Merging Hotel and Technology: Proving Meaningful Service

Today’s travelers are becoming increasingly tech savvy. Whether traveling for leisure or work, today’s customer does not want to be bothered – unless they want something. In a typical hotel, there are various spaces where the customer is able to lounge, work or gather, and in any of these places they might want to make a request for food or drink. If there is not a server or employee managing the area, hotels can lose out on this revenue and are not able to provide the best guest experience possible.

For example, what if it’s after hours and you have a few people in the lobby area enjoying a night cap. There might not be enough people to make staffing the entire area financially responsible – but this does not mean these customers should not get service. This is where technology can come into play. If the customer has a way to request the attention of hotel staff – even if the staff is in a completely different area of the hotel, they will still be able to tend to this customer. They are able to provide meaningful service – tending to a guest when they are looking for something, instead of just because they are in a nearby area. As technology plays a bigger role in the hospitality space, hotel operators are recognizing that technology can help them improve their customer service scores without the need to up their labor.

Hotel operators that aren’t utilizing technology to enhance their customer experience are losing out on guest engagement opportunities in areas of the hotel, and in turn sales, because they do not interact with the customer outside of the minimal square footage of the hotel that is constantly staffed. While hotel customers are looking for their privacy, they are still looking for the same amount of customer service when they are ready to make a request. If there is no staff available at this point, the opportunity will be lost.