Sunday, 28 February 2016

Smart Control, A Tech Trend affecting Hospitality in 2016

Smart Control, A Tech Trend affecting Hospitality in 2016

Hotel smartphone apps have already been widely utilized by the hotel industry to serve and connect with guests. However, it is now providing a new manner for the hoteliers to improve their service quality.


Smart controls, as a new amenity provided by many major hotel chains, gives guests the ability to control their rooms and access to hotel facilities via their smartphones. In hotels such as Starwood, Hilton and Marriot, guests could open their room doors and access to fitness rooms and spas using smartphone apps. Moreover, in "hub by Premier Inn" hotel, guest could use their smartphones to set room temperatures, control room lightning, and use it like a remote control to change the television channels. All “smart controls” are made possible by the phone’s Bluetooth technology.
Further more, smart controls enable guests to personalize their rooms even before their actual arrival to the hotels. They could pre-set room temperatures and lightning preferences, and even make the choices for their mini bar.
As millennial generation takes over the first position in travel spending, their focus on technology-driven and personalized experiences will emphasize the importance of offering such hotel stays.

In my point of view, this tech-driven service update is also a good way for hotels to better understand the behavior and preference of their guests. Just like the use of web click rate, hotels could be able to gather the information of guest preferences through the central management system and then make potential service and facility improvement. For sure, the data gathering should not exploit guests’ privacy.

To conclude, thanks to the new tech-driven technology, stays in hotels could be transferred from accessibility of standard rooms and services to personalized rooms and services, all through a click on the app. As many hotels look for ways to achieve personalized services nowadays, this technology provides a straightforward solution.

Sources:
Hotel Technology Innovations That Will Drive Business In 2016
By Abi Mandelbaum, CEO – YouVisit.
U.K. Hotel Chain Preps App-Controlled 'Smart' Rooms


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