In 2013, expect travellers and Hoteliers to turn to mobile apps and social media like never before.
By Ted Horner
From marketing to booking to offering concierge services, 2012 was all about mobile technology. Whether for smartphones or tablets, for guests or employees, apps ruled the hotel scene, and the trend shows no sign at all of slowing down.
The Trends
Late last year, Travelport, which provides business services to the travel industry, reported that 87% of those aged 35 and under, and 80% of those 36-45, owned or planned to purchase a smartphone in the next six months. This increased access to the internet anytime, any- where, is changing the expectations, demands and behaviours of leisure travellers. 60% of these travellers consider a smartphone to be their ‘personal travel assistant or companion’ enabling interaction to take place at any time. Both groups prefer to access pre-travel information via mobile technology, rather than through traditional devices. This indicates the importance of travel itineraries that can be integrated with other apps, and formats that are easily read on mobile devices. Recently Expedia reported that it is seeing 20% of its sites’ transactions coming from mobile devices. Right now Expedia has more than 130 mobile websites and its mobile apps are available in more than 200 countries.
Social Media 2.0
More than any other industry, consumers’ decisions regarding travel are influenced by the Web, and more specifically, social media. If a hotel property is not proactively managing its online presence, it does so at its own peril. One of the biggest mistakes hotel operations make in this digital age is living in denial – that is, ignoring the impact that new communication channelshave on their businesses. Bill Linehan, CMO for Richfield Hospitality and CMO and COO of its sister company Sceptre Hospitality Resources, said: “If you show me a property that’s ailing, that’s not meeting their fair market share, I can guarantee they have a lousy online presence.”
Part of the problem is that hoteliers often think social media belongs solely to the techno-logy department or the sales department, when in reality it’s a mash-up of the two, and best practices should maximise both sensibilities. Online social media outlets are vital components to a hotel operation’s online presence and overall image. In addition to Facebook, Twitter and Four Square, relative newcomers such as Pinterest and Instagram may prove to be as important in the future. Every day, millions of hotel guests share their opinions via OSMs.
These comments, and a company’s responses to them can hugely affect a property’s bookings and guest spend during any given stay. While it is a daunting task to keep up with everything that might be posted, tweeted, pinned, or otherwise said about an operation, it is important to pay attention, respond to, and when possible, control the conversations
Virtual Concierges
In December 2012, Conrad Hotels announced that the brand as a whole would be launching a concierge program that lets travellers customise their accommodations through a mobile device across the more than 20 Conrad Hotels and Resorts.
Soon after, the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh launched a new virtual concierge service for business travellers, giving them the chance to customise their stay prior to their arrival by re-questing special amenities and services such as floral arrangements, honeymoon amenities, spa treatments, dining reservations, transportation and many other services. Guest itineraries will be sent to the guest once all requests have been confirmed; along with presenting an itinerary during the check-in process.
If there is any notable hotel technology trend of 2012 and into 2013, the ‘virtual concierge’ may well be it.
Conrad Concierge is the first service-enabled technology to be completely integrated with hotel management systems across a brand’s portfolio.
In a national survey of U.S. consumers, Conrad found that 77% of travellers value service when selecting a hotel and nearly 75% of consumers use a smartphone, tablet or computer when booking elements of their travel. Moreover, nearly 70% of U.S. travellers prefer hotels that can customize their experience to reflect their personal desires and anticipate their needs.
With Conrad Concierge, guests can customise the details of a hotel stay before, during and after each visit from a smartphone or tablet. Whether choosing from three lines of bath amenities, a preferred pillow from the pillow menu, or pre-ordering dinner through room service, Conrad Concierge lets each guest create their own vacation with the tap of a finger.
With a few simple clicks, users can manage a range of services including room service, transportation, local attractions, spa appointments, housekeeping requests, wakeup calls and more. The technology is available in 13 languages and is designed for Apple and Android operating systems, so guests can access the service via tablet or smartphone.
Mobile Marketing: On Smartphones – it’s Faster
Marketing on smartphones offers a unique opportunity to engage guests in a way that’s more immediate than other marketing channels. “I think if you’re looking at strictly mobile [marketing] in the smartphone sense of it, there is and probably always will be a certain degree of immediacy about it that is heightened relative to other channels,” said Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer Digital Intelligence. “You have travelers who are interested in solving an immediate need – ‘I need a hotel reservation today’. “And the fact that, with location targeting capabilities, it allows for the consumer and the hotelier to connect in a much more direct and relevant way.”
This sense of immediacy even sets smart- phones apart from other mobile channels. “Someone who is using a smartphone, that’s someone who’s probably more in the market for a same-day booking, not someone who’s researching a trip because smartphones with small screen sizes are not conducive to that,” Elkin said. “Tablet users are in more of a lean-back mode, so they’re likely to spend more time researching.”
Hoteliers can take advantage of this behavior by investing in either mobile search or direct booking apps.
“Search is a big mechanism for discovery on mobile devices, and smartphone users in particular that are conducting searches on their devices are in the mode of trying to satisfy an immediate need,” Elkin said. “Hoteliers that can target ads and content through search, they may be able to connect with consumers that way. For hotels and individual chains that have booking apps, you can certainly target consumers with offers through that mechanism as well.”
“You want to make sure that you’re taking the time to look at your audience, not only in types of devices that they own but also in how they use them, and in what context.”
Control the Room With Your Fingertips
In-room technology has become more streamlined than ever. Hotel guests expect their workplaces to provide the latest technology and homes are increasingly integrating smart technology under one roof. Hotel guests are often disappointed with the devices on offer. It’s no longer acceptable for guests to be fumbling about in the dark looking for a remote control for the television, another for climate control, music, lights and so on. Where do hotels start? Blinded with an ever-changing landscape of technology, the temptation to do nothing is strong. After all, who can say if six months after the installation of iPod docks in all your rooms, another device would have replaced it?
But the expectations on hotels to provide sleek hardware that captures cutting edge entertainment, information and comfort applications is bigger than ever. Guests still expect to not only find easy to use solutions to their in-room experience, but to be wowed by it! A number of in-room control systems are beginning to appear in hotel rooms. These units are able to provide guests with interface devices such as iPod touch or iPad which are used in conjunction with a small controller. In room integrated systems offer the possibility to provide guests with a number of room functions within one device.
But the financial gain for hotel operators doesn’t necessarily stop when the hotel room is occupied. The television screen is quite often under-utilised in marketing to guests. Discount dining, cocktail, room service and spa packages are easily offered and updated on-screen. These types of packages can be offered on a day-by- day basis according to the lack of bookings received in advance. Lighting and heating can be programmed to dim or cease when a guest is out of the room for a designated period.
Integrated room automation can allow operators to follow the way a guest uses a room and retain that information to provide an enticement for the guest to return. On a return stay, the guest can be greeted with not only the style of music they were tuned into previously, but the temperature and light control. It’s a little like coming home again.
The best example I have seen in the last few months is the refurbishment of the guestrooms at The Peninsula in Hong Kong.
Super-Fast Internet as Standard
One of the biggest challenges for all prop-erties continues to be satisfying the huge demand for in-house Internet bandwidth. A TripAdvisor survey reported that the availability of WiFi is a critical selection factor for 85% of travellers, and demand is made worse both by the increasing number of devices guests want to connect and those devices’ increasingly heavy bandwidth needs.
Technology is constantly moving on and changing for the better and hotels world- wide will be looking to adopt super-fast fibre optic broadband with speeds of up to 100Mbps. This form of Internet access is best served room by room.
Faster and Simpler Online Bookings
Booking a hotel room online is currently a simple affair, with many hotel comparison sites also helping consumers decide where to stay. As the web shifts more and more towards simplicity, we can expect dedicated hotel websites to be redesigned to allow for the booking of a room with two to three clicks of a mouse. What’s more, new hotel websites may have a responsive design, making booking on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones easier than ever.
Interactive Lobbies
Hotel lobbies are no longer simply home to a reception desk and a few sofas. During 2013, more hotels will adopt touch screen systems, including tablet computers, to allow hotel guests to browse through dinner menus, and local attractions and entertainment. This is a great way for hotel guests to actively engage in a lobby, which can be a cold and sad place to be at times. Imagine being able to swipe and touch your way through hotel goodies; that would be amazing.
What’s Trending: the Best of CES
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the biggest in 45 years history with more than 3,250 exhibitors unveiling some 20,000 new products, drawing more than 150,000 attendees, including more than 35,000 from more than 170 countries outside the United States.
Some key new consumer trends outlined or debuted at CES in Las Vegas were:
- Wireless device makers believe the world is ready for more ‘phablets’, the large- screen smartphones that some consumers opt for in lieu of a 7-inch tablet.
- Smartphones are now in 52% of U.S. households, and tablets, which started with a 20% penetration rate, are now in 40% of households, with deep “device density” per household. The smartphone has now become the viewfinder for your digital life according to one expert.
- Samsung’s Smart TVs with voice recognition
- Sony launched the first Ultra HD OLED display
The ramifications of these trends for the hospitality industry are still to be de- termined but those hotels that are at the forefront of technology innovation will be well placed to meet the needs of guests who love to travel with multiple devices and stay connected 24×7.
Ted Horner is a leading hotel industry technology consultant and can be contacted on ted@hornertech.com.au
This article originally appeared in HM Magazine, June 2013 edition.