Hotel brands that understand the needs and desires of their guests equip themselves for long-term success. Understanding these guests expectations, however, can prove difficult. Sometimes a brand’s assumption of what guests expect from their hotel experience differs from actual guest expectations.
Hospitality leaders occasionally fixate on recent trends and innovations rather than focusing on technologies that guests truly care about during their stay. To help hoteliers better understand where they should direct their attention, OpenKey surveyed guests on which technologies they expect to see in a hotel in 2019.
As the Guest Expectations for Hotel Tech In 2019 infographic shows, technology will be an important part of the overall guest experience next year.
Guest Insights to Fuel Hotel Tech Strategies
Earlier this year, OpenKey polled over 500 US guests (ages 18+) on the technologies they expect to see in their preferred hotels in 2019. Upon analyzing their responses, we divided the survey results into the following categories:
- Must have amenities
- Smart room technology
- Mobile technology
- Trendy topics that guests don’t expect yet
As demonstrated by the infographic, some of the results are obvious while others might come as a surprise. However, the collective results display a clear image of what guests expect from hotels in 2019.
Although more detailed in the infographic, some of our findings include:
- The vast majority of guests expect wifi and device charging ports
- Smart room features like smart thermostats and lighting were expected by most guests, while features like in-room tablets and virtual assistants polled lower
- Mobile key and other mobile technologies we polled for were all expected by the majority of guests
- Guests are not expecting to see cryptocurrency payment or robots in hotels next year
Other insights from the infographic include guest expectations about mobile pay options, the importance of hotel-branded mobile apps, and several other tech-based data points. With these insights, hoteliers can establish technology strategies that meet current guest expectations and enhance the overall hotel experience.
