How is beacon technology customizing the guest experience?

Beacon technology, one of the most disruptive innovations of 2014, could exist thanks to the geofencing system, which is the ability to put a virtual fence around a location and enable mobile devices such as smartphones to react when they cross it.

Companies use corresponding apps (e.g. the LocalPerk app, of the Marriott hotels), allowing guests to access special offers, view maps, request services and many other services. LocalPerks, for instance, provides guests tailored localized offers, ranging from food and beverages to spa and golf deals.

In the hospitality industry, this appears as an opportunity to offer better services, special and customized offers and a lot of hotels such as the Marriott chain understood the need to adopt this new technology.

     

Image source : http://www.adweek.com

As Kim Adams highlighted in his article, How beacons change hotels and hospitality, « hotels seek to deliver the right message, to the right person, through the right channel, at the right time – and in merchandising cases - for the right price. »

Beacons are used during the in-stay period of each traveler and enables hotels to better meet customer needs before the end of their stay, the moment they usually have to fill in the traditional guest survey. Guests could be pleasantly surprised to benefit from good deals and extra services at the hotel (all kinds of information about the hotel, the property itself, its area) but on the other hand, it could be awkward for some of them to be disturbed by their smartphones at any time during the day. Not to mention the importance of human interaction in the service industry.

This brought us to think of the real added value of the beacon technology in the guest experience. According to us, hotels have to be careful when using this new technology. In order to better satisfy guests, boost their experiences and create more upsell opportunities, hotels have to target their customers and to differentiate beacons into two categories:  

•         Beacons that could please everyone and which would be offered to all guests
•        Beacons that could bother some guests, which should be optional

For example, you enter your room and it’s at perfect temperature, the lights are dimmed to your liking and your favorite playlist is playing in the background. Isn’t it a real customized service to make your experience more enjoyable? But similarly, who couldn’t understand that receiving special deals at any moment of a journey could bother some guests trying to enjoy a peaceful stay?

Taking this into account, hoteliers should consider adopting this trendy and innovative technology to be up-to-date and to better face competition. Improving guest experiences while respecting their wants and privacy at the same time is possible!

Cécile ROUX & Margaux SCHERER

Source: http://blog.estimote.com/post/129215375430/how-beacons-change-hotels-and-hospitality

The new Accor mobile application has been awarded !

Some months ago, AccorHotels launched a new version of its mobile application in order to improve guests experience. They have been rewarded during the "Trophee des Apps" ceremony.

This Application enables travelers, whether business or leisure, to optimize their time by getting all information on the same platform. I do personally use it every time I travel in an AccorHotels property.

How does it meet guests' expectations?

Guests have the opportunity to:

Select a hotel among a wide range of brands, all introduced on the App

Find information about hotel location, facilities and services

Book online

Discover the online City Guide to better prepare their stay

Manage their loyalty accounts

Learn latest news and offers of the Group

Since July 2015, the application is even available on Apple Watch. Romain Roulleau, AccorHotels’ SVP e-commerce and director of the “mobile first” program explains:

“By launching this AccorHotels application for Apple Watch™, AccorHotels is establishing itself as an audacious digital hospitality player.”

This application enhances the huge potential of AccorHotels Digital Transformation.

Of course, we hope that other features will be developed soon. Some competitor hotels provide guests with tablets so that they can adjust temperature or lighting in their room. In order to personalize their stays, customers can even sometimes beneficiate from an e-concierge which enable them to order breakfast in the room, make dinner reservations, to request extra pillows…without moving from their rooms.”

Indeed, the hotel group is doing its mobile revolution to keep one single app.
Customers have on average 23 applications in their smartphone, including 3-4 dedicated to travel: TripAdvisor, one online travel agency, and one to go around. The third or fourth may be the one of a chain hotel. Accor want to be part of this selection. That is why they will have one application for all trademarks of Accorhotels. The group will multippliate the reasons for a traveler to have the Accor Hotel app in his smartphone. Thus they can be differentiated themselves from online agencies.

The French group has integrated last years the service Wipolo, the startups they bought in 2014 and already added Uber upon check-in.

Tailored services are as well offered within the hotel, such as restaurant reservations, spa, room service ...

 Accor wants to offer a complete experience before, during, and after the stay of the guests.

Mobile, including smartphones and tablets, attracts nearly 40% of the global audience, and 12% of direct digital sales. The delta is explained. Travelers often use their smartphone on the move, in public places. They did not necessarily want to take out their credit card and enter their details, in transport for example. To improve their conversion rate, they will adopt the second half of the 1-Click payment, such as Amazon's bank details are already entered, the purchase is validated with a single click.

Accor wants its staff to provide personalized service instead of being bogged down filling out paperwork to register guests.

Accor’s guests can do this advance check-in only if they’ve have booked their reservation directly through Accor or if they are loyalty program members or subscription cardholders.

On the day of the stay, guests receive a welcome text message confirming that the room key and room are available. The text may also provide practical tips about the property, such as ground transportation information and parking access codes, for example.

When guests arrive at the property instead of needing to provide credit card information and fill out paperwork, “the hotel staff is supposed to greet them immediately upon arrival in the lobby or possibly even in the hotel bar, hand them their room key, and answer any questions or handle special requests”, Accor says.

Christine Pouletty, who managed the project’s introduction, says early feedback shows that 93% of guests who used the service during a trial period indicated they would do so again. And, 40% of guests did the advance check-in with their smartphones, she adds.

“Queues are diminishing and hoteliers are more available for their guests,” Pouletty says. “They can devote themselves completely to their passion, the job of host.”

Disneyland Paris QR codes: a viable solution ?

The 2D barcodes known as QR (Quick Response) codes gives tourism suppliers new opportunities. Indeed, in contains up to 7 089 elements, compared to the 128 elements in a traditional bar code, that allow the customers to access an information page relative to the destination or on the attraction or offering promotions. 

The Disneyland Paris theme park has been following this new trend in technology for tourism. Many QR codes were introduced around the different theme parks at every step of the ‘journey’ through the park. From the main entrance to the specific entrance of each ride, customers can access information by flashing the codes. Interesting, right? 

 photo credit : http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Disneyland is here putting a reliable strategy in place: QR code can only be accessed by smartphones with the right application. The profile of the tourists in the park is quite wide: from families, to young couples or groups of teen friends, but almost every groups considered will have a smartphone at the time of its trip to Disneyland. Thus, the technology is easily accessible and should reach a large number of visitors. The QR codes are displayed all around the park and close to the rides which enables the tourists who have first missed the information to have access to it later on and while queuing for a ride for instance. Entertainment on your smartphone, while waiting for your Indiana Jones ride, it sounds innovative and funny!

 photo credit : http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Disneyland QR codes not only provide information on the rides, the parades and the different shows, but also offer some promotions and coupons to the curious users. The aim is to give you a sentiment of privilege while accessing the coupons through the QR codes! This might be the ultimate incentive to push you to buy an extra souvenir or a meal at one of the shops within the park. 

Besides, it is a low cost technology for the company since the QR codes are not sensitive to time. The QR code can remain the same over the years, as long as the web page or content it accesses is refreshed regularly to provide accurate information.

Therefore, the strategy is clever and also interactive for the customers that usually spend a lot of time waiting in line for the rides. Nevertheless, the Disney project like almost every project including QR codes faces the some issues. The different surveys have shown that QR codes in one of the least popular technology used in travel and tourism. Although it provides some great information to the customers and promoting and marketing tools to the suppliers it faces the problem of its lecture. Indeed, in order to read a QR code, the user must have the adequate application on its smartphone. If not, the user might not download one just to access QR codes on a specific day not matter how entertaining and informative they can be. The need to have a good access to the Internet to open the apps can also be an issue. 

We think that the incentive in the Disneyland Paris Park is good since it can be entertaining for the tourists to have an access to new content and promotions throughout the park and while waiting for the ride, especially since the use of smartphones is very common in this kind of situation. However, the decision to use the QR codes technology might not be a very lasting solution. Besides the issues rose above, we think that a company such as Disneyland Theme Parks should engage in more developing and innovative technologies such as the Near Field Communication. Indeed, this technology could (when widely developed and accessible through almost every smartphones) replace the QR codes put in place. The NFC technology enables to access content just by swapping your phone in front of a specific object or image to access content. It also allows sharing information with the nearby smartphones, which could give Disneyland’s experience an additional tool to promote its shows and shops.  

Source: http://beqrious.com/disneyland-paris-own-qr-code/

Marie Lallement &Florence Autier