Imagine you plan a trip and after a long and exhausting journey, reach the stay to be greeted with a virtual guide who helps you to your room that sets the ambiance just how you like it with a single voice command, exceeding your expectations. Feels like a tall order? Well, Smart Hotel Rooms, can bring this wish to life.
What are Smart Hotels?
Smart hotels leverage the power of IoT along with data analytics and edge computing to deliver guest experiences that are superlative in nature with intelligent bots, virtual guides, instant services-based devices, etc.
IoT (Internet of Things) and other enabling technologies help create an ecosystem of connected devices that gather data and take actions based on insights generated by processing that data. For example, smart controls for the room, smart elevator, motion detection within common areas for lighting manipulation etc.
Why Smart Hotels?
Hotel owners are looking for options to re-imagine tourism and hospitality post the pandemic, to make the most of the huge influx of guests. One of the ways to achieve is by adding a digital zing to their experience like touchless room entry, instant verification and payment, automatic services, etc.
Advantages for owners
- Sustainability
While creating a hassle-free customer experience is the endgame, Smart hotel rooms also deliver an impressive fleet of services with energy-saving options like automatic lights, temperature management, light intensity control etc. that saves expenses, and the environment in the long run, by being energy efficient and more eco-friendly.
- Analytics
You know your hotel has the best customer experience when guests become regulars. With AI powered insights drawn from a combination of IoT data and data from customer preferences, custom hyper personalized options can be made available to guests to create a seamless experience that they would want to revisit.
- Safety
Intelligent devices working in an IoT ecosystem can provide an immediate response based on triggers. They can be of help in identifying emergencies like gas leaks, fires, theft, etc., using smart sensors which can be used by the hotel units to quickly take action. For hotel owners specifically, it helps avoid damages, downtime and extra costs that are incurred because of such incidents.
- Improved ROI
Voice-enabled functions, instant service requests and more provide a great way to interact with guests, reducing the turnaround time and enabling service even during the times when staff might be unavailable. By streamlining and automating processes they become more efficient and productive, resulting in increased net revenue, and helping you achieve the targeted ROI.
- Smart hotel management
Smart hotels streamline and automate processes to avoid manual error and effort leakage. For example, if guests want to make a meal order, they can simply place an order through voice-enabled devices. The order straight goes to the restaurant without the need for an individual to monitor it. The same goes for reducing energy consumption with smart lighting, temperature control and more.
Advantages for guests
- Personalization
Who does not love personalized hospitality? Consider you visiting a hotel and they know what you would like to have as a welcome drink or if you need a hypoallergenic pillow. Isn’t that just the best? Smart hotel rooms help in creating a stay experience that is more relatable and personal to the guests. With just your voice, you can control the smart devices to handle things like modifying the temperature of the room, switching on the geyser/TV, etc. This makes your stay experience extra pleasant and memorable.
- Virtual experiences
A picture can speak a thousand words, but an immersive experience virtually transports you to a destination, making the task of planning enjoyable in itself. Surveying properties online with 360-degree videos brings a new level of transparency to the booking process. The experience of the stays can also be enhanced AR/VR to provide useful info about the stay and nearby destinations. Gamification using AR/VR on the property is another feature that would engage guests and help create a sense of excitement at stays.
- Instant query & management
Having to wait to get a query about the stay resolved instead of enjoying their vacation is no one’s idea of fun. Enter smart hotel rooms that have bots to resolve issues and respond to queries instantly without the need for human intervention for the most part which means no more waiting for resolutions.
As the travel and hospitality industry experiences resurgent demand, technology can play a vital role in guest engagement while at the same time making operations smarter and more efficient. Brands and Owners that recognize the role of technology and utilize it better will thrive and grow. We, at Tech4TH, are trying to reimagine the travel and hospitality industry through intelligent engagement via the use of digital technologies. Talk to us to find out how you can accelerate your guest experience with technology.
Leave a Reply