The hotel industry has shown great approval of mobile applications across the world. From in-house cloud mobility for staff to innovative guest apps, smartphones are giving hospitality businesses a cutting edge advantage.
TripAdvisor identified in a survey that almost 90% of US travelers make bookings, reservations, read reviews, and book travel through their phones. Highly customized mobile apps are making travel simpler and tourism more convenient.
There are several reasons why every hotel business should invest in its own dedicated mobile app. Let’s look at the top four reasons your business needs a smartphone app for guests.
One-Click Booking & Check-In
Mobile apps make booking holiday tours and hotel check-in even simpler. Everything from booking flights, airport pickup, room reservations, preferences, and check-in a one-click affair. Intuitive mobile apps that learn from users also offer additional features like maps, famous attractions, weather updates, news, and even room service.
Consider the Marriott mobile app, one of the most feature rich hotel apps today. You can book your room from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, provide special preferences, check-in at the hotel with a robot, and use the app as your room key. The app also allows guests to order room service and even request for housekeeping.
Personalized Guest Experience
In addition to the convenience, mobile apps & technologies help hotels deliver more personalized and humanized experiences to every guest. Since all guest data is synchronized with cloud PMS, the staff is able to deliver faster and more precise service exactly when guests expect it.
Imagine your guest checks in to the hotel using a simple kiosk, and when they use their mobile key a notification welcomes them by name. These little but essential gestures deliver your guest a superior feel at the hotel, leading to superb reviews.
Hotels use different ways to surprise their guests with mobility tools. For instance, the use of a mobile app with their new robot butler allows Marriott to instantly fulfill guest requests with a cute little robot delivering small housekeeping items to guest rooms.
Another great way to personalize your guests’ experience is by using their data to wish them on birthdays and anniversaries. Attention to small details as we mentioned can be phenomenal in delivering a memorable experience.
Deliver Seasonal Promotions & Offers
Smartphones are the new TV, radio, newspaper, and PC. People watch TV on them, read the news, listen to podcasts, and enjoy other forms of entertainment on them.
Having a dedicated mobile app allows hotel owners to easily retarget guests during the holidays with new promotions and offers. This is more effective and affordable than say television ads. You can target your guests by their name, delivering to them ideal offers depending on their demographics.
Mobile apps can thus be great for marketing during off-seasons. Hotel owners can use the platform to engage business clients for events, promote foods & beverages, and even offer catering at events.
In-house Efficiencies
Possibly one of the most important reasons to invest in a mobile app is because of the process efficiencies. Mobile apps synched with the hotel PMS system allow staff to have the latest guest information and preferences. This allows them to quickly act on requests and in some cases have the request fulfilled as soon as its made.
Staff is also readily informed about housekeeping, room service, laundry, payments, and tourism packages. This means allotting rooms with customized rates, delivering special amenities, and preserving guest morale becomes simpler for staff.
Smaller tasks can be ideally delegated, while staff can concentrate on more complex issues to ensure the customer journey remains undeterred. Vast cloud synchronization of hotel technologies ensures that the guest is recieving utmost care, while the staff is efficiently catering to their requests.
Conclusion
I hope you found our four reasons to invest in a mobile app for hotels insightful. Mobile technology is becoming central for hotel businesses, to maintain strong brand equity among guests. While the applications are limited today, there are much more hotels will achieve as we progress into a new decade.
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