- Hoteliers can message an individual guest, a group of guests, all guests, or even guests at different hotels in a multi-property environment, like a theme park
- Front desk staff type messages that scroll across the top of the TV in large font and in real time to grab guests’ attention
December 6, 2016 — Denver, Colo. — A recent study asked travelers what they expect from a hotel’s In-Room Entertainment (IRE) experience. Their answer wasn’t surprising. Travelers said they expect the interactive TV platform to provide them with the types of information they want to know, and they want information delivered directly to them that they need to know relevant to their stay. In today’s instant-information age, that seems like a pretty reasonable expectation. That’s why ADB built in-room messaging into its new cloud-based IRE platform, vuTyme. While there are several dedicated messaging systems on the market, few (if any) of the IRE providers are enabling hoteliers to use the TV for direct-to-guest messaging.
The “2016 In-Room Entertainment Preference Study” revealed that “Guest Messaging” is an emerging technology that guests find especially important in impacting their stay. In particular, the survey explored guest perceptions about feedback on service requests and the ability for a meeting planner to send targeted messages to their group members only. Respondents overwhelmingly said they want to be contacted. The preferred contact medium, especially for Millennials, was the hotel room TV.
“Guests have a variety of information needs during their stay,” said Chris Dinallo, ADB CTO of Business TV. “Sure, there is probably a dedicated TV channel allocated for folio review and a list of hotel services, but it requires guests to search for it and then extract the information that is relevant to them in that moment. Having a dedicated channel is good, but offering a direct messaging platform via the in-room TV is far better. Via vuTyme, front desk staff can message a guest individually, a group of guests, all guests, or even guests staying at 20 different properties within the same enterprise or theme park.
“In a dynamic hotel environment, things are always changing,” he said. “Perhaps management needs to add a last-minute food and beverage special to recoup dwindling sales, maybe seats just opened up for a previously sold-out entertainment venue, or the shuttle bus just broke down and guests with prior transportation reservations will now need to take a taxi to the airport instead. vuTyme enables front desk staff to type a personalized message to one guest or a generalized message to all guests that scrolls across the top of the TV in real time and in a large font to grab their attention. In this way, the hotel is giving guests exactly what they asked for: information that they want to know and need to know relevant to their stay.”
Consider these scenarios:
- The hotel pool will be closed from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. for routine maintenance. A guest would prefer to learn of the closing on their in-room TV prior to changing clothes and walking down to the pool.
- There is an annual meeting at your convention hotel that spans the entire property. A guest rather learn that the Opening General Session has moved from Ballroom A on the north side of the facility to Ballroom D on the south side of the facility before she shows up with just minutes to spare.
- A guest is waiting for an important package to arrive. Instead of calling the front desk repeatedly to inquire on the delivery status, he would prefer to see a message pop up on the TV while readying for the day.
With vuTyme by ADB, front desk staff upload the message and they also control the frequency for all configurable text. For example, communication can be set to scroll every two minutes and display for 30 seconds or in any time intervals they select.
“Hotels that are not driving guest messaging to the in-room TV are doing the industry a disservice,” Dinallo said. “vuTyme was designed to integrate all service that today’s travelers demand into one system.”
vuTyme is a 4th generation end-to-end, managed-services iTV solution for hotels. It delivers a complete set of services like live TV, VOD, PPV, concierge, digital signage and targeted advertisements PLUS it offers exciting features such as Searchable Interactive Program Guide (IPG), Over-the-Top (OTT) services access like Screencasting from BYOD, direct-to-guest messaging through the TV, local attractions map with QR Code, Pause/Rewind/Fast-Forward LIVE TV, and much more. vuTyme is offered as a managed service to hotels using the global cloud infrastructure or cable company central office. ADB offers 24/7 monitoring to ensure reliability and delivery of service.
