Hotel Technology: Booking and Loyalty
Technology can play an important role in revenue for hotels, both in terms of booking and retention. It’s no secret that today’s travelers want to be “met where they are”, not physically, but digitally. The world of telephone books and calling around for openings has long passed us by, and the old-school internet searches are being replaced by information that can be grabbed with the swipe of a finger at a moment’s notice.
Until recently, hotels have concentrated expanding revenue exclusively through bookings streams. With the advent of online booking agencies, they are now losing a garnered customer loyalty. Traveler preferences are moving quickly toward mobile and tablet for research, and trust has gone up in these devices for shopping and booking. For hotels, this means that a mobile presence isn’t so much a game-changer as it is a means to stay in the game altogether.
Utilizing proper technology channels to communicate with guests, hotels will maximize on-site revenue, upsell in-room services, and remain engaged with customers, all of which goes back to loyalty and retention as well as revenue.
The revolution of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) means hotels must also bridge constant communication, and not just in terms of staff-to-guest contact, but also a staff-to-staff capacity, because hotel staff have resorted to using personal devices for workflow management and even to communicate with guests. This results in better efficiency, increased communication between everyone involved in your guest experience, lower turnover, and again revenue and retention.
In order to provide all of these benefits, hospitality companies must have a single fully networked technology platform that manages value creation, provides a method for product consumption, allows for quality control, and is scalable across all properties within a portfolio. For more information on mobile in travel, please check out The Cornell Center for Hospitality Research report, “The Mobile Revolution is Here: Are You Ready?”.