The hospitality industry is extremely competitive. This is the reason why it is crucial for the hospitality sector to keep itself abreast with the latest trends leading to utmost guest satisfaction. Else, the market place is the dark water that spares no one who fails to meet with the consumer demands!
Hospitality is all about making the guest feel empowered enough to make him/her invest in the services of a particular hotel all over again. This clarifies that hospitality is not a job. It is more of a combination of actions and activities that enhance and teleport‘Guest Welfare’ to an entirely new level. For boosting the experience of each and every guest, knowing them like the back of the hand is mandatory. This is extremely challenging as well.
The challenge lies in collecting data about each guest so that competitive business strategies could be designed by the hoteliers to win guest loyalty. Here, the Internet of Things (IoT) provides the hospitality sector with the crucial data about the guests that walk into a particular hotel. Based on that data, the hoteliers and ultimately the hospitality sector as a whole formulate interesting business strategies to rise above the competition.
Hoteliers must have it in their knowledge the major advantages of IoT for hospitality. If you are a hotelier, then let’s explore the advantages of IoT in hospitality:
#With IoT, microscopic room customization is possible
Hotels are now approaching hyper-room-personalization. Here the concept of ‘connected rooms’ takes full bloom. Hotels like Hilton and Marriott have already invested in this concept. Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta made headline-grabbing statements some time back about the desire to design a connected room in Hilton. Connected rooms make the guests feel empowered and relaxed at the same time.
When a guest comes in for a stay in a hotel, the IoT sensors collect the guest’s data and send it to the cloud. From the cloud, the hoteliers derive information about the personal choices and preferences of each of the guest. Then the next time when the guests come in for the stay, s/he gets to enter into a room which ‘knows the guests really well and the guests know the room back’.
The room temperature will be set to the one that suits him/her comfort the most. The room’s light, the music, and the television channels will be turned to the ones that were preferred by the guest during his/her last stay. Along with this, several guests like to indulge in ‘Spa Sessions’. The IoT sensors will manage to quickly identify the choice and preferences of the kind of spa required to rejuvenate the guest, based on the previous choice and preferences of the guest.
This instils a feeling of warmth in the guests as they feel like ‘home away from home’. Uplifting the guest experience is the basic purpose of the hospitality sector. That is why watering and further nurturing the relationship shared by the guest and host requires an in-depth understanding of the guest’s requirements, which IoT is a whiz at providing.
#With IoTelectronic key cards will win more than half of the game
Manual key locks have become outdated. Plus, in order to get the room key from the front desk, a guest has to wait for some formal procedures of check-in to get over with. With the intention to boost the guest experience, the hoteliers can now join hands with IoT.
IoT helps in sending a digital key to the guest’s smartphone a few hours before the check-in processes. With IoT intelligence, the smart key card will sync up with the front desk of the specific while securing all the guest data (name, age, gender, social security number and more).
Now the guests are no more required to hold onto their patients in the front desk to complete the check-in procedure. IoT empowers the guests to bypass the check-in desk entirely and head up straight to the room. This helps the hospitality sector to put an unforgettable impression on the guests in just a matter of a few minutes!
Also Read: Internet of Things Trends that will drive business innovation
#With IoT mobile engagement with guests becomes simple
In the current date, the world’s population is 7 billion. The number of cell phones that are been used is almost 6.8 billion! The hospitality sector sees this as a bright opportunity to get connected with their targeted audience through mobile phones.
Here, the Internet of Things enhances mobile engagement in between the guest and the host as in today’s time, spotting a mobile phone in everyone’s hand is no big deal. Mobiles have in fact changed the way in which we work, travel, seek entertainment, commute and more! Hotels like Hilton and Starwood are now offering guests the ability to check-in and unlock their doors all through smart mobile applications. IoT has thus tremendously enhanced the way wireless communication work.
On a finishing note:
If you are a hotelier, then just visualize that you had to travel for long hours to attend a business meeting overseas. Next, you had to wait for the cab to pick you up and then drop you to the hotel. Then, you had to wait further to successfully get done with your check-in procedure.
Next, after you enter your room, just imagine yourself setting up the room temperature according to your comfort. Next, calling the room services so that you can eat something to suffice your hunger comes in line. All these ‘little’ things can seem too much of an effort for you when you are tired or just in the mood to laze around. Same goes for your guests as well.
To survive in the competition, it becomes crucial to keep pace with the wider industry in ways where the businesses can ensure that the businesses are delivering excellent customer experience. Hence, with IoT, hoteliers can now simply manage to boost customer experience and take them to an entirely new level!
