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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Guest Arrival: Turning Your Data Into Action

05/25/2016

by Christophe Tayon

For the hospitality and travel industry, guest arrival represents a crucial moment that drives overall guest experience and loyalty. It's a necessary and common interaction yet one where the stakes are high because the guest’s impressions from check-in can set the tone for the entire stay.

Keep in mind that typical arriving guests will have experienced a long journey to the hotel. They will be interested in getting checked in and settled as quickly as possible. Adding to the pressure of the moment is the fact that modern guests not only expect great amenities and service but a personalized experience as well. Hotel and resorts therefore should leverage guest intelligence to create meaningful engagements and emotional connections with arriving guests. By doing so, the hotel and resort cultivates loyalty and nurtures profitable, long-term guest relationships.

Below are the three important steps needed to create a personalized and brand-engaging check-in experience.

Step 1: Leverage your guest history to create a dynamic Arrival Report

A typical report should include, at the minimum, the following notes and information about the prospective guest:

Recency of stay
Frequency of stay
Relative value
Booking or distribution channel
Key reservation information

All of this information can be pulled directly from your existing hotel systems; however, you’ll need to centralize all of that data in a single location within your CRM in order to create a comprehensive guest profile. Once that occurs, these unique data points can be used to create arrival reports that address each guest’s history, value, behavior, desire and intent. We have routinely seen arrival reports that include as many as 40 discreet variables. In addition, the reports are automated and provided on-demand so they may be accessed by key stakeholders at any time. This best practice allows each arriving guest to get the critical and personalized attention they require just when it's needed most. And it’s the type of next-level guest arrival experience that allows operational managers the ability to gather valuable, additional profile information, to successfully upsell, and to begin to cultivate loyalty.

Step 2: Pre-Plan Guest Arrivals for Short, Meaningful Interactions

Every arriving guest approaches the front desk with some level of experience with your brand. Whether a first-time guest or your most loyal one, each should be treated in the context of where they are in that figurative brand journey.

For example, a new guest can be offered a tour or quick explanation of the hotel's amenities at check-in, and asked to provide their email address if you do not already have it on record. A VIP guest on the other hand, should be greeted with a personalized message that addresses their preferences from previous stays, such as ‘Welcome back, Mr. Smith. Your usual room is ready. Would you like us to reserve a tee time this weekend or book an appointment with Julie at the spa?”.

Below are a few fundamental ways to capitalize on guest arrival with short, meaningful interactions:

Make sure you have the guest email address. Guests who book through an OTA may not have their email address in your CRM platform and if this is the case, the front desk should kindly ask for it. From that point, your automated marketing can nurture and re-market to the guest, encouraging them to book through your direct channel for their next stay.
Anticipate desire and intent to upsell the guest. Your data, whether related to guest history (e.g., a guest that is a regular spa user) or marketing channel (e.g., a guest that clicked an upgrade offer but did not convert) or pre-arrival survey (e.g., a guest who prefers fine dining), can help your front desk up sell at check-in with a personalized offer that connects to the arriving guest emotionally.
Cultivate guest loyalty with rewards. Nothing helps turn a regular guest into a loyal brand advocate like a room upgrade, complimentary drinks or massage offer, or other gift that is proportionate to the guest's lifetime value. Again, it is about making a powerful, emotional connection with a guest at the moment they are most receptive to it.

Step 3: Streamline Front Desk Operations by Effectively Integrating CRM

The best way to ensure an ideal guest arrival experience across multiple properties and front desk agents is to utilize business rules fully integrated with CRM. This guest intelligence module instantly provides suggestions to front desk agents, beginning with appropriate greetings, and then moving to possible upsells and ways to improve guest satisfaction using predictive analysis. Our hotel partners select the business rules that drive this automation and fit their property’s goals, making our guest intelligence module an effective and valuable tool to optimize the check-in process, improve guest relations, and relieve the stress on agents to optimally perform during peak activity.

About The Author

Christophe Tayon
Director of Marketing And Demand Generation
Cendyn/ONE

Christophe Tayon is the director of marketing and demand generation for Cendyn/ONE. He has over 15 years of experience in the travel industry working for and with OTAs, GDSs, devising marketing strategies to structure solutions to support and promote retail and channel sales. Christophe is a travel and marketing technology advocate. He joined Cendyn/ONE in 2015.