Earlier this week (in Part 1), we started a discussion on the top five hotel technology trends that you can anticipate in 2018. Now that we’ve walked you through Smart Hotel Rooms and Virtual Reality, it’s time to complete our list, and present the remaining trends that will help your hotel improve the guest experience and increase staff productivity.
3. AI and Voice Search
Much like smart TVs, as the price of AI and voice search technology decrease, you can expect to see more voice-enabled devices in hotel rooms in 2018. In fact, many hotels are already taking the AI leap.
Just this summer, the Wynn Las Vegas installed Amazon Echos in their rooms, allowing guests to use voice commands to control room lights, room temperature, draperies and TV.. According to Bloomberg, Marriott International is testing iPads running Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo at its Aloft hotel in Boston’s Seaport district. And Expedia is exploring the use of smart voice devices like the Echo to see how they could be used to help in the travel booking process.
4. Housekeeping Technology
Housekeeping remains an extremely vital part of the guest experience. There are now numerous software modules on the market that seamlessly integrate with nearly any property management system to more effectively schedule shifts and improve both service and staff efficiency. TracNcare, for example, is a platform that manages maintenance and housekeeping by, among many other things, logging and tracking guest requests to better understand their needs.
Stealing a bit of thunder from Trend #5, we will also see more hotels getting housekeeping help from robots. Maidbot has created Rosie, the world’s first housekeeping robot for hotels (named after the cleaning robot from The Jetsons). Rosie also functions as an indoor mobile data platform that helps with budgeting, scheduling and communicating guest behaviors (such as how many pieces of luggage they bring).
5. Robots!
Robots in hotels are more than gimmicks. They can save hotels on staffing costs, increase guest response time and “wow” guests enamored with the new technology, increasing repeat business.
Besides the current robots operating in the hospitality industry, there are a number of new robots entering the market in 2018. One of the current options is Savioke’s Relay, hospitality’s first autonomous robot dedicated to room deliveries. Able to operate elevators and navigate around obstacles – as well as people – Relay is already increasing revenue and causing delight in hotels throughout the country. They already have 150,000 robots in operation, with many more on the way.
If you’d like to see any of these exciting new hotel technologies in person, including OpenKey’s mobile key solution, make your way to the 2017 Hotel Experience Conference at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City – November 12th and 13th, 2017. Staying ahead of these game-changing technologies is the best way to ensure you’re delivering the best possible guest experience.
