Embracing the Potential of a Smart Hotel Experience

More travelers are expecting their hotel stay experiences to be seamless, personalized, and enabled by sophisticated technology from check-in to check-out. With 69 percent of households now equipped with at least one smart device, it’s hardly surprising that many also want access to similar capabilities during their journey. Surveys even indicate that as much as 73 percent of guests want to manage their hotel stay using their mobile device.

This growing expectation may at first seem like a challenge for hoteliers to address, but it also creates exciting opportunities to boost guest satisfaction, loyalty and revenue. From ensuring a more enjoyable arrival experience to proactively anticipating guest service preferences and needs, properties and brands that are embracing smart hotel technology are unlocking a vital new competitive edge.

Streamlining a Guest’s Arrival

The journey toward offering a smart hotel experience begins even before a guest arrives. Smartphones and other personal devices are now frequently the preferred method to confirm a booking and request specific services or reservations. This trend mirrors overall consumer preferences for self-service features that replace having to wait on staff with instant and personalized results. With just a few taps within a hotel’s mobile app, guests can now schedule spa appointments, share dietary needs or allergies, rent equipment, book tour guides and more.

The desire to avoid wait times and delays is also why two thirds of guests are seeking out hotels that allow them to use personal smart devices as a convenient and secure digital room key. As a technology that has continued to evolve, mobile keys are one of the first smart-enabled services that hotel guests encounter where they can personalize experiences according to individual preferences. Some guests may prefer to manage and interact with their mobile key alongside other services and offerings within a hotel’s app, while others may opt for even greater streamlined convenience by accessing mobile keys via personal digital wallets. The goal of hoteliers should be to allow each guest to define what is most convenient from the moment they arrive and is a significant factor behind the ever-growing popularity of mobile keys and other smart technology solutions.    

Taking the Next Step to Guestroom Experience Personalization

Smart technology continues to gain a greater presence within hotel guestrooms, with smart TVs and music speakers being just one common example. Yet to provide the effortless convenience and personalization that travelers increasingly seek, more and more properties are deploying additional in-room smart devices, including thermostats, lights, virtual assistants and even drapes. Now, guests can create their ideal guestroom environment with a swipe of their mobile device or by simply stating a voice command.

Taking guest personalization and service quality a step further is the ability for hotels to now integrate these in-room devices with a property’s PMS and individual guest profiles. Combined with the ability to detect when a guest unlocks and enters their room, smart devices linked to a guest’s profile can be automatically adjusted to a guest’s preferred settings based on historical use. Whether ensuring that the temperature matches individual comfort expectations or that the television is always tuned into a guest’s favorite channel, hoteliers by leveraging these types of smart technology integrations can take the concept of experience personalization to new heights.

Also fueling enhanced guestroom experiences while further integrating in-room technologies and services are more robust virtual assistant platforms that are powered by AI. Able to hold more natural conversations and effectively respond to prompts no matter how a guest poses a question or request, modern virtual assistants are increasingly able to function as a guest’s own personal 24/7 concierge. From providing recommendations and ordering from a hotel’s room service menu to booking fitness class appointments or coordinating transportation, virtual assistant technology is undoubtedly becoming a mainstream guestroom feature, especially as more functionalities become available. 

Leveraging Big Data for Enhanced Guest Experiences

One of the greatest advantages of smart hotel technology lies in the ability to harness and analyze vast amnounts of data, turning it into actionable insights that enable proactive service and even more in-depth personalization. Using sophisticated data analytics platforms, hoteliers can predict and anticipate needs in real-time by reviewing data retrieved from social media posts, online reviews, previous stay and purchase history and more. Examples include guests who typically travel as part of a family or who often book stays for a business trip.

Being able to leverage big data means hotel employees can instantly identify the type of stay a guest is seeking and which amenities/services make the most sense to promote. For families, this could include suggesting dining plans, in-room gaming system rentals or booking recreational activities. For business travelers, examples include promoting the availability of meeting rooms and mailing or printing services. Access to big data can even provide hotels with opportunities to identify and celebrate guest milestones such as wedding anniversaries or birthdays, offering the opportunity to further deepen brand loyalty and revenue-earning potential. With research indicating that properties stand to potentially increase revenue per room by 5 percent, the effective use of big data clearly represents a crucial aspect of implementing a successful smart hotel experience strategy.

Optimizing Operations with Intelligent Monitoring

Beyond enhancing guest comfort, smart hotel technology is also becoming essential to maintaining operational efficiency and reducing costs. One increasingly popular example is the adoption of motion sensors installed within guestrooms that allow hotel staff to monitor real-time occupancy discreetly while respecting guest privacy. When integrated with a property’s energy management system and in-room smart devices such as thermostats and lights, hoteliers can automatically minimize energy consumption as soon as rooms become vacant while still ensuring a comfortable environment the moment that a guest returns. While estimated to save a 200-room hotel as much as $20,000 in energy bills annually, smart tech-enabled motion sensors can also provide a much desired boost to hotel sustainability efforts.

The same technology can also be integrated into staff task management platforms to maximize productivity while minimizing potential inconveniences for guests. Housekeeping employees able to instantly review which rooms are occupied or unoccupied can determine which rooms should be cleaned first for faster completion, while in-room F&B attendants and maintenance can likewise more efficiently carry out their responsibilities without disrupting guests.   

Smart technology’s benefits can even be extended to provide real-time awareness over the precise location of a hotel’s various assets. From food inventory and cleaning supplies to amenity rentals and service carts, attaching a small reader to each asset can save employees from countless hours of searching for items while ensuring that guests do not have to needlessly wait when making a request.    

Maintaining an Edge Within a Changing Industry

As the hospitality industry continues to rapidly evolve, integrating smart technologies is not just proving to be advantageous, it's becoming essential to running a competitive business. By incorporating smart technologies at every touchpoint of the guest journey, hoteliers can differentiate themselves and create compelling experiences that ultimately boost guest satisfaction, loyalty and business profitability.