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With Guests Checking Back In, Hoteliers Look to Take Next Step With New Tech
Posted: 03/07/2023

Business travel is picking back up and families may be taking their first or second real vacations since the pandemic cancelled so many plans just a few years ago. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, hoteliers are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their stay more comfortable than ever. With an advanced property management systems (PMS) and integration platforms, hoteliers can increase operational and staff efficiency, but also meet changing guest expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience. We looked ahead to see what changes we expect to see sweeping the hospitality industry this year.

Long-term readers of this blog know that I rarely focus on a single company or product. My goal is to help readers understand new and emerging technologies, when and why they might be useful, and what to consider if you are buying them.

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The Future of Hotels
Posted: 02/21/2023

Hotels have always been a high-touch low-tech business. Today, and into the foreseeable future, hotels are moving away from the pure ‘people serving people’ model towards a more high-tech low-touch business, and doubling down on digitalization. In the paragraphs below, I envision ways in which tech can innovate and enhance the guest experience throughout the guests’ 6 stage hotel journey: Imagine-Book-Stay-Report-Recommend-Return.

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Definitely Doug 2/10/23: Planning for June
Posted: 02/10/2023

The question I have heard most often in recent months is “where are you going in the last week of June?”. As most readers are aware, two trade shows featuring hotel technology are scheduled during the same dates that week. Many of you are still undecided which to attend. Knowing that your decision will be based at least in part on where others are going (hoteliers and exhibitors both), I decided to try to get some real data that I could share.

The Shiji Distribution Solutions team provided the research on available partners, vendors, and technology, however, for obvious reasons, the chart doesn’t contain every single solution and partner available.

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Touchless Hotel Experience: Adapting to the “New Normal” of Guest Expectations

07/07/2020 Tagged as: Guests Experience, Hoteliers, Mobile, New Normal, Payment, ResortSuite, Touchless

by Frank Pitsikalis

As we examine and develop new strategies for the changes that we can expect to see in the hospitality industry post-crisis, we are also starting to envision the world beyond the pandemic and to the new normal of radically shifted travel consumer expectations and preferences. The probability of guest technology expectations worldwide significantly changing becomes high as guests prefer a more touchless and fully mobile-enabled hospitality experience post-COVID-19. The future of hospitality has always been Mobile–but COVID-19 will accelerate this trend from a nice-to-have to a must-have for hoteliers.

Guests will arrive with a new desire for a touchless hotel experience.

Guests will prefer to check-in on their mobile device, receive a digital key on their mobile device and proceed directly to their room. They will want to check-in for their spa treatments or fitness classes on their phone and complete any intake questions on their own device—with brand new questions added now, “would you like your therapist to wear a mask”. They will want to self-serve all of their experiences in the hotel by curating their own wellness itinerary themselves–self-exploring on their own mobile device and booking spa treatments, classes and activities, dining reservations and golf tee times directly. They will use their mobile device as mobile ID to present and access their privileges and facilities as a guest or member. Touchless mobile payments will be the preferred method of payment instead of “chip-and-pin” transactions on perceived “dirty” pin-pads. Guests will avoid the crowds at the bar and order from their pool chair, table or room service via their own device. Check-out will forever change as guests review their room folios on their device, bypass the front desk and settle from mobile.

So, although guests will have a pent-up desire to receive human touch again in the safe, clean and controlled environment of a spa, they will also increasingly desire a “high tech, high touch” aspect to their hospitality experience where they can control it. Hotel marketing may change forever as brands focus on their cleaning processes, sanitized environments and a touchless experience enabled by mobile technology that a guest already has in their own (washed) hands.

As the hospitality industry begins to reopen, enhancing the digital guest experience becomes more significant today as guests seek a more touchless and seamless guest experience using their own (self-cleaned) mobile devices. Here are the top features to consider in delivering a mobile app-enabled touchless hospitality experience for your guests:

Mobile Check-in (with registration card completion)
Mobile Digital Keys
Mobile Payments
Mobile ID (barcode ID, charge to room/member account)
Mobile Spa Check-in (intake forms)
Mobile Facility access (NFC/Bluetooth)
Mobile Messaging
Mobile Guest Requests
Mobile Guest Issues (PM)
Mobile F&B Ordering
Mobile Check-out

Guests will be returning with preferences and expectations we have never seen before; thus, it is imperative that we adapt quickly and ensure that guests and staff feel comfortable in the “new normal”.

About The Author

Frank Pitsikalis
Founder and CEO
ResortSuite Inc.

Frank Pitsikalis is the founder & CEO of ResortSuite – a global hospitality software solution for luxury spas, clubs and resorts. He is also the Chairman of the ISPA Foundation Board and an established speaker/presenter at numerous prominent industry events within the hospitality, technology, resort, club, golf and spa sectors on how technology can help streamline operations, drive revenue and enhance the guest experience.

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