Tech Talk

Recent posts

Merging High Tech With High Touch to Create a New Hospitality Paradigm
Posted: 03/23/2023

One of the key challenges facing today’s hoteliers is that of high tech vs high touch. Does technology conflict with personalized service? Is it possible to offer both during the same visit? And can hotels that utilize technology in favor of human interaction achieve guest loyalty?

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.

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A Website Audit Could Boost Visits and Bookings – And They Are Free!

10/04/2016

by Nimesh Dinubhai

In my last few articles, I have stressed the importance of hotels branching out and creating a custom website that offers guests a brighter picture of their properties and what they offer. But what happens if after your site is up, you are still not able to see the grand results you were expecting? All is not lost!

Top 3 Hospitality Must-haves to be in the Techy Trend
Direct Website Traffic Equals More Online Bookings
Quality Over Quantity

For those of you who were smart enough to hire a company and have a professional site designed, congrats! You’re halfway there. That’s right, that’s what I said, halfway there. Having the site is just the first step: The most important part is utilizing all the features and advances in technology that your site should be implemented with in order to attract guests.

A site is only as good as its features, dropdowns and the information that it is being delivered to your customers. If you are underutilizing your site, then performing an audit is the next step for you.

A website audit by a specialized web design company will help you to see whether you are using all of the feature-rich options that a professional hospitality website should have. It will not only let you know what is working, but most importantly, it will let you know what is not working and what might need to be fixed or updated. You do not want a site with features that you are paying for but are dead weight.

So what is an audit, where do you get one, and what will it really tell you?

I’ll do my best to outline these answers here to help you make a better decision on whether a site audit is a good decision for you. The first step is to search on Google for web design companies and find a company that is confident enough with its services that it is able to offer you a free website audit. Next comes the understanding that an audit is not and should not be a high-expense gimmick to have someone tell you everything that is going wrong. An audit should provide information to help you use your site to the greatest advantage, so that you are maximizing the number of visits and giving guests the proper tools to book in the most efficient way possible. A well-planned website should do that for you already.

An effective audit should:

Evaluate whether the navigation tools are effortless for guests.
Ensure that the onsite booking process is fast and efficient.
Confirm that your website is simple, yet designed with a modern and contemporary feel.
Evaluate dead-weight content or pages that distract guests from what they really need.
Determine that the social media links are effectively placed and used.

There is so much more that can be found in an audit depending on how your site was designed. Take the time to at least look into an audit. It’s free and could mean the difference between guests booking or flying on to the next hotel website. If you are reading this and wondering why your site is not attracting guests, then pick up the phone, open the yellow pages, or search Google for a web design company to do your site audit now. You have nothing to lose and it is important to be informed. Good luck!

About The Author

Nimesh Dinubhai
President
Websrefresh

Nimesh Dinubhai completed his studies in 2003 and launched Websrefresh to help businesses grow their ROI. He also owns two Arizona hotels, one of which earned the Historical Hotel Award in 2014.