Hotel guests are always searching for ease and comfort when they check into a hotel room, and these days, that means more than a comfortable bed, great snacks and a nice smelling array of toiletries. Today’s customers want smart technology and the convenience and customization it delivers. Smart features like keyless entry, voice recognition and mobile check-in/check-out are just a handful of tech additions that provide your customers with high quality, effortless experiences. To discover more smart hotel room features that leave your guests saying “wow,” keep reading.
Mobile Check-in and Keyless Entry
Make a great first impression on your hotel guests by offering keyless entry. As the future of checking in, “mobile keys” help provide customers with a better and more relaxed experience, as they can skip the hassle of a time-consuming check-in at the lobby and instead go straight to their hotel room. This simplified system not only helps reassure guests of a more secure room but also improves the hotel’s operational efficiency since guests don’t have to worry about misplacing or losing their key.
Smart Hotel Lights
Put the power in your customers’ hands. With smart lights, your hotel guests can turn on the lights before they enter their hotel room. No more fumbling in the dark trying to find the light switch or docket to place the room key. A great example of this is the Philips RoomFlex, which integrates with hotels’ HVAC systems. Hotels around the world, including Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Radisson Blu, embrace Philips’ smart lighting systems. One of the reasons – smart hotel lighting optimizes energy consumption based on occupancy detection, which is a great way for your hotel to lower some of its otherwise high operating costs.
A Smart TV
The best way for guests to relax and unwind in their hotel room is to feast on room service and binge on a TV show or movie. But what if the TV allowed for more than just a relaxing evening? Smart TVs allow guests to sign into their Netflix or Hulu account so they can watch their favorite shows because watching it on their smaller laptop or tablet screen just isn’t the same. You can also boost your customers’ experiences by surprising them with a personalized welcome message on the TV as they enter their room. And offer them the option to get notifications about hotel events and services in real time. Who would want to miss out on freshly made cookies in the lobby?
Remote Room Controls
As a busy hotel manager, you and your staff don’t have all the time in the world to prepare rooms for guests. And the time crunch becomes even more significant when you experience a large influx of guests requesting a night’s stay. But with the help of a remote room control, time is on your side. By enabling smart technology, hotel staff can access various room controls from a remote location, adjusting the air conditioning and lighting before the arrival of a new guest. Similarly, hotel guests can use these remote room control settings to adjust the same settings before entering their room. And with technology accelerating at a rapid pace, features are likely to get more sophisticated.
Voice Recognition
Most of your guests are familiar with Amazon’s voice-controlled smart speaker, Alexa. But they might not know that they can get the same Alexa experience in their hotel room. Alexa for Hospitality is a new way to enhance the guest experience with voice recognition technology. Another alternative is Angie Hospitality, a cloud managed interactive guest room assistant. The touchscreen-based system can replace a room’s phone, and the friendly voice is said to improve guest satisfaction. It’s convenient to adopt because it uses the hotel’s existing network infrastructure to create a secure and customizable personal in-room wi-fi network for each guestroom with a multi-lingual voice interface.
But no matter what system you choose for your hotel, guests can play music, change TV channels, or turn off the lights through simple voice commands. Voice-controlled smart speakers can also provide guests with answers to questions and tourist information queries directly from the internet. And as an operational benefit, housekeeping staff can verbally report when the room is clean as well as if any maintenance is required.
AI and Robots
Do robots sound too futuristic? Leading hotel chains disagree. Some of them have been experimenting with robots for years now, employing them or rather deploying them for concierge, delivery, guest queries and even checking in. Not only do they free up staff to perform other duties, but also provide an edge over the competition. It’s no surprise that robotic technology was welcomed in the hospitality industry since self-service and improving guest experience is always vital. One of the most common examples is chatbots, a self-service solution that helps answer customers’ questions during the hours when human staff aren’t available.
The future is exciting, indeed, with newer innovations being developed all the time, defying the imagination. For example, in Nagasaki, Japan, Henn na Hotel became the first in the world to be entirely staffed by robots. There is even a robotic suitcase, Travelmate, that eliminates the need to lug your belongings around! On the other hand, some downside may include high initial costs, the possibility of enabling an employment crisis, as well as the likelihood of guest dissatisfaction when a robot can’t live up to expectations of a human response. In 10 years, you might just book a hotel room on an app, let yourself in, and communicate only with alter-egos of hotel staff.
Since modern homes increasingly use smart technology, guests are beginning to expect similar technologies in their hotel, too. Meet these growing customer expectations by implementing smart features that simplify your guests’ lives. Not only do they appreciate the enhanced service and greater entertainment options available to them, they also will keep coming back for more stays at your hotel.
