By Gregg Hopkins
The space for hotel technology has gotten noisy. It seems like every other week, someone is touting something "new," the next best thing that is "guaranteed" to solve all your problems as a hotelier.
For instance, a recent Skift report is titled "The Hospitality Industry's New Platform Paradigm." An executive summary states that hoteliers stand to benefit "by using technology to deliver services in more convenient, faster and more transparent ways," along the same vein as Amazon in retail, Uber in transportation and Airbnb in hospitality.
What's really new here, though?
While I couldn't agree more the "new platform paradigm" premise, an objective look reveals that this same "platform strategy" was introduced to the hospitality industry years ago. Companies like Intelity have been improving upon hospitality platform delivery for years, paving the way for the explosion of innovative options hoteliers are now enjoying.
The Intelity guest service platform originally arose in 2008 from a desire to simplify communication between hotels and guests, starting on the back end where service begins, rather than from a guest-facing perspective. Empowering hotel staff by streamlining their relationship with guests is key to achieving high guest satisfaction, solidifying loyalty, and being more relevant than competitors.
Clipboards, countless paper tickets, two-way radios, wired telephones.
With the number of technologies now available, these traditional methods have made less sense over the years. Now hoteliers have at their disposal instant guest feedback, automated data entry, digital guest data, and direct two-way communication between managers and staff or guests, among other tech functions designed to improve efficiencies. These are game-changing resources for hoteliers that should be a priority for any looking to improve service performance.
Smartphones, tablets, SMS, landlines, TVs, desktop or laptop computers.
What if you could take all requests from all devices from guests and view them through a single portal? Guests are using more channels than ever to communicate their needs to hotel staff, which makes the platform model even more significant in hospitality.
Intelity's platform has long offered one single portal, available on multiple mobile and web device types, for all guest communication and requests to funnel through to the hotel, even directly to the correct department. It makes it simpler for hotel management to stay on top of what's going on within a service organization.
Add to that the availability of integration with more other hotel systems (PMS, POS, Mobile Key, In Room Controls, Spa, etc.) than any other company in the space (over 60 native integrations to day) and the result is a complete guest service package that offers both operational and guest-facing innovation, as well as being delivered by the most mature, stable, established company in the industry.
Despite the emergence of technology as a driver in the hospitality industry, service remains a top concern for guests. And successful adoption of a mature yet "new" platform technology will be a determinant in which hotels are able to connect with modern guests and which gain a reputation for being out of touch with what guests really want.
Join Us at HITEC 2017
If your plans include attending HITEC 2017 in Toronto from June 26-29, please stop by booth 722 to learn more about the future of mobile hospitality technology.
