Tech Talk

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Definitely Doug 6/9/23: Hotels Fighting Trafficking: The Role of Technology
Posted: 06/09/2023

This week I want to address an important issue for the hospitality industry, albeit one that technologists have not historically had on their radar. They can potentially play a significant role in addressing the issue, which is human trafficking, and more specifically sex trafficking.

In my last column, I reviewed some key trends in autonomous mobile robotics for hotels, and dove into three categories of delivery robots in more detail – room delivery, food delivery, and heavy-lift robots. This week I will round out the topic with several other robot types and applications, as well as general guidance for evaluating, acquiring, and adopting mobile autonomous robotics. If you have not yet read part one, I recommend going back and doing so before continuing below, as some of the introductory material is important background to what follows.

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Best Practices for Hotel & Resort Operators in Pool Season 2023
Posted: 05/25/2023

With the arrival of warmer weather and summer fast approaching, hospitality operators are gearing up for another pool season. This year, technology is at the forefront of driving booking revenue and taking operational efficiency to the next level. Modern technology platforms (such as hospitality’s newest technology category – the Property Experience Management System or PXMS) are providing brand new capabilities that unlock new strategies and approaches to filling the pool with satisfied guests.

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The Growing Role Technology Plays in Hotels and Restaurants
Posted: 05/25/2023

In the past few years, hotels and restaurants have grown into hubs for entertainment, leisure, and human connection. In an effort to best serve their guests, operators have begun rethinking their technological investments and working to adapt to recent shifts in consumer preference and operations. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, brands are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their experiences more convenient and comfortable. Advanced property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) systems can increase operational and staff efficiency, while also meeting changing customer expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience.

This week I will return to a topic I have covered before, because it has, within the last 12 to 18 months, become one of the hottest-growth categories in hospitality technology. That topic is autonomous mobile robots – specifically, ones that can move around the facility as well as perform specific tasks. Many of these products were launched pre-Covid but were often seen at the time as more of a marketing gimmick than a legitimate operational solution.

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Checking In before Checking Out

12/19/2016

by Scott Schaedle

Today, nearly 60 percent of travelers book hotels using a mobile device and 81 percent find user reviews important. With mobile devices serving as a natural extension of travelers, hotels must engage with their guests where they’re talking and listening before, during and after their stay to manage the guest experience from check-in to checkout.

Streamline Operations
Before a guest even steps foot onto the property, hotels should incorporate mobile technology into their internal operations to streamline communication between departments and shifts. Replacing physical logbooks and finicky radios with mobile devices is one way to ensure transparency and accountability between frontline employees and management, shaping the guest’s first impression and ensuring consistency from day to day.

Encourage Engagement
Once checked in, guests should have a way to communicate requests and complaints directly to hotel staff via mobile device without being required to download an app or call the front desk. Requesting more towels or expressing a noise complaint via text encourages guests to engage directly with staff in a manner that is intuitive and natural for today’s traveler. Opening this additional line of communication between the guest and staff not only creates a highly personalized guest experience, it also provides the opportunity for management to address an issue that might otherwise only be discovered after the guest checks out and publishes a review.

It is imperative that mobile-initiated complaints are escalated quickly, handled appropriately and logged correctly. While a complaint may have been initiated via text, hotel management should not necessarily continue the dialogue using the same medium. Instead, the manager should quickly take the complaint offline by engaging with the guest verbally or face-to-face. After the issue is remedied, the incident should be logged so that staff can be aware of and sensitive to the guest’s issue during future stays.

Keep it Simple
If technology overcomplicates the guest experience, don’t implement it. Completely replacing traditional staples in the hospitality industry like the front desk associate or housekeeper with technology removes the opportunity to personally connect with guests and create the highly customized experience we’ve all come to expect.

While comment cards on pillows might be obsolete, the concept is certainly not. Hotels should automatically send a brief survey to the guest’s mobile device after checkout requesting feedback on their experience. Many hotels offer points as incentives to completing these surveys, which ultimately provides a wealth of information to calibrate operations and increase guest satisfaction.

While we most certainly have not seen the extent of mobile technology’s role in the hospitality industry, it’s clear that hotels seeking to increase customer satisfaction must connect with guests where they’re engaged through mobile technology. Through technology, savvy hotels should proactively shape the guest experience by streamlining internal operations, opening a new line of communication and implementing technology where it makes sense.

About The Author

Scott Schaedle
Founder and President
Quore

Scott Schaedle founded Quore in 2012 after identifying the need for and creating a solution to revolutionize and streamline hotel operations. Raised in a family rooted in the hospitality industry, Schaedle grew up and worked in hotels his entire life. Schaedle is the driving force behind the vision of the company and designed Quore through a collaboration between hoteliers, designers and software developers. Under his leadership, Quore now has more than 20,000 users at more than 1,000 hotels, including properties in leading management companies throughout the country.