Recently, one of my “introvert” friends went to Bangalore where she had to stay in a hotel for a week.
Though she is always traveling and staying in hotels for her photography projects, this time she got disappointed by the hotel she booked.
Why? You ask.
It’s because she thinks ordering food on a call, going to the front desk to get a wifi password, and asking for room service from management staff, are all intimidating tasks.
She better have a lousy experience than go and ask for the things she needs from the hospitality staff.
She expected this hotel to have a mobile application in which she could get access to all the services. Since she is too shy to talk in person but very active when it comes to contactless interactions.
In this blog, I would like to amplify the solution to such situations where your guests want to leverage all your services but do not want to ask for them. They are more comfortable exploring everything themselves.
And to provide such an experience to the guests it is important to introduce mobile technology in the hospitality industry.
Let us see why and how.
Table of Content
Mobile Technology: A boon for Hospitality Industry
In a simple sense, anything which is a boon for the hospitality Industry must simplify your operations as a hotelier and enhance the convenience & experience of your guests.
And mobile technology does the exact same thing!
Let’s look at this with an example.
Assume that you have a guest in room no. 302 who calls at the front desk for placing an order from your hotel’s kitchen.
The receiver at the front desk cannot argue with the guest to call the kitchen directly for placing the order, right? He will take the order and pass it to the kitchen himself.
Imagine, in a rush of handling other tasks at the front desk, he forgets to make the call to the kitchen or tells the wrong room no. or wrong order?
Your guest won’t get much impressed by your hospitality.
Let’s look at this very example again; except now with the touch of mobile technology.
Yes, in this case, your hotel has a mobile PMS application.
During check-in, you can get your guests to install your hotel’s mobile application and guide them on how to avail services.
Now, this guest in room no. 302 doesn’t need to call. He will place the order on the hotel’s app. Your kitchen staff will get notified about this order automatically through mobile PMS.
The order directly goes to where it should (including the frontdesk PMS), your guest gets enough time to explore what you have and what he wants, and you get aware of your tasks the moment they get assigned.
Looks like a win-win situation for everyone.
Numbers that speak for themselves
Apart from the above scenario, some solid statistical pieces of evidence clearly show the importance & the positive effects of mobile technology in the hotel industry.
According to a source:
- Hotel mobile applications help approximately 70% of travelers in making booking decisions.
- Nearly 70% of last-minute bookings are done using a mobile device.
- Around 74% of the travelers say that they would prefer using a hotel application for booking and other details.
- 88% of the hotel guests wish to have a mobile application that can deliver them a personalized experience.
Considering the weightage of these numbers, I don’t think I need anything else now to prove my point.
How Mobile Technology Helps Streamline Hotel Operations
Whether you accept it or not, your hotel also needs mobile technology. And if you are still deprived of it by choice, I would like to convince you in this section by sharing what you are missing out on:
1. Digital integration
Through the mobile application of your hotel PMS you can track the booking flow at any hour of the day no matter if you are at the front desk or not. Not just that, you can even make the bookings from your mobile if something comes up.
Something like what?
For instance, you receive a message from your hotel owner to book a room for one of his friends. But what if you are not on shift and this room needs to remain available at any cost?
You can either run to the hotel and do it yourself or call your colleagues who are on the shift.
But, if you have a mobile PMS application, you can make this booking from the convinience of your smartphone, from anywhere.
In these cases, the digital integration of your mobile application with the Hotel PMS will help save your extra efforts for making this booking. It will also save you from delaying the booking or making any blunders.
2. Remote access
Probably one of the most basic and significant benefits of having mobile technology in the hospitality industry is the ability to access it remotely.
Now imagine you are not at the premise of your hotel but want to get the status of how are things going on there.
Let’s say, you need to have a look at the booking flow for the next week in your hotel or any other report regarding your hotel’s growth. For this, you need not bother your staff to update you every minute. Rather you can just keep the mobile application to track everything down sitting miles away from your hotel.
Not to mention, you can also assign tasks to your team members through the portal without any hassle.
Mobile applications help staff in managing operations through any corner of your hotel. This means they need not physically coordinate with each other to pass on a particular task and its details. They would simply know what needs to be done via constant updates in the mobile app.
3. Contactless hospitality
One thing that the Pandemic left for you is the responsibility to ensure contactless hospitality at your hotel. And it is not easy to maintain such a thing without necessary technical support.
Everything that you serve your guests needs to involve the lowest level of physical proximity.
To provide this kind of hospitality you need to invest in those devices that guarantee minimum contact with your guests and their belongings.
For instance, rather than using the conventional method of serving guests with a menu booklet, you can go for the “Scan and Order” trend. Wherein they will use their mobile devices to scan and view the menu on their device, directly from where they can order and pay bills easily.
This way you will successfully maintain a contactless service while providing your guests a sense of privacy.
4. Easy check-in and check-out
From check-in to check-out at the front desk, everything needs to be framed in such a way that your guests get a sense of freedom out of their whole stay.
Let’s start with the frontdesk check-in.
There, you can invest in mobile devices to make the process of check-in easy, quick, and contactless by using OCR Scanner.
OCR Scanner serves the purpose of scanning the IDs of your guests and automates the process of filling their credentials in your portal.
Not to mention, it saves your time to fill the details manually on every required paper and your guests get quick check-in too.
While checking out too, you can give your guests the liberty to check out through their mobile application directly.
This one thing can put a big impression on your guests. How?
Okay, so your guest Samay has to catch a flight on time for which he needs to check out immediately but your front desk is occupied. Samay can’t risk missing out on his flight, right?
Now, if he has the option of checking out on your hotel’s mobile application, he will do it himself.
In addition, he can make necessary payments through the same for his stay at your hotel. And you will get notified about this checkout by your Hotel PMS directly.
5. Guests’ requests
Through mobile applications, it becomes easy for hotel staff to fulfill guests’ requirements without a miss.
How?
While using traditional methods of listening and writing your guests’ unique demands on a piece of paper, anyone can mess things up now and then, right?
For this purpose, using your Property Management Software on your mobile devices can help significantly to note the requests directed from the specific room no. or restaurant table. You will have everything saved. No chance to mess things up.
Also, synchronization plays a vital role here because changes made by one member on the system send notifications to others too. Meaning, the department which is responsible for fulfilling that specific request receives the task update immediately and gets it fulfilled at the earliest.
6. Staff coordination
Getting updates on all that is happening in your hotel through your mobile device is important to establish coordination among staff members.
For instance, as hotel staff, you came across a guest in a corridor who places an order from your hotel’s kitchen and gave you his room number. Now instead of physically going to the kitchen or making a call, you can just take his order in your mobile application by the credentials of his room number and directly notify the kitchen about this order.
This way the message will get delivered fast and the order may even get ready when you reach the kitchen.
These things can get you extra stars for performing efficiently with quick services.
The more coordinated and connected your staff will be, the less time it will take to attend to the guests’ requests.
7. Task division
If tasks are dispersed among staff members, then there will always be an ambiguous workspace at your property.
Therefore, there must exist a division of labor among the crew when working for a large entity like a hotel.
Mobile technology is an essential tool to make sure that tasks get divided automatically throughout your management staff.
How? You ask.
Today’s contactless hospitality comes with personalized login access for your staff personnel. If using the system on their mobile device, they can operate all the assigned or pending tasks on a go. It ensures that each person is aware of what’s on the list for them to do next and which task is in priority.
Also, when a system divides the task and tracks their progress then you get a clear view of your staff’s performance.
8. Cashless payments
Cashless Payments have become mainstream in this digital world.
And when we talk of the hotel guests, that statement gets more evident.
What is the mode of payment used by your guests when they book you online?
In the case of offline bookings too, how many guests prefer mobile payments?
I think you have got the idea of what I’m trying to quote here.
This is just to remind you that mobile payments are not the kind of a trend that comes and goes.
It will stay for long and you should equip your technology to tune in with various payment gateways your guests are using nowadays. Because it eases your problem to deal with money and its calculation through traditional methods.
How can eZee help you?
With all its will and expertise in the hospitality technology industry, eZee has one job, that is, to simplify your job.
With our cloud-based PMS (Property Management System) and its futuristic approach, we are determined to make your hotel operations effortless and secure.
Our technology solutions have easy-to-use mobile applications with a user-friendly interface. You can operate and track your performance on a tablet and mobile phone from remote locations.
Besides, we offer fully integrated solutions that help you handle your hotel operations with a desired and personalized approach.
Conclusion
In the hospitality industry, there are a lot of factors that set the hospitable ambiance: your staff, their quick and coordinated services, and the ease for your guests to leverage these services.
To provide this sense of ease, your hotel must walk along with mobile technology. Otherwise, your operations get messy and extensive after some time.
I hope this blog had helped you acknowledge the importance of inducing mobile technology in the hospitality industry and you get a clear idea of how to use it for maximum benefits.
