companies, worth the investment? Beyond looking
for the better?
One such change that has become
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www.hotelowner.co.uk
This sort of technology is steadily
April 2019