How to Set Your Hotel Ahead of the Competition with Innovation
How can you set your hotel apart from the competition? The key to success may be simpler than you think. With the right tech innovations, you can create a 21st century experience that’s seamless and luxurious – with details that your guests won’t soon forget. Here are a few of our favorite tips to use innovation to stand out from the crowd.
- Turn your hotel into a smart hotel with the Internet of Things
- Focus on personalized experiences and communications
- Embrace mobile technology
- Enhance customer service with chatbots
- Get guests excited for their stay with a virtual tour
Make Your Hotel a Smart Hotel with the Internet of Things (IoT)
Like a smart home, a smart hotel employs the IoT to create a more streamlined experience for guests and staff. With automated room tech, you can use less energy while making rooms more comfortable and inviting. For example, you could have thermostats preset to heat or cool rooms when guests are more likely to be present, or you can allow guests to get their room settings just right with access to an app to remotely set room temperature and other settings.
Other options to help turn your hotel into a smart hotel include:
- Smart TVs that allow guests to access their accounts on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime
- In-room smart hubs that empower guests to book additional hotel services, such as restaurant reservations, spa services, room upgrades, etc.
- Voice-activated controls and smart speakers that let guests turn lights on and off and/or set room temperature from anywhere in their room with their voice
Focus on personalized experiences and communications
What aspects of your hotel and your location are most attractive to your guests? Focus on an unforgettable experience. You can enhance that experience by implementing personalization at every step of the process – from booking to check-out.
Start by giving your guests options for how you communicate with them. When they book their room, let them opt in for communications via email, phone, or SMS. Whenever possible, use their names in communications. There’s nothing personal or caring about an email that starts with “Dear Customer.” Avoid that kind of impersonal language whenever possible. Even if you don’t have a guest’s name, you can always choose language like “Hi there” to open email messages. This kind of detail is more friendly and warm, creating the relationship you want to build with your guests.
Embrace mobile technology
Imagine arriving at a hotel after a long day of driving or flying. You’re tired but excited to start your vacation. You just need to get settled into your room, and all that stands in the way is check-in. What if you could eliminate that barrier to relaxation and fun? Think how much you can improve guest satisfaction when you can empower guests to bypass the lobby and go straight to their rooms. Mobile check-in and Digital Key gives guests that seamless contactless experience when they arrive at your hotel.
Your guests are walking around with the internet in their pockets and on their wrists. Today’s top hotel brands will take advantage of that mobile tech to set their hotels apart with innovation. Plus, the more you embrace mobile and contactless technology, the more you can reduce touch points and streamline your guests’ experiences.
Enhance customer service with chatbots
Along with empowering your guests with mobile tech, you can also improve customer service, delight your guests, and free up staff time by implementing chatbots on your website and in your mobile app. Chatbots can be an effective part of your online or mobile help desk. With chatbot technology, you can automate many aspects of your help desk services. Chatbots can:
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Provide customer support for a variety of challenges
- Send reminders for reservations and other services when guests opt in
- Automate requests for wake-up calls and other reminders
With the right implementation, this technology can unburden hotel staff while impressing guests with your hotel’s attention to detail and commitment to customer service.
Get guests excited for their stay with an AR tour
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies offer hotels an opportunity to stand out and get guests excited for their stay. Consider adding a 360-degree virtual hotel tour to your website, or you could include a virtual tour in your pre-arrival communications. AR and VR tours of your hotel can help guests get a feel for what they can expect when they arrive, and this kind of tech can also help guests see all the amenities and upgrades available as they choose which room option is best for their stay.
Conclusion: Get ahead of the competition with smart tech innovations
These are just a few of our favorite tips to help hotels stand out from the competition with innovation. A few simple and relatively inexpensive updates could make all the difference for your guests, especially updates that streamline their check-in and check-out experience. When you deliver innovations like mobile services and digital key technology, your guests will associate your hotel with the easiest check-in they’ve ever had. And when you integrate smart hotel upgrades, personalized services, and digital keys, they won’t want to stay with anyone else.
Want to learn more about how innovative technology like Digital Key can enhance your hotel? OpenKey is the leading provider of digital key services. Schedule a demo today to see how Digital Key technology can streamline check-ins and improve guest satisfaction.
