Tag Archives: Hotel Technology

by | March 17, 2014 · 8:31 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “The ‘Beacon-Enabled’ Hotel Of The Digital Age”

“…I mainly focused on automation and making the experience easier. The next step is to look at ways hotels can increase revPAR (revenue per room),Image which I will focus on in the next article. People have been talking about smart housing for a long time but that is over now. Smart hotels will be realised. The only question is: By who?…”

Our homes are becoming more and more connected to so-called ‘smart homes’ with smart tv’s, smart fridges, and smart lights. Hotels want to give the feeling of comfort and one way to achieve this is to replicate the feeling of being at home. Smart homes are the future and Hotels should embrace change and be at the forefront of technological innovation.

I have been blogging about iBeacon technology and how it could create a whole new experience in stadiums and museums. While many have been focusing on the marketing and shopping benefits of implementing the latest technologies I want to help you look further than that. I would like to introduce the smart hotel.

For more: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/column/global/154000392/4064433.html

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by | February 13, 2014 · 9:01 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “The Hotel of the Future”

“…’The cookie-cutter in-room experience has to die,’ says internationally recognized keynote speaker Dr. Lalia Rach, associate dean, UW-Stout School of Hospitality Leadership, Menomonie, WI…timthumb‘We’ve talked about customization for a long time now,’ she notes. ‘We’ve talked about the colors of the room changing, about what’s on the walls changing to be more reflective of the person who is in the room. But it’s not just the physical, it’s the intangible.’…”

At the YOTEL New York, a towering robotic arm takes guests’ luggage and stores it in bar-coded storage bins. The Nine Zero Hotel in Boston uses iris-scan technology that opens the door to its presidential suite, while the Hotel Éclat in Taipei, Taiwan, has toilets with lids that open automatically. The hotel experience is changing, and the future will be here faster than you think. We asked planners, hoteliers, and hospitality experts to make some predictions on what the guest experience will be like; what follows are 20 features that are already here, or will soon be here before you even know it.

For more: http://www.successfulmeetings.com/Event-Planning/Technology-Solutions/Articles/The-Hotel-of-the-Future/

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by | January 3, 2014 · 9:23 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: “Smart Hotelier’s 2014 Top 10 Digital Marketing” Strategies

Hotel Yearbook 2014

Hotel Yearbook 2014 Digital Trends

Click on “Top 10” to view document.

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by | December 19, 2013 · 7:06 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: Hotels Partner With Google To Present Guests With “360-Degree Panoramic Virtual Tours” On Websites

“…Google Business Photos are 360-degree tours powered by Google Street technology. Many businesses have used the technology since Google introduced it in 2010, but a growing number of hotel companies are now adopting it… “Since the 360-degree panoramic virtual tours are taken by Google Trusted Photographers, guests know that these tours are created by a trusted, third party.”

Hospitality Industry Technology SolutionsChekitan Dev, marketing professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and author of Hospitality Branding, says other hotel companies will have to think more about visuals to compete with their counterparts.

USA Today

By Nancy Trejos

Hotels are partnering with Google to change the way travelers can view hotels even before they walk through the front entrance. Best Western International on Thursday will announce the launch of Google Business Photos for all 2,200 of its North American hotels. All hotels will have the virtual tours online by the end of 2014.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, parent company of Radisson, Radisson Blu, and Country Inns & Suites, this month started a pilot program of the service with an initial rollout at its hotels in Chicago, Miami and metro Washington, D.C.

“It will allow you to virtually experience the hotel in the same way you would if you were there,” says Dorothy Dowling, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Best Western. “We personally believe that this is going to be a game-changer in the industry in redefining how photos will be consumed by the consumer.”

The photos are taken by photographers trained and certified by Google. Their still photographs are stitched into 360-degree views using panoramic camera technology. Travelers can see the photos when they search for the hotel on Google Search, Google Maps, Google+, and Google Hotel Finder. They’ll be able to take the interactive tours on their computers, smartphones or tablets. The hotels also can link to the images from their websites.

For more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/hotels/2013/12/18/best-western-carlson-google-business-photos/4115185/

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Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: “Top 5 Trends In Hotel Technology” Feature Importance Of “Electronic Device Support” And “Real-Time Online Pricing & Reservations”

Top 5 Trends

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by | December 1, 2013 · 9:35 am
by | November 25, 2013 · 7:09 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: Hotels Increase Collection Of Guest Information With Social Media & Surveys To “Upgrade The Experience”

“…Like other luxury hotels, the Peninsula collects a cache of information about its customers, which is stored in a guest-preference database. Hotel Technology SolutionsBut it’s done with only one purpose: to upgrade the experience. It contains information about your favorite food, your preferred room and what side of the bed you sleep on…Experts will tell you it’s unfair to compare a hotel with a few hundred guests with a chain with tens of thousands. Maybe, maybe not. La Quinta Inn & Suites recently used a feedback-management platform to harvest information through social media and surveys to determine what guests thought of its breakfasts, which are included in the price of their stay…”

Airlines, car rental companies and hotels ought to spy on their customers more often. Collecting information about you to improve customer service — and only for that purpose — could return the American travel business to greatness.

That’s no coincidence, says Offer  Nissenbaum, managing director of the Peninsula Beverly Hills. “If you collect all the little details,” says Nissenbaum, “you can meet and exceed a guest’s expectations.”

Actually, figuring out which side of the bed you sleep on seems to be one of the hottest data points in the hotel business. The Ritz-Carlton, which also delivers  above-and-beyond service, notes your preferred side, says spokeswoman Allison Sitch. Why? Because that’s  where the staff will place a water bottle and other amenities, which means a lot when you roll out of bed in the morning.

The volume of data being collected by luxury hotel chains such as Ritz-Carlton or Peninsula might make an NSA agent blush. But the hotels gather it unapologetically, “as long as the data is being used to make the customer happy,” says Sitch.

The insights were sent directly to front-line employees and managers  for their feedback. La Quinta responded by adding signs and more prominently displaying the healthy foods they already offered, and customer approval rose.

For more:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2013/11/24/airline-car-rental-hotel-traveler-surveillance/3692017/

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by | November 19, 2013 · 10:05 am

Hospitality Industry Social Media Solutions: National Hotel And Restaurant Chains Using Twitter To “Attract A More Stable Following”

“…The idea stemmed from a conversation in which the company suggested one of their properties, and turned a Twitter user into a paying Hospitality Industry Social Media Managementcustomer. In an age when so few people have allegiances to certain companies, Loews are also hoping to attract a more stable following…The chain will launch “social reservations” at 16 of its 19 properties from November 19th, which opens another interesting channel for online users to book their next hotel stay with only a few clicks…”

Following in the wake of a recent tweet-a-coffee initiative from Starbucks, Loews Hotels and Resorts have made the decision to allow social media users to book a room through Twitter.

With 34% of hotel room revenue comes from online and mobile app bookings, the chain is hoping to give people in their 20s and 30s another way to book their stay without having to pick up the phone.

Here’s how the process works: Send a tweet to @Loews_Hotels with the hashtag #BookLoews to show you’re interested, after which a Loews travel planner will join in the conversation. Once all the details are taken care of, the planner will tweet a link to a secure chat conversation where you can process your payment information.

For more:  http://www.psfk.com/2013/11/twitter-hotel-bookings.html

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Hospitality Industry Wireless Technology: Hotels Offered Free Wi-Fi At 64% Of Properties In 2013 With Guests Expecting Speeds Up To 5 Mbps

Hotel Wi-Fi Report

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by | November 16, 2013 · 11:34 am
by | November 11, 2013 · 10:48 am

Hospitality Industry Liability Solutions: Hotel “Room Safe Online Tracking” Can Mitigate Guest Personal Property Loss

“…Tracking (room safe contents) is important because it can be a potential liability issue for hotels…“A guest might say, ‘But I left $1,000 in Hotel Room Safe Liabilitythere, and you only found $20!’”… Hotels can mitigate this issue by asking guests if they have left anything in the room safe before they leave the hotel…At the same time, it can be possible for safes to offer online tracking more easily by plugging into an online tracking system a hotel already has, such as for an emergency management system…”

Online tracking can ease the checkout process by making it less likely that a guest will leave a personal item in the room safe, said Bill Oliver, president for North America, VingCard Elsafe. Front-desk staff can prevent items from being left in the safe by merely querying departing guests at check-out.

Online tracking for hotel safes may not be a fit for smaller properties due to the cost involved in setting up the system, said John Foley, VP of sales at Safemark.

Larger properties can make better use of online tracking because of the sheer number of guests using safes each day, Foley said.

“At a property the size of MGM Grand in Las Vegas, you might have 60 guest openings or 100 service calls a day, so big box properties just have different ways of tracking different products inside the guestroom,” he said.

For more:  http://www.hotelmanagement.net/technology/tracking-safes-online-25340

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Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: Hotels Increasingly Rely On “Mobile Platforms” For Guest Check-In; “Mobile App Downloads” To Increase More Than 7-Fold In Next Five Years

Infographics On Hospitality Mobile Apps

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by | September 5, 2013 · 9:13 am