HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW

January FOCUS: Mobile Technology

 
January, 2023

Mobile Technology: New Era of Digital Transformation


Though it's difficult to ascribe any affirmative value to the pandemic, it did push the hotel industry into a new era of digital transformation. Out of necessity, hotels quickly adopted all forms of mobile technology, as a means to minimize the risks of infection and to maximize a seamless guest experience. The goal was to reduce guest touchpoints but still deliver access to all property services, while maintaining social distancing measures. As a consequence, mobile technology providers created next-gen products and services like never before. In addition to mobile check-in/out, mobile room keys, and contactless payment methods, hotels are now implementing branded concierge apps, guest messaging platforms, enhanced translation devices, and website chat bots. Smart rooms, voice and facial recognition, robotics, and A.I. technologies are on the near horizon. The January Hotel Business Review will report on how some hotels are integrating mobile technologies into their operations to provide their guests with a ground-breaking digital experience.


This month's feature articles...

Martin Chevalley

With travelers returning to hotels at a meteoric rate over the past year, the ongoing labor crisis in the industry has continued to cripple many hospitality organizations. However, technology has stepped up with a range of potential remedies that are helping hoteliers to make up for the difference in staff quality and quantity and help them maintain-and even improve-service levels and guest satisfaction, despite limited staff. This article explores how mobile technology in particular is improving the guest experience and helping hoteliers to recapture lost revenue. READ MORE

Raianne Reiss

Digital transformations accelerated by the pandemic have shifted travelers' expectations. Travelers expect to find all of the information about a hotel - availability, guest reviews, location information, dining options, and more - at a moment's notice from whatever device they're using. To meet these new expectations, hospitality brands need to invest in modern search technology to create a seamless digital experience. READ MORE

Kylie Uvodich

Where people choose to stay has more thought behind it than ever before. Consumers have a wealth of choice at their fingertips and hoteliers would be hard pressed to find a more powerful lever than brand perception. Enhancing the guest experience goes both ways - here are the front and back-of-house technologies every hotel needs to ensure a 5-star experience. READ MORE

Shawn Tarter

As technology becomes increasingly more incorporated into business operations, hoteliers can take advantage of the benefits it can offer and provide to maximize efficiency and improve the guests' experiences. Shawn Tarter discusses the process of integrating technology into hotel operations and effectively utilizing it, as well as new groundbreaking developments and the future of technology. READ MORE

Don DeMarinis

Mobile technology is imperative to better serve today's tech-savvy guests, and the most successful hotels are providing these solutions to improve both the guest and staff experience. Whether allowing guests to access services and activities pre-arrival or while on-site, giving them the option to bypass the front desk and go straight to their rooms, or offering seamless mobile food and beverage service by the pool, hotels are able to elevate the guest experience and build loyalty. READ MORE

Nadav Cornberg

The hotel experience is undergoing a revolution - and the guest journey is at the forefront. In this article, Nadav Cornberg explores how the pandemic was a catalyst for change in the industry, and what the future hotel guest experience looks like. READ MORE

Darren Winterford

Being an industry that relies heavily on the human experience, hospitality is a business that has gradually embraced technology and its role in creating better and more efficient services for guests. In today's market, mobile technology is being integrated into day-to-day operations. But there are other ways mobile technology can be implemented to improve the hotel experience for guests further. READ MORE

Paulina Burbano De Lara

In the world of high-end hotels that pride themselves on personalized service can we reconcile the need to reduce contact with the need to create human connection between our guests and our staff? The risk of reducing a life-affirming experience to a scroll on a phone is real. How to solve this conundrum is a challenge for all properties in our segment. READ MORE

Scott Schaedle

The pandemic ushered in a new era of hotels relying on technology. Now that the pandemic is behind us, we still see hotels depending on technology but for a different reason: chronic understaffing issues. With so many hotels now utilizing technology to operate with fewer staff, the truly groundbreaking experience is talking to another human being again. READ MORE

Chris Green

The pandemic pushed the hotel industry into a new era of digital transformation. While some stakeholders were initially skeptical, new technologies keep guests safe, streamline check-in, improve communication between guests and staff, and alleviate hiring pressures. This new wave of technology integration has left a lasting impression on the industry and will pave the way for even more exciting progress in the future. READ MORE

Nicole Dehler

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many mobile technologies such as contactless check-in, digital payments, and mobile PMS platforms, moved from "nice to have" luxuries to "must-have" necessities. As the pandemic began to wane, hoteliers began to focus on building highly personalized and seamless guest journeys, building tightly integrated ecosystems of mobile platforms in the process. READ MORE

Steve Turk

Born out of need, new hotel technologies will dominate the future of hospitality and change the way hotel operation teams work together to generate new revenue streams while meeting the demands of travelers and improving the guest experience for the better. Digital-based service platforms with the biggest impact will be the ones that allow guests to maximize their experiences. READ MORE

Todd Johnstone

The US hospitality industry is making a slow but steady comeback from the pandemic, but it's having lasting effects on travelers' mindsets. As guests return, they do so with expectations that hotels have changed. The bar has been set higher–particularly when it comes to the technology available to them when and where they stay. In response, hoteliers are reevaluating their PropTech solutions to meet these new expectations with the aim to elevate customer experiences enticing return visits, and, consequently, boosting revenue per available room. READ MORE

Paul Savage

In today's ever-changing world, hospitality continues to offer a wide range of business and leisure travel options, as well as providing unique job opportunities for candidates. As we navigate the consequences of COVID-19, labor, inflation, and other issues affecting our industry, we must continue to innovate in our approach to both the guest and the candidate experience. READ MORE

Nadav Avni

The hospitality industry has been leveraging TVs to enhance the guest experience. In addition, TVs now provide audio visual support for venue's ongoing promotions and advertising activities. Moreover, the emergence of smart TVs has boosted the convenience and benefits the device provides. With increasing smart TV investment, hospitality owners must ensure they have appropriate technology to manage, maintain, and secure requirements of the hotel's fleet of Android TV devices. READ MORE

Aron Ezra

It's common for a traveler to long for the control they have at home; after all, when you're home you decide how things are and all too often on the road you don't. Here's how to utilize mobile technologies (particularly apps) to give guests that control, ensuring they visit your establishment again. READ MORE

Robert O'Halloran

As we move toward a more technology-dependent world, a new world of hospitality has emerged, and it is a balance of productivity, safety, and service. Technology has been enhanced with a goal to maintain effective and professional service for guests in a safe environment. This article will examine mobile technology in lodging and its innovations in various departments, as well as the technology-guest service balance for hotels. READ MORE

Herbert Laubichler-Pichler

Hotels are benefiting immensely from harnessing mobile technology to reach and service guests. Exciting opportunities are not limited to the remit of global hotel brands with huge resources; independent hotels are having their day in the sun too. As demonstrated in this case study of Alma Resort, mobile technology has helped level the playing field for the independent hotel movement. READ MORE

Eric White

The integration of mobile technology into hotel operations has become the norm. Contactless touchpoints and property management apps may once have seemed at odds with the hospitality industry's focus on high-touch service. However, today's hotel owners and managers are using smartphone-centered high-tech to drive better guest experiences while unlocking efficiencies that save time and improve quality of life. READ MORE

Peter Halprin

While the hospitality industry faces a number of tests, there are three areas of liability – privacy liability for the collection and storage of biometric data, privacy liability for data breaches, and human trafficking liability – that are likely to create serious legal and risk management challenges in 2023. But can insurance help to reduce the financial impact of these risks? READ MORE

Bonnie Knutson

In a previous article, we reported findings from a survey of current hospitality leaders about what hospitality will be in the coming years. Technology surfaced as an overarching Virtuoso-Vampire theme, raising the question of whether technology will be the Virtuoso that harmonized service delivery with guests' expectations, or will it be the Vampire that sucks the spirit out of the hospitality industry and diminished a hotels' revenues and/or capital? In this article, you will learn what today's Generation Z hospitality students -- tomorrow's hospitality leaders – sees as the relationship between technology and hospitality? READ MORE

Justin Arest

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, where technology played a large role in keeping many boutique properties open, hoteliers must find a balance between continuing to adopt and utilize new automated options while maintaining the warm, welcoming and personalized experiences that are expected. Ultimately, for hotels hoping to provide more than a place to stay, technology should exist to supplement more traditional operations rather than completely displace it. READ MORE

Brian Mangum

stayAPT Suites launched their apartment-style hotel brand in January 2020, just two months before the pandemic slowed the hospitality industry to a halt. Nearly three years later, the fast-growing chain is on track to open 30 hotels by the end of 2023, with another 40 sites under development – and their cutting edge mobile technology is central to how they serve their guests in a post-COVID landscape. READ MORE

Bendegul Okumus

The air quality in indoor areas became more controversial after the pandemic. It is now accepted that restaurants are one of the workplaces where the decrease in the air quality is the fastest. However, it is not yet known whether air quality measurements are made regularly in many restaurant establishments. The effects of airborne particles on employees and customers are extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal. READ MORE

Keryn McNamara

In a space where personal engagement and in-person hospitality has always been a defining priority, hoteliers have generally been somewhat behind the technology curve: relatively slow to embrace mobile and digital tech innovation. But today, inspired new tech solutions are impacting virtually every aspect of the guest experience. As hoteliers are discovering, mobile and digital tech is here to stay. READ MORE

Rachel Fischbach

Evolving to cater to travelers' desires for hyper-local, culturally authentic experiences, hotels are leveraging custom designs that are reflective of place and immerse guests in the history, culture, and character of the destination at hand. Artists of interior spaces can drive more authentic hotel experiences by selecting custom-designed elements that reinforce a unique narrative about the locale. READ MORE

Derek Peterson

The hospitality industry is undergoing a monumental shift toward connected everything. Digital transformation powered by 5G is making biometric access points, robotic food delivery, automated lighting, intelligent heating/cooling, metaverse integration and more readily available. And, it's just the beginning. So, how do hotels make a hyper-connected property possible? Dr. Derek Peterson, CTO Boingo Wireless, tackles that question and more. READ MORE

Scott  Lee

In considering what is influencing travelers and driving an evolution in luxury hospitality, it seems the very definition of luxury is shifting to the personal and experiential. Travelers are more intentional about where and how they travel, and designers and developers are responding with curated environments dedicated to helping guests socialize, enjoy outdoor adventure, and deepen wellness practices. READ MORE

Coming up in March 1970...