The changes in technology and guest expectations have created a whole bunch of new challenges for hotels. Did you know that you can not only meet these challenges, but also drive guest satisfaction and revenue with the right tools? This is what new guest facing technology can do for you and your hotel.
The top challenges in the hospitality industry today, and how you meet them with smart guest facing technology
Managing a hotel is not what it used to be. In the pre-digital era you could use a simpler and more hands-on strategy to create guest satisfaction, brand loyalty and revenue. These days hotel owners have to deal with tech-savvy guests with new and unique expectations, mobile first-communications, the rise of Airbnb, marketing and reputation management in a world of social media and online reviews, and much more. A lot has changed in just a few years, and to remain successful it’s more important than ever to stay relevant and meet the expectations of the guest. Fortunately, there are smart and simple ways to do just that.
Let’s have a look at what your biggest challenges are today, and what kind of strategies and technical solutions there are that can make your hotel stand out, attract guests and drive revenue.
The word online and the demand for experiences – the top challenges today
Of all the major changes that have occurred in recent years, almost all of them can be traced back to the paradigm shift into the digital, mobile first era. The ways we interact, consume, communicate, and share have become focused around digital channels and personal devices. Armed with the internet, today’s guests have all the power and will find out everything they want about your hotel without ever interacting with you. This creates some new challenges for your hotel and your revenue.
- Guests trust other guests, not your marketing. Studies show that up to 70% of consumers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by the online reviews left by other customers. This number is even higher in the hospitality industry – according to a TripAdvisor survey, 93% said that online reviews have an impact on their booking decisions. More than half of the respondents wouldn’t even consider a hotel that lacked reviews. Good guest ratings are very important for reputation, marketing, online visibility (a Google search is almost always the initial way a guest will find out about you), bookings, and most of all revenue. Bad reviews will lead to fewer guests and company accounts, and to price erosion, but a positive word online will drive higher occupancy and rates.
- A demand for experiences. The rise of the experience economy, the disruption Airbnb brought the industry, and the expectations of a personalised guest experience have changed what guests want when they travel. A “stay” is not enough – they want an experience. Something special they can get nowhere else. Your hotel needs to become a “destination”, not just a nice building to sleep in. Create that personalised experience and your hotel will get the edge that will make it stand out as something more than just a place to stay.
- Drive ancillary sales. As anyone in the hospitality industry knows by now, just getting heads in beds is not enough. Just like the airline industry, where on-board food and services have become a pretty big and important slice of the revenue pie, hotels need to sell more than just a good night’s sleep to make profit. Ancillary products and services like room service, spa treatments, excursions, gift shops etc. is what will boost your revenue and make you reach your goals, and even go beyond them.
- Create seamless communication within the hotel. Bad communication is the primary cause of bad service. If your staff can’t cooperate or work towards the same goals, the guests will suffer from it, and with them your sales and reputation.
- Make wise investments. New expectations and behaviours need new strategies, and those strategies need new tools and platforms. Investments are necessary to bring your hotel up to speed with guest demands, but the solutions you choose must add benefit in the long term and have a good ROI.
In short – in order to remain relevant and drive revenue you need to deliver an experience that makes the guests happy so they will spend more during their stay and tell everyone how great it all was.
A tall order? It’s actually not, because the good thing here is that the same digital revolution that changed guest expectations and the industry also holds the key to how to meet all these challenges. Guest facing technology is the perfect tool for giving your hotel the edge it needs, and here’s how and why.
Engaged guests are the key
A satisfied guest is good, but not good enough. You need a guest that will do more than just stay at your hotel. A guest that will interact, spend and spread the word. What you need is an engaged guest. When it comes to guest spend on ancillary products and services, engaged guests can spend up to 46% more annually compared to disengaged guests (according to Gallup). They are also much more likely to leave positive reviews (according to a study from Atmosphere Research Group, hotels with a high level of engagement with their guests can see a 30-80% increase in guest reviews, 63% higher ratings than competitors, and a 25% increase in link activity with the hotel’s business listings). Engaging with your guests will also affect their loyalty. According to a study published by Local Measure, on-site guest engagement can lead to higher return rates (up to 40% more likely to return).
So how do you make your guests more engaged? If you can make the guests interact more with your hotel and its services, it will create a more engaging experience for the guests, leading to the positive effects just mentioned. And the perfect tool for interaction is a platform for the digital guest journey.
How to create guest magic
At InnSpire we are dedicated to helping hotels meet these challenges. We have created a platform for an engaging digital guest journey that will turn the stay into an experience that makes guests feel more satisfaction and engagement, spend more, leave positive reviews, and long to visit again. But our solution will also improve the communication and the optimisation within the hotel.
These are some of the tools and benefits of the InnSpire solution.
- H-Commerce. Our H-Commerce solution connects the guest with the hotel’s services and offers in an intuitive way though the TV in the room or their personal device, making it easier for the guest to order food, products and services – anytime, anywhere. With H-Commerce it’s possible to drive 3-5 times the revenue per room per night compared to the cost of the solution. The digital interaction with the guest through the InnSpire solution will also provide you with the insights to make personalised offers that feel relevant and unique. The key to up-selling is to make it feel like an exclusive and personal service.
- Great Wi-Fi. Strong and stable Wi-Fi is the foundation of the digital guest experience, with the guest’s own device as the primary tool of interaction. Your guests want simple and reliable internet access with user friendly login. Our hotspots and conference Wi-Fi will provide a great and secure connection everywhere in the hotel, all the time.
- AI. Our AI-driven platform anticipates the next step of the guests to deliver the right service at the right time. It’s device-agnostic and uses data to automatically create a unique journey for each guest. It’s loyalty on auto-pilot with personalised check-in, AI-generated personal offers, tailored in-room content, customised experience offers, automated re-engagement and much more to engage and delight your guests.
- Real-time feedback. The best way to prevent negative reviews is to help the guests right away, and the InnSpire platform enables real-time surveys through the TV-screen or the guest’s own device. The feedback is immediately entered into a database, and a low score generates an instant alert so the hotel can help the guest and turn the problem into a positive experience.
- Any-Screen Concept. Create a powerful brand-experience throughout your entire hotel, and let the guests have all the hotel’s services at the touch of their fingertips. Using their own device or the room TV, the guest can order food, book the spa, buy gifts, ask questions, get useful information, request maintenance, see their bill, checkout, and provide feedback. All without looking for staff or making calls. It makes the interaction with the hotel and its services faster, more attentive, more personal, and through the channel of the guest’s own preference.
- Consultancy. We know the hospitality industry through and through, how quickly everything evolves, and we know what it takes for a hotel to thrive. We can offer future-proof solutions that deliver a consistent experience. We can help you find growth opportunities constantly, and guide you toward perpetual innovation and efficient scaling.
By working strategically with InnSpire and leveraging the modular hardware and software platform that delivers a pleasant and engaging guest journey, it’s possible to drive guest satisfaction, positive guest reviews, and guest spend. If you would like to know more about how we can help you bridge the gap between challenges and success, please visit www.InnSpire.com
About InnSpire
InnSpire’s innovative Guest Media Streaming system allows hotels to generate more sales, offer more entertainment, and analyze and optimize results using a single platform that’s easy to update or change according to the hotel’s preferences. Having partnered with world-class hotels on every continent, Swedish-based InnSpire has become widely recognized for its ability to offer solutions that are comprehensive, cost effective, and remarkable easy to set up and maintain.
For more information, visit the website at www.InnSpire.com.