[ALAMEDA, CALIF. — AUGUST 25, 2015] — Today owners and operators of limited-service hotels with 50+ rooms are meeting guests’ expectations via the HotelTap “digital log book in the cloud” that improves communication, task completion and maintenance management. Developed by Sandip Jariwala, owner of the Hawthorn Suites By Wyndham in Alameda, Calif., HotelTap replaces notebooks, paper tickets, sticky notes, internal emails, spreadsheets, text messages and radios for recording and responding to guest requests, performing and tracking maintenance tasks, and resolving customer complaints. Using a social media network format, HotelTap leverages mobility and the cloud to share information between those who “need to know,” from department to department, employee to manager, and manager to owner, in one comprehensive location.
“In my 20 years of operating hotels, I have always understood the importance of accurate and instant communication in helping me and my employees meet customer expectations,” Jariwala said. “I am an early adopter of technology and I am aware of the fast-paced changes in workplace communications. Using hand-written log books is no longer effective. Travelers have integrated mobile technology into their daily lives. In turn, they expect hoteliers to service their needs in the same logical manner. I knew I needed to leverage mobile technology and the cloud to run my hotel more efficiently; that meant dramatically changing the way we communicate at our property. That’s when I designed HotelTap — an at-a-glance digital log book that communicates a steady stream of daily activities and information in chronological order by department and by staff start time. If you use a social media network like Facebook or Twitter, you’ll love HotelTap. It closely resembles enterprise social software such as Yammer and Chatter and project-management tools like Basecamp or Asana.”
HotelTap solves problems with:
- Decrease in staff productivity due to inaccurate or missed communications
- Translation problems between front desk and foreign-language speaking employees
- Dropped guest requests and department tasks
- Loss of revenue due to the absence of a Waitlist
- Refunds to guests for complaints due to lack of preventive maintenance
- Expensive equipment repairs and vendor charges
- Owners and managers not receiving alerts in a timely manner
- Negative online reviews due to absence of analytics for complaints and maintenance problems
- Paper records occupying valuable storage space
Here’s how it works:
Rather than requiring hotel staff to click through a series of tabs or buttons, HotelTap uses a steady messaging stream of interactive notes and tasks that are relevant to each department and staff member. For example, a front desk agent will log into HotelTap and see only the information or incomplete tasks that he or she needs to address during the shift. Any information relevant to the front desk — or tasks that need performed during the shift — is presented to the agent upon log in. Staff only see the communication stream relevant to their department, while managers and owners have access to all hotel correspondence.
Each property determines the categories or “boards” it needs to carry information down the communications stream, such as: Front Desk, Housekeeping, Lost and Found, Maintenance, Restaurant, Sales, Transportation, etc. If the front desk receives a request for late check out, for example, the agent records the request by posting a note in HotelTap after selecting the #LateCheckOut tag, which automatically notifies Housekeeping to make sure it is aware of the request. Once the guest has checked out and housekeeping has cleaned the room, the room attendant can respond to the original note by posting a comment which automatically notifies Front Desk that the room is ready to occupy. No time is wasted walking from one department to the next to verbally share information.
HotelTap contains a comprehensive analytical dashboard that records and tracks guest complaints and provides a snapshot of maintenance and equipment issues and task history relating to them, by category and physical areas of the hotel. The dashboard neatly organizes the property’s complaint records so operators can easily pinpoint problem areas. The system offers alerts for tags so that managers and owners can be notified via text messages about particular issues as soon as they are entered in HotelTap. For example, owners and managers can sign up to get a text notification for issues with #GuestComplaint or #911 or #SoldOutTonight tags. In short, they can choose what issues are important for them to be notified immediately.
Likewise, the HotelTap dashboard organizes maintenance tasks in a To Do list so they can be viewed at any time and from anywhere. Daily activity reports of all staff and department communications can be received in PDF format so they too can be accessed and viewed on any Wi-Fi enabled device.
“While there are Internet-based guest-response systems in the market, most are focused solely on maintenance and large properties; few are structured for the cloud or for mid-size and limited-service hotels,” Jariwala said. “HotelTap enables staff to record any activity, problem, task, or conversation into the system and attach a photo, document or video if necessary. For example, if a guest left an item behind in the room, housekeeping can take a picture of the item for identification purposes; if there is a slip-and-fall incident in the bathtub, staff can take a picture to show that a bath mat was provided to protect against liability, etc.”
Filling Unsold Rooms
HotelTap’s WaitList feature is helping hoteliers to increase revenues. When the hotel is sold out for a particular day or days (especially during special events or conventions) and guests call to book a room, the front desk staff can create a task in HotelTap to put the guest on a wait list which shows up on the To Do list of the Front Desk board. Each day, the manager or staff will check the room availability chart to see if a room has opened up; if so, the wait listed guest will be called to book the reservation. This function enables hoteliers to fill rooms that may have opened up on the last day due to cancellations. The WaitList also can be used to fill rooms that were being held by management, but were then released, and to fill out-of-order rooms that were addressed and have been put back into inventory.
“To increase guest satisfaction, the #LostandFound notification in HotelTap makes it easy for the hotel to recover misplaced or forgotten items,” Jariwala said. “Staff not only enter a note about the item left behind and the room number or location where the item was found, but we will take a photo of the belongings for verification purposes. HotelTap makes returning items to guests fast and efficient.”
HotelTap is designed to:
- Replace notebooks, paper tickets, internal emails, spreadsheets, text messages and radios
- Be easily accessible from any Wi-Fi device
- Facilitate mobile notifications sent to employees with links for responding directly to issues
- Print task list for employees
- Deliver daily activity reports to keep a paper trail of all communications
- Manage Waitlist, Lost & Found, Group Reservations and other operational tasks
- Enable employees to communicate in their language of choice, including Spanish
- Track and analyze guest complaints and maintenance issues
- Search information with TAGS and words
- Create recurring checklists for shifts, inspections and preventive maintenance
- Attach documents, photos and videos to notes and tasks
- Provide equipment records to save time and make informed expense decisions
- Store unlimited data and notifications
Hoteliers Hail HotelTap
At the present time, franchise hotel owners have selected HotelTap at Holiday Inn Express & Suites by IHG, LaQuinta Inn and Suites, Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, and Country Inn & Suites by Carlson properties. The Hawthorn Suites By Wyndham – Oakland/Alameda served as the beta test site for HotelTap. Selma Becirovic, guest services manager, said HotelTap is dramatically helping staff to be more efficient — and it is boosting guest satisfaction scores. Front desk staff access HotelTap via laptop in the front office, housekeepers use a tablet computer, and managers use their personal cell phones.
“At any given time I can see what is happening and how well our hotel is performing — from responding to guests’ requests to resolving complaints,” Becirovic said. “I can honestly say that we have few to no negative reviews because our staff is continually staying on top of everything. If there is a problem, HotelTap’s analytical dashboard shows us exactly what areas we need to concentrate on. HotelTap has especially made our maintenance department function more efficiently. Taking care of guests has never been easier.”
Parry Bir, GM of the Country Inn & Suites in San Carlos, Calif., said that he is on HotelTap 24/7, and as such, he is virtually on-premises all of the time.
“Before HotelTap I had problems getting written messages right away,” Bir said. “By the time I would find a message — and decipher the employee’s handwriting — chances were pretty high that too much time had passed for me to respond effectively. We tried putting messages into Word, but that didn’t prove to be any more efficient. Now that HotelTap is in place, the second a note is added, I see it and address it. I now manage my hotel minute by minute, not the next day. If there happened to be a complaint, addressing it after the guest has checked out is too late; chances are the damage is done and that guest won’t return.
“With HotelTap our guests are happy, and it shows in our satisfaction scores,” he said. “I can’t express how efficient it is to be communicating without sticky notes and paper log books. HotelTap is certainly a first-of-its kind solution. Training is fast and easy because our staff are social media savvy; the Twitter orientation of HotelTap makes it effortless for our staff to use. It took an owner to truly understand our needs, and I can’t thank Sandip Jariwala enough for developing this solution.”
Schedule a Demo
HotelTap is available for one low annual fee, based on a hotel’s size. The system provides 24/7 security, as all property data is securely stored on HotelTap’s cloud servers with daily backups. Round-the-clock LIVE technical support also is provided. To schedule a demo of HotelTap, click here. For more information on HotelTap, visit www.HotelTap.com or call (844) 381-7221.
