In the ever-evolving hospitality industry, delivering unparalleled professional courtesy isn’t a luxury but a strategic imperative. Join us as we unlock the keys to providing unforgettable guest experiences: the ones that form long-lasting partnerships.

What is Customer Service in a Hospitality Business?

The time when providing a place to stay and/or a meal to eat was sufficient has long gone — today, it’s all about creating memorable affairs. Consequently, the significance of exceptional hospitality customer service becomes paramount. As a comprehensive network of features and benefits, it does its magic, making guests want to return for more.

But before we explore the concept of customer service in the hospitality industry, let’s first understand what that means. Hospitality vs. customer service — are those terms related, or are their notions juxtaposed?

What is Hospitality?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the term as “the act of being friendly and welcoming to visitors.”

Hospitality stems from a warm attitude, generosity, and a genuine desire to make guests feel appreciated.

Regarding business, hospitality is a multifaceted industry encompassing a range of services. And while all its aspects relate to providing an enjoyable experience for patrons, the concept itself goes far beyond. In other words, hospitality is not merely a business; it’s an art, a culture, and a philosophy.

Establishments like hotels, restaurants, and resorts strive to create a genuinely hospitable environment to make them stand out. Customer service is the way to get there.

What is Customer Service?

Customer service in hospitality is the set of activities that a business undertakes to meet the visitors’ needs and expectations. Its fundamental role was providing assistance and resolving current issues; however, that function has evolved.

As a result, modern customer service ensures patrons feel valued throughout every aspect of their interaction with the business. In the hospitality industry, customer service extends to every touchpoint, from making reservations and checking in to departure and after-sales.

So, What is the Difference Between Hospitality and Customer Service?

While hospitality and customer service are closely related, they are not synonymous. 

• Hospitality is the overarching philosophy and culture guiding a business.
• Customer service is a specific set of actions and interactions aimed at delivering on the hospitality promise.

Hospitality is about creating a welcoming atmosphere of warmth, comfort, and genuine care, while customer service is the practical application of specific principles that would ensure guest satisfaction.

10 Excellent Customer Service Examples in Hospitality

Allied Market Research states, “The global smart hospitality market size was valued at $18.8 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $133.7 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 22% from 2022 to 2031.”

Additionally, the studies found that customers are genuinely interested in the cutting-edge services smart hotels provide and the high-tech features integrated into more traditional guest rooms. But, the better the experience the venue offers, the more guests it can attract. It mainly applies to younger patrons, who make up a notable market share now and in the future.

The results further imply that all sorts of hospitality venues can and should exploit the abundant potential of modern technology. By constantly making the customer’s experience more enjoyable, such businesses can get a better reputation, turning satisfied clients into loyal brand advocates.

To delve deeper into the issue of hospitality vs. customer service, we will now decode the impact of premium professional assistance through illustrative examples.

1. Personalized Greetings

Example: Greeting guests by name and with a warm smile renders a personal touch that instantly makes guests feel valued and welcomed. The staff and the various devices in the room can do it.

2. Anticipated Guest Needs

Example: Anticipation allows for fulfilling guest needs before they are even expressed. Such a proactive approach demonstrates vigilance and care. An abundance of honest reviews can significantly benefit this endeavor.

3. Guest Feedback

Example: There are many ways to encourage guests to provide feedback, from surveys to comment cards. Acting on those reviews communicates the willingness to improve, showing that the business values the visitors’ opinions.

4. Efficient Check-In and Check-Out

Example: Streamlined processes minimize wait times. Moreover, utilizing technology such as mobile check-in and keyless entry enhances visitors’ convenience further.

5. Detailed Knowledge

Example: Well-informed staff provides invaluable guidance, from the property’s amenities to local attractions. This is a renowned standard of concierge services at luxury hotels that can also be easily achieved today with the help of tailored software solutions.

6. Room Customization

Example: Offering options for room customization, such as choice of pillows, room temperature, or amenities, helps cater to guests’ preferences.

7. Efficient Problem Resolution

Example: Empowering staff to address and resolve issues promptly and professionally. That way, the guests will feel heard and valued despite complaints.

8. Multilingual Approach

Example: Hiring multilingual staff or providing language training ensures effective communication with guests from diverse backgrounds. In addition, integrated software solutions such as chatbots can feature multiple language options to cater to a global clientele.

9. Environmental Initiatives

Example: Implementing and communicating eco-friendly practices to environmentally conscious guests can significantly enhance their experience and align with sustainability values. That includes adopting green initiatives such as water-saving measures and recycling programs, getting involved in the local community, and encouraging guests to participate.

10. Technology Integration

Example: Cleverly utilized technology can immensely enhance the guest experience, from service-requesting tablets to unlocking their rooms using smartphones. Chatbots are an excellent solution for instant assistance, while integrated mobile apps allow patrons to do various activities independently.

Importance of Customer Service in the Hospitality

Customer service is more than just a handy aspect of the hospitality industry. It’s also a critical factor that can make or break a business. These are just a few reasons why exceptional customer service is paramount.

Building Loyalty

In the hospitality industry, repeat business is invaluable. Satisfied guests are more likely to become loyal patrons who return and spread the word. Exceptional customer service is vital in building such loyalty.

Positive Reviews and Word of Mouth

Today, online reviews and social media play a significant role in shaping a business’s reputation. Guests who experience outstanding customer service in hospitality are likelier to recommend and post favorable reviews of the establishment. In addition, word of mouth still bears a vital significance in attracting new customers.

Competitive Advantage

The hospitality industry is highly competitive, rendering numerous options available to travelers and diners. Exceptional customer service can set an establishment apart from the competition, making it the preferred choice for patrons.

Revenue Growth

Satisfied customers are not only more likely to return—they are also more likely to spend. A positive experience and feeling that they are well cared for makes them more inclined to indulge in additional services. The most common examples are room upgrades, spa treatments, or fine dining, eventually increasing revenue.

Handling Complaints Effectively

Every business, no matter how exceptional, encounters complaints or issues from time to time. The timeframe in which these complaints are handled can create all the difference, making a solid example of good customer service in hospitality. A business that resolves issues promptly and professionally can turn a dissatisfied guest into a loyal advocate.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, customer service in the hospitality industry is more than just a set of procedures. In fact, its culture and philosophy are deeply ingrained in the establishments that excel in this field. It’s about providing guests warmth, comfort, and genuine care, ensuring their needs are met and their expectations are surpassed.

At Intellectsoft, we understand the nuances of hospitality vs. customer service and their critical roles in the industry. Our experience and expertise in developing travel and hospitality software solutions enable businesses in this sector to streamline operations, enhance guest experiences, and stay ahead in a competitive market.

Please visit our website to learn more about our services and explore our portfolio.

The post Customer Service in the Hospitality Industry: 10 Best Examples appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

As for 2022, both Accenture and PwC predict hotels will be back to pre-pandemic occupancy, which will drive demand for tech innovations even further. In the era of the “next normal,” according to McKinsey, hotels will use technology to increase efficiency and maintain the required level of health and safety during a stay.

In this article, we’ll show the most influential trends for the hospitality industry that will help hotels meet their objectives. We’ll look deeper into the hotel trends, discover the reasons and benefits your business can get from their applying, and learn more about the latest trends in this area in

Future Hotel Technology Trends: What to Expect?

Due to the recent changes in modern society & people’s lifestyle, travel, tourism, and hospitality industries cannot but wonder about the hotel service’s future. All the future modifications in hotel technology are mostly based on the following criteria:

• customer comfort level increasing
• service optimization and development
• workflow automation and improving
• the Internet of Things applying
• revenue growing
• smart marketing and reputation management

According to the research on improving the comfortability of hotel stays by Statista, 35% of respondents want their hotels to arrange contactless payment.

This hotel technology trend will increase the comfort for the hotel guests and optimize the check-in and check-out procedures and significantly improve the workflow.

One in four interviewees also expects the smart room keys in their hotels. That’s because being on vacation or business trip in an unfamiliar city, people often tend to lose some items like the room keys, or else forget to lock their door, etc.

However, by providing the smart room technology trend in the hotel industry, you can quickly solve this problem. For example, modern hotels are now recommending downloading the mobile app to get full access to their rooms. Additionally, you will save a significant sum of investments, as you no longer need to order the plastic cards or re-issue the keys.

These examples were demonstrated to show the hotel industry’s real need to keep up with the pace and apply new technologies to enhance their business. Nevertheless, there are many more technology trends in the hotel industry that can be useful for your business, so let’s dive in.

The Main Hotel Technology Trends Nowadays

At present, various hotel owners apply more and more hotel technology ideas to reach the final consumers and encourage them to book the apartment immediately.

Some hotel innovation ideas are common worldwide, while others may depend on the hotel’s location and targets. So, here we will look through the key points of hotel industry technology trends widely applied now.

Top-Ranking Technology in Hotel Industry in 2022

Smart energy management, robot delivery, and unified property management systems promise to become the most popular hotel technology trends in 2022. The reasons for this are the general tendency towards sustainability, the consequences of a global pandemic, and the constant search for better personalization tools for guests.

#1 Smart Energy Management

The trend towards smarter energy management has become possible with the adoption of sophisticated ML algorithms that can track thermodynamic changes and weather conditions outside and sensors that record energy control. Since the electric power industry as a whole is forging a path to a cleaner and more sustainable grid, the hospitality industry won’t lag behind.

From lighting to climate control, smart energy management allows hotels to save on average 20% of energy consumption, which is cost-effective for hotels.

Also, smart energy management is able to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 70%. From a guests’ perspective, the hotel technology will help adjust their rooms to their preferences, creating a personalized experience that makes customers happy and more likely to return again.

#2 Robot Delivering

The COVID pandemic introduced the need for social distancing, and this norm accelerated the adoption of robots in hotels. Combined with the constant search for opportunities to create unique experiences, the technology will let hotel owners create a safe and fun recreation space. In 2022, the main applications of robots are service delivery and collecting items for customers.

For example, the robotic waiter could be designed to deliver food and drinks to guests, which would free up servers to take orders or perform other tasks while still providing guests with their service.

This means that even if a hotel has dozens of floors and rooms, the owners will no longer need to hire tons of people to deliver food and supplies. Humans can provide more valuable input, like answering questions from guests who interact with these robots and ensuring customer care service takes place.

One of the most impressive new technologies in hotels is robots that complete various tasks traditionally performed by humans. For example, the FlyZoo hotel by Alibaba has used robots to occupy the room service staff, provide the guests with all the necessary information, clean the rooms, and automate the routine processes to the extent possible.

#3 Unified Property Management Systems

In 2022, hotel properties are expected to move to a unified property management system, a software type that assists in automating daily operations and administrative tasks in a hotel.

Moreover, the unified in-hotel experience means guests will be able to interact with hotels across many different brands using one mobile app.

The hotel technology creates a united network between various in-hotel properties, with all key information collected in one system.

Guests can enjoy the intuitive experience of finding and booking their ideal recreation easily, seeing immediately its location, detailed description, and availability. This way, the booking process should take just a few taps from start to finish.

Hotel Guest Room Technology Trends

One of the first things that make the visitors’ first impression is the room they will stay in. That is why hotels are now focusing on improving the customer experience, accommodation, service, and facilities.

Here are the top hotel technology trends, which you can consider for improving the hotel performance. 

#4 Mobile Keys

Needless to say, everyone has lost their stuff at least once in their life. And when it comes to the small things like keys or cards – the numbers might get even higher.

However, you can easily get rid of that headache with the smart keys installed in the app. These keys provide comfortable access to the visitors’ rooms.

The hotel technology includes different features like booking a restaurant, paying some extra bills, or reminding about personal preferences to provide the perfect experience for any client.

#5 Smart Rooms

Since our world is going digital, many technologies are created to make the routine easier and comfortable. For instance, voice control, facial recognition, and mobile control can put the visitors’ personal experience to the next level and feel them stay here a little longer or come back later.

Just imagine yourself entering your room after the tiring strolling on the streets of the unfamiliar city or the working conference. Along with your command “tired,” the voice assistant will instantly prepare the relaxing bath, offer some TV series to watch, etc. Sound like a great idea for your hotel innovation, isn’t it?

American Hotel Technology Trends

In America, the customer-centric model of business has already transformed from a trend to a necessity. Simultaneously, the hotel founders are still interested in their business optimization to make the most of it.

Here are the leading hotel technology trends in America, which are still on the top in 2021.

#6 New Hotel Technology for Booking Optimizing

The ability to book a room online is certainly a must for today’s hotel industry. That’s because it can not only facilitate the booking process for your potential visitors but also helps the hotel staff efficiently track and manage it.

Furthermore, online booking is a great option for visitors to learn more about accommodation and some crucial points about their future living place.

For the hotel managers, this feature will help to be aware of the number & type of rooms they can offer to other visitors, which is always important.

#7 Check-in Automation

Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, most people tend to minimize contact with society for their safety. And one of the must-have innovation in hotel industry, it’s crucial to offer the automatic check-in feature.

For instance, this element can be installed directly to your hotel app, offering your guests to manually input their personal information.

When it’s done, the data is sent to the hotel managers to complete the check-in process in their system. That will greatly reduce the risks for both clients and staff.

#8 Hotel Software System

Additionally, you can optimize the workflow by creating an app for your hotel. By applying the SaaS hotel technology to your business, the staff can efficiently leverage such processes as booking, checking-in, and checking-out, tracking the working schedule, etc.

For the hotel owners, this can benefit while measuring the metrics of the business performance and thinking over the ways of its development.

#9 Social Media Interaction

Now people no longer want to be bothered by the hotel staff, and so far some hotels have already found the solution: send messages and notifications via social.

With this hotel innovation implied, the staff can send the immediate message to the visitors, be aware of the guests’ preferences, and save a lot of time on the service processes.

As an example, try using Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram messenger for this purpose. Such an individual approach will ultimately yield results as soon as applied.

European Hotel Technology Trends

The Hotel Technology Innovation Summit has moved even deeper into the hotel industry technology trends. So, let’s learn more about the most interesting solutions presented there.

#10 Wifi & Band Width Distribution

The hotel guests are now widely using the Internet, especially when coming to a foreign country. The Internet is needed for work or pleasure, to discover the restaurants nearby, or plan the places people want to visit during this trip. That is why the Internet connection must be stable and fast for providing the best service for the consumers.

Furthermore, if the hotel is planning to imply smart services to their managing, controlling, and service systems, the fast & efficient Internet is a must hotel technology for that improvement.

#11 Blockchain Solutions

Cryptocurrency is expected to become the e-wallet system’s future since more and more millennials are making large investments in blockchain technologies.

And that’s why a lot of modern hotels developing plans include cryptocurrency as the alternative method for paying for the hotel service.

So, if you are planning to enlarge the number of visitors, who mostly prefer using cryptocurrency, you can include blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies in your hotel payment system. This step will help your business to recommend itself as modern and forward-looking and encourage more guests to use your services.

#12 IoT Solutions & Building Automation

One of the latest trends in hotel technology is the Internet of Things application. The automated system of the apartment control can greatly boost the customer experience and leave an unforgettable impression about the hotel’s comfort level.

For this purpose, there have been so many modern gadgets invented so far. The voice assistants, automated lighting, and climate control is only the beginning.

The smart systems include the AI and ML latest technologies, analyzing big data and personal information about the guests’ preferences to make their stay as comfortable as possible. The automated hotel systems can greatly save energy consumption as well while turning off the devices that currently are not in use.

Emerging Trends in Hotel Technology for 2022

Emerging technologies like chatbots, cybersecurity, mobile check-in, and automated service by robots are also expected to be the hotel technology trends. They will secure the hotel management and service system and adapt it to the present state of affairs.

#13 Chatbots & Widgets

Guests no longer need to call on reception or find some stuff on their own, as they can easily use the chatbots for this purpose. The most common preferences and requests are easily processed with the chatbots and transferred to the hotel’s appropriate department.

Furthermore, these hotel trends can be automated to answer the FAQ like “the restaurants nearby” or “must-see places in this location,” etc, without any human involvement. That feature can be another advantage for boosting the customer experience.

#14 Cybersecurity

The hotel technology system now implies various processes and services to operate and control. Also, it is more reliant on data than ever before. So, if this system isn’t protected thoroughly, anyone can easily disable it and put the entire workflow in a mess.

Cybersecurity’s main targets include the system protecting from ransomware attacks, phishing attacks, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and human error within the company.

Additionally, the cybersecurity improvement will keep the customer data secure, ensure it is backed up and recoverable, so you no longer need to worry about the process vulnerability.

Hotel Innovation Ideas in Future

What’re the future predictions about hotel technology trends? Well, the entire system will be changed by automation technologies, including predictive smart systems, smart recognition, and more.

Let’s discover the main insights, which change the traditional hospitality industry services and managing.

#15 Predictive Smart System

Being aware of the major preferences of your guests, the predictive system will help to customize their place of stay: set up the alarm clock, send the notification about the breakfast or lunch service, remind them about the important tasks for today and track lots of important points of your visitor as well.

With the customized predictive system, guests no longer need to keep in mind complex tasks, reduce the stress level, and have a wonderful experience in the hotel. Additionally, it will help to convert customer retention, which means increasing the retention as well.

#16 Smart Recognition Technology

One of the latest trends in hotel technology is smart recognition technology, which has been already applied by huge industries while identifying the company workers.

In the hotel industry, you can try using this feature to replace the old-fashioned key or card system, so it becomes much easier for your guests to enter the apartment and manage any process there.

For the hotel staff, it becomes easier to manage the workflow process and track the work of every member as well as their daily attendance and punctuality in reporting for duty.

Why is Hotel Technology Becoming More Important?

Technology in hotels industry has already become an integral part of our society, so the various industries now must keep up with the pace.

By providing your client with exceptional service and unrivaled accommodations, furnished with all the latest technologies, you can significantly enlarge the number of guests who choose your hotel for living.

These hotel technology trends will help you optimize the worCoverkflow, improve the service level, and increase the clients’ retention and satisfaction level, and boost your business revenue.

As new hotel technology now greatly influences every field, reliable and up-to-date custom software development for travel and hospitality will help you survive the competition, attract the attention of new customers, improve performance, and succeed.

Talk to our hospitality experts today and start benefiting from the topic right away!

The post 17 Hotel Technology Trends to Watch in 2022 appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

As Deloitte observed, people choose to stay in a hotel this year because they feel more secure there (89% of respondents) and prefer the amplified sense of control over exposure and their own safety (86% of respondents).

In the given circumstances, industry players are in constant search for cutting-edge technologies that will provide the desired level of control and safety for their visitors.

In this regard, smart rooms are the tools that meet these needs and serve a variety of other purposes, including improving guest experience to increase revenue.

However, many businesses hesitate to implement them due to a lack of knowledge regarding their use cases and challenges. In today’s post, we’ll go over the best smart room technologies and reveal their substantial benefits to let you create a smart room blueprint for your own solution.

What Is Smart Room and How Does Everything Work?

Thanks to IoT devices, a smart room appears as an app that helps guests find, book, pay, and control their hotel stay on site on their smartphones or through a single smart hub.

The popularity and number of features inside smart room solutions are growing, making the app or the smart hub more and more accurately designed to make booking a hotel room easy, secure, and more enjoyable, both for guests and owners.

The range of applications of smart rooms is tremendous and goes beyond the ability to search for available hotels in your city or use the wireless connection and USB charges as in-room technology in hotels.

The solution establishes the basis for a hyperpersonalized experience for guests, meaning that each action, device, and facility can be adjusted to their needs at the comfort of owners.

For example, smart room technology can let the guest choose the preferred temperature and entertainment without the need to switch between separate devices. Also, travelers and housekeepers can interact with anti-virus robots that bring them morning coffee and newspapers, along with numerous other use cases.

10 Smart Room Technologies Your Hotel Can Implement Today

Smart room technology is still novel yet effective, which means a promising business advantage for hotels that adopt it before others. But nobody wants to invest in non-working solutions. For your convenience, we’ve gathered the most cost-effective tactics and tools hotels can apply today in this section.

1. Personalized Room Controls

In this case, IoT-enabled key devices (like lighting, heating, air conditioning systems, blinds, or draperies) will be connected to the hotel’s systems through a central controller, be that a smart hub, speaker, smartphone, or tablet. This way, the smart room lets guests manage multiple devices on their phones. In their turn, owners can get more control over the resources they spend.

2. Voice Control for Entertainment

There are various ways to apply voice recognition in smart hotel rooms, starting from managing TV to navigating through pay-to-view entertainment on several devices. In this regard, Amazon Echo and Alexa are the most popular devices with this function in hotels to date.

3. Smart Hubs

With smart room technology, guests and owners can improve room service collaboratively. In particular, smart hubs can let your guests order breakfast in bed, book an appointment with an on-site masseuse, and even arrange for a post-workout shower.

4. Interactive Hotel Maps

A wall map in a hotel can be enriched with augmented reality to provide more interesting and interactive experiences to clients. Depending on the level of sophistication, this smart room technology can help your guests find their way around and even tell you when their favorite restaurants are open.

5. UVC Lighting Control for Disinfecting

Smart rooms in hospitals are highly effective at killing viruses with UVC technology that is safe for humans. Among the in-hotel applications of this smart room technology for healthcare, you can sanitize packages and room keys, thus helping your guests feel safer in your hotel.

6. Branded Mobile Apps for Hotels

Letting guests control their hotel experience in an app is one of the best practices for smart rooms. When travelers can find, book, control, and review their stay in one place, you get the source of valuable information to improve your services and apply for marketing activities.

7. Hotel Robots

You can teach robots to bring towels or tea to the smart room, freeing your maids to do other work and increasing their safety thanks to social distance maintenance. Even more, hotel robots can assist people in more sophisticated tasks, like fixing technical errors, noticing poor connectivity, and notifying housekeepers about food shortages.

8. Digital Concierges

This smart room technology is an excellent way to save time on the back end without limiting the guest experience. In hotels, virtual robots and chatbots can handle the most basic inquiries, including answering typical questions about facilities or today’s restaurant menu.

They allow housekeepers to take care of the big things. Also, digital concierges are a great way to help reduce contact with guests without humans having to be there at all.

9. Contactless Tracing

The enhanced safety level of smart meeting rooms includes contactless tracing, meaning an ability to handle safe meetings and events in hotels. Such devices track movements and alert about social distancing problems, improving safety measures for crowd control on site.

10. Contactless Payment

For extra safety, it’s essential to provide your guests with the ability to pay for services without using a touchpoint. In this regard, supporting mobile wallets and providing an option to book a stay in an app are the must-have smart room technologies for hotels these days.

Top 5 Benefits of Smart Room for Owners and Guests

The idea of smart hotels is slowly catching up to and bringing forth all kinds of benefits for owners and guests. Generally, the smart room system introduces the required level of safety and personal control for contemporary travelers. Here’s the list of its top benefits.

1. Higher Security

Smart rooms are equipped with webcams, microphones, speakers, and an intercom system so that owners can see who is at their door without having to open it.

In their turn, guests can easily access their room after entering their personal pin code, without worrying about losing or stealing a key card. Some extra post-COVID safety measures include touchless technologies, maid service delivered by robots, and crowd control.

2. Better Customer Experience

The hotel experience becomes more enjoyable for the guest thanks to an opportunity to create ideal surroundings in one device and before the stay. The result is a more memorable visit with a ‘Wow’-effect and total comfort.

3. Sustainability

Smart rooms address today’s customers’ demand for eco-friendly facilities and services. IoT lighting systems and thermostats provide the next-level optimization of spending resources, bringing sustainability and cost-effectiveness to hotels.

4. Greater Personalization

With smart rooms, you can create a recreational experience that feels like home, thanks to the numerous tools that guests can adjust in a hotel and remotely in advance.

5. Quick Fixes

When something goes wrong in a hotel, full control via IoT devices makes it much easier for owners to detect problems timely and provide accurate technical assistance when needed.

Ask Intellectsoft for Help!

Although it might seem like a new idea, smart rooms are actually becoming increasingly popular around the world, thanks to the large amount of convenience and safety they provide for guests and owners.

And to make the most of hotel room technology, Intellectsoft experts recommend combining it with your existing mobile apps and hotel property management software so that everything works correctly and lets you enjoy all the business benefits of the solution.

If you need assistance with smooth smart room integration, we can help! Intellectsoft has years of experience creating innovative solutions for the hospitality industry. We are ready to apply our knowledge and skills to your business challenge.

In addition to smart hotel rooms, here is the set of extra capabilities you can get with our custom software development for travel and hospitality services:

• Legacy system transformation. We support hospitality modernization in a never-ending journey to streamline its workflow, increase the bottom line, and start creating innovative ways to serve guests.
• Mobile app development. With our help, you can streamline the way you provide amenities for customers and offer everything they need for their stay on a single app.
• Loyalty and reward system development. Build emotional commitments in your customers using our innovative loyalty program.
• Microservers and third-party integration. We help hotels streamline their digital presence by re-engineering their websites in a way that’s easier to maintain.
• Big Data services. With Big Data, you can track your guests’ journeys across your entire hotel – from your marketing efforts to their experiences with your staff and your property – all in real-time.
• Custom software integration. Our software integration with third-party systems for residential and commercial properties allows us to deliver effective solutions so you can use what you already have to maximize your ROI.
• Custom software development solutions. Set up a software solution that’s right for you to respond faster to your guests’ needs.

Contact us to hire a skilled and experienced developer team. Let’s work together and find innovative solutions relevant to you to help improve your business and achieve your goals!

The post Smart Room Technology Overview for Hotel Owners  appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In the hospitality industry, that resulted in a huge need in implementing the best practices and innovative solutions to enhance client services. One of such is incorporating the front desk management systems in hotel institutions operating.

According to Transparency Market research, the market share of help desk software in different industries is going to reach $11 billion by 2023, and the numbers will only grow further.

The potential of key processes optimization with the software cannot be underestimated, but what exactly hospitality businesses should consider when implementing the hotel front desk management system? Are there any essential features to include? And, finally, is hotel front desk software really beneficial for the industry?

In this article, you’ll find these answers!

What Is Front Desk Management Software for Hotels?

A hotel front desk management system is a solution that facilitates managing all the front desk work within a single platform.

Thus, the hotel staff can easily input, quickly update and operatively manage the key processes of the hospitality unit using the unified system. Depending on the features the front desk system includes, this kind of software can cover nearly every front office function, including:

• Apartment reservations
• Room allocation
• Check-in and check-out
• Billing and accounting
• Guest history and critical client information

The front desk software for hotel is the right solution for optimizing the resources invested for smooth yet professional hotel management, which will not only benefit the hotel business performance but also enhance customer services as well.

According to Deloitte’s recent report, the future-focused businesses are now ready to invest into transforming the product- or service-focused center into a customer-focused driver of value. And that’s no surprise since over 84% of customers are ready to spend more for receiving better customer service (Gladly, 2020).

Benefits of Front Desk Management Software for Hotels

Before we dive into the essential features to include in the hotel front desk software, it’s essential to understand what this technology can provide to your business.

In fact, by incorporating the innovative technology solution for the front desk at the hotel, you can significantly increase the business income.

Here are the essential benefits you’ll get using the front desk software for hotel:

Reduce the Front Desk Workload

One of the core ideas of the front desk at a hotel is to provide high-quality services for the customers. The front desk staff is responsible for check-ins and check-outs, room management, customer service, and other important hotel staff information updates. The huge workload caused by these and plenty of other factors could directly impact the quality of the customer service.

The front desk software for hotels allows automating the key processes of the hotel management and effectively performing the time- and labor-consuming tasks, thus providing more opportunities for improving the customer service.

Enhance the Teamwork

When managing a large hospitality institution, it becomes more challenging to operate the hotel staff, keep them informed about the updates and assign new tasks or duties. With the hotel front desk software solution, all the employees can access their profile, review and prioritize all the tasks, and effectively run their duties.

Furthermore, this technology allows creating a single communication system that saves up hours of time needed for arranging the meetings or individually informing the hotel staff on demand: reach any of the hotel workers online!

Get a Clearer Improvement Strategy

Another great thing about the front desk software for hotels is the ability to get accurate data regarding the hospitality business performance, define the strong sides and weak points for further hotel service improvement.

The detailed analytics and multiple research tools allow getting the full information regarding the most popular hotel services (restaurant, gym, spa, cleaning or travel guides, breakfast, cleaning, transportation, etc), the most favorable booking dates (holiday seasons, weekends, or celebrations) and more.

It also helps to define the most common client pains and which services should be improved or removed (especially the unprofitable ones), which can certainly improve the overall hotel performance.

Improve the Guests’ Experience

Multiple investigations in client service have shown that leveraging hotel front desk software big data can save up to 670 working hours per year! By reducing the workload of the hotel’s front desk (calls and guests requests automation, online reservations, and advanced hotel staff management), your employees have more time and resources for interaction with your clients and providing better services.

At present, clients highly pay attention to the service quality, so it becomes even easier to turn the one-time visitors into loyal guests of your hotel.

Increase the Business Profitability

Last but not least, the hotel front desk management system is a perfect software that allows enhancing business profitability by automating key management processes.

You’ll save up on labor and improve the individual KPI of your hotel staff, optimize the key front desk tasks and boost the customer experience, which consequently results in higher revenue rates. So, what exact features do you need to look for in the best front desk software for your hotel?

Main Features to Include in a Front Desk Management Software

Hotel front desk software is much more than a simple management tool, as it includes all the necessary features needed to automate and optimize the key management processes of any hospitality unit.

Developing this type of management system is one of the best approaches to incorporate the most critical features your business requires for workflow automation and services improvement.

Let’s now uncover the most essential features a hotel unit certainly should include in its front desk management solution.

Reservation and Booking Management

The front desk system accumulates all the booking information from different channels and conducts a real-time checking of these channels to ensure the proper reservation tracking.

This software can accurately inform about the total number of apartments booked and ready to move in, calculates the most popular booking dates, and provides a detailed overview of the visitors’ reservation trends.

At the same time, it allows users to process the deposits and check the reservation status in real-time, thus optimizing the workload of the reception desk.

Check-in and Check-out Control

The other feature that reduces the hotel staff workload and enhances hotel management is the automated check-in and check-out system. With this option, the front desk employees can quickly process the customer flow and update the apartment information within a single tool.

Hotel guests can feel the difference in the service speed: their visits will be processed up to 5 times quicker than using the standard system. Additionally, hotel staff can effortlessly track room service, prioritize the tasks, and fulfill all the clients’ requests according to the front desk data input.

Automated Guest ID Registration

To guarantee the clients’ privacy yet optimize the registration speed, it’s a great option to allow users to manually upload the ID documents for their quick and safe processing. The guests’ ID, as well as all the other important information, can be stored in the hotel database and retrieved later on-demand (mostly, when it’s needed to process the booking requests from the same client).

Automated Communication Methods

In the digital era, nearly all the interaction between the clients and the service vendors comes through online services: chatbots, emails, specific notifications, and more.

It’s much more convenient, faster, and doesn’t require direct communication with the front desk staff. According to several pieces of research, people mostly prefer texting methods of communication, and less use the direct interactions (which is exceptionally important in the post-pandemic times): it’s quicker and more convenient.

By including multiple methods of communication, you can not only enhance the time needed to process the clients’ requests but also reduce the front desk workload as well.

Hotel Services Management

If your hospitality unit offers different types of services for the clients’ use, it’s a great idea to include these services management into your front desk at a hotel.

This way, front desk workers can easily update the price and availability information for each service, add the discounts and promo codes, and even analyze the trends of the hotel service use. This data gives additional directories on how to improve the existing hotel features as well as the general guests’ preferences: restaurants, cleaning, sports, and more.

Room Cleaning and Housekeeping

It’s also critical to create a single system that every staff member can make use of, especially the housekeepers. By accessing the front desk management system, they can quickly review and update the information regarding the room and its supplies, as well as the room availability status for the next booking.

Other Great Tools for Front Desk Hotel Software

To make the most of your front desk at the hotel, it’s also important to include:

• Tracking calendars – allows checking the up-to-date reservation information and avoid double bookings
• Reporting tools – assists in analyzing the occupancy level, hotel inventory, and sales to provide the critical insights needed for the profitability improvement
• Notification systems – the different channels created for both hotel staff and guests enable quick yet effective updating of the room service status, check-in or check-out information, upcoming events that might be useful for guests, and more.
• Team management – allows administrating, assigning, and supervising different tasks and track their status within a single software system.
• Guests’ service – enables automatically informing about the balance and expenses, generate receipts, and sending the critical updates (reservation, housekeeping reports, post-stay emails, and more)

Bottom Line

To conclude, the use of front desk management software is a must-have for all the hospitality units that need to enhance business performance by improving customer service.

The configured front desk system allows reducing the paperwork, operates nearly all the tasks within a single technology, and significantly optimizes the critical management processes that can impact the customer service.

Furthermore, with the custom software development for travel and hospitality you and your business can implement innovative technologies that perfectly fit the business goals and needs at a reasonable price!

Our best team of developers at Intellectsoft are aware of the latest trends in hospitality business optimization and automation. We empower hospitality companies and their workforces with the most effective technologies and innovative approaches.

Are you looking for the experts to develop your next business project? Talk to our experts right now to uncover more about front desk software development and how your business can benefit from it today!

The post Hotel Front Desk Management Software 101: Everything You Should Know About This Solution appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

And, though the first one is now considered to be a common practice every hotel implements to their development strategies, only few of them invest in guest experience improvement.

With the right software implemented, the hotel units can greatly automate daily operations and administrative tasks to enhance customer satisfaction, and boost client loyalty as well.

The hotel’s functioning requires the active cooperation of multiple departments, with each step being tracked and verified. Before the computer systems implementation, this was traditionally done manually with tons of paperwork and time-consuming managing tasks.

Now, most of the hotel management workflow in hospitality tends to be optimized. That is why one of the must-have software to utilize is the property management system (PMS).

What Is Hotel Property Management Software?

In the hospitality industry, a property management system refers to the software that enhances the hotel’s daily management workflow and specific administrative tasks.

In other words, this system is used for organizing, scheduling, and automating the specific tasks of the hotel management process to simplify the hotel operating system and increase the overall performance.

The first hotel PMS systems appeared in the 1970s and have developed into a prospective industry with a market size valued at over 2.9 billion USD in 2020. These numbers are also expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8% from 2021 to 2028.

Why is it so important? The basic purpose of hotel PMS is to manage numerous properties within one software, employing the centralized yet automated tracking system that increases business efficiency.

Hotel property management software is exceptionally important for the hospitality industry, which integrates the functioning of different departments and various services to provide a high-quality guest experience.

Basic Features of the Hotel Property Management System

Going deeper into the main functions presented in a hotel PMS software, the modern systems feature multiple management options for different departments, including accounting, audit, maintenance, front desk, security, etc. The common features of the PMS system for hotels usually include the following:

• Marketing and Sales: client files, guest histories, travel agents, direct mails, etc.
• Accounting: balance sheets, accounts payable and accounts receivable profit-and-loss statements, payrolls and others.
• HR Management: personal files, time and attendance, working schedule, etc.
• Reservations Management: room availability, online booking, yield management.
• Front Desk: cashier, room status, guest accounts, guest credit audit, advance deposits, bonus systems, and so on.
• Call Accounting: guest information, phone call posting.
• Housekeeping: room status, room service.
• Maintenance: work orders.
• Restaurant Service: up-to-date menu, inventory, recipes, point-of-sale, delivery.

These options presented are only one of the few basic features that should be included in the hotel property management system, they can be also modified and improved to provide better hotel management performance.

One of the core ideas of implementing the hotel PMS software is to create the feature-rich environment needed to assist the clients and deliver better guest service. Without having a unified system, any of the core departments such as housekeeping, front desk or accounting would take much more training and many labor hours.

That is why getting the hotel property management system is an effective yet efficient solution for the hospitality industry to enhance their workflow and increase the KPI as well.

Benefits of Hotel Property Management Software

However, the enhanced workflow is not the only reason why the hospitality industry should include the hotel PMS implementation in its development strategy. The other critical benefits this type of software can bring to the business are:

• Ensure time-efficient task management, that can cover the performance of nearly every hotel department.
• Increase the staff productivity and improve the communication between different units.
• Develop trustworthy relationships with your clients that will result in an increased level of retention and customer loyalty (for example, with the automated check-ins and check-outs).
• Enhance the online presence by implementing the online booking systems, chatbots, and an official site to your hotel CMS.
• Create an efficient revenue management system, where it’s more clear to analyze the profit-and-loss, track the balance sheet, and the other features to enhance the income and optimize the cost management.
• Manage different distribution channels to easily and effectively promote your hospitality business across partnerships, affiliate programs, and third-party booking services to boost the number of your reservations and increase brand awareness across the Internet.
• Boost the overall number of bookings in different seasons by enhancing the potential of your business via smart reporting, deep analysis, and other automated services.
• Provide accurate daily reporting for comparing and analyzing the current state of affairs and create the possible improvement strategies that will help to optimize your business performance (for instance, the reporting can be exported to the cloud storages, with the data always accessed and tracked by the team to make the important, profitable data-driven decisions anytime and anywhere).
• Minimize the double bookings and specific errors because of the task automation, which results in the enhanced guest experience, optimized staff work, and the correct business data and reporting.
• Target the hotel clients and their needs by analyzing their specific preferences and the ordering records to increase the revenue of your business.
• Contribute to the business model transformation that can result in the business development and ROI growth, as well as the mindset shift and the workflow transformation.

As you can see from the benefits stated, the importance of the hotel PMS software implementation cannot be underestimated. These benefits will not only improve the existing business model of your hospitality unit but also help your team to build an advanced system of guest service and hotel management.

Create Your Professional Hotel PMS System with Intellectsoft

There are two ways of creating the hotel property management software for your business: by manually creating the system with the guidance of your team of developers or hiring a dedicated team of developers to create a professional, feature-rich hotel system that will fully meet all your business needs and requirements.

The first method tends to be more unstable for use, as you cannot be certain about the final product quality and its stable performance. That is why investing in the individual hotel property management system is a great option for the hospitality units to develop the right software they need for providing better customer service.

Instead, the experienced team of developers can:

• Provide deep research of your project;
• Conduct profound research of the market and its main players;
• Analyze the main requirements and functions your business needs;
• Include the other technologies that are widely used in your industry;
• Present the professional PMS system with all the essential features for performance automation, etc.

That is why cooperating with a professional team of developers is considered to be the most beneficial option for launching the best hotel property management software for any business.

Summing It Up

Developing professional hotel property management software is a formidable yet essential way of enhancing your business performance in the hospitality industry. The hotel PMS system implementation not only enhances the hotel service performance but also increases the bookings, provides better client targeting, and accurate reporting of your business performance.

With hiring a professional and experienced team of developers, custom software development for travel and hospitality becomes easy as never before. At Intellectsoft, we have years of experience creating innovative solutions for the hospitality industry.

Are you looking for an experienced software development vendor for your next business project? Talk to our experts right now and let us create solutions that would enhance the industry while helping you reach your business goals.

The post Basics of Hotel Property Management Software appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In the hospitality industry, various brands, companies, and services can see the real results from loyalty program development in only a few months: up to 10% of sales and to 15% of transaction boosting, and around 20% of average spendings lift, according to PwC recent research.

The customer loyalty app refers to the most effective and efficient method of enhancing the UX in hospitality.

However, developing a mobile app loyalty program for hotels is not easy: they should contain the basic app features, all the range of services, and high-rated user engagement. In this article, we’ll cover the main things you should be aware of before starting creating a loyalty app project.

What Is a Customer Loyalty App?

In the hospitality industry, a customer loyalty program app refers to the software that increases client engagement and makes your guests more motivated to interact with the hotel and its services, consequently resulting in higher conversions and better revenue.

Usually, this type of loyalty apps creates incentives through rewarding points, special offers, discounts, and membership cards. For hotels, it can include the restaurant menu, tourism services, range of sports and leisure facilities, etc.

A customer loyalty mobile app is also a form of marketing strategy, designed to encourage using various hotel services via their smartphone so that you can get in touch with the reception and order any of the services available within a click.

The Potential of Loyalty Reward Apps

The importance of the loyalty program development for hotels cannot be underestimated, as it is one of the most effective communication and sales channels for the hospitality industry.

With the customer loyalty apps, it becomes much easier to interact with your customers, understand their needs and preferences, inform them about the latest news and events nearby, and offer the additional services the hotel can easily benefit from.

Additionally, mobile loyalty applications are a great option to increase brand awareness and improve customers’ loyalty as well. Thus, hotel units will get higher conversion rates with fewer investments into advertising because of having more loyal clients!

And the guests can benefit from the loyalty program app as well: they can easily stay in touch with the hotel staff and order any services they need for a comfortable stay. Also, they can enjoy the personalized offers and promotions offered depending on their personal interests, and even in different languages.

The reminders and notifications will help to keep your guests always updated about anything they might need during their journey.

With the mobile app loyalty program, they no longer need to take a plastic card to use the services or open their apartments, complete the check-ins and check-outs — everything can be done in a few taps on their smartphone.

Such a well-planned strategy of loyalty program development can not only improve the client experience but also increase the overall ROI as well.

Benefits of a Loyalty Management System for a Hotel

Before we start analyzing the main features of a loyalty program app for hospitality, it’s critical to understand whether your business needs it. Knowing the core advantages of loyalty apps can help you to estimate the basic features to pay attention to during the loyalty program development.

#1 Better Client Experience

According to Forbes, More than 80% of millennials and around two-thirds of baby boomers are interested in getting rewards not just for purchases but also for engagement with brands.

With a mobile loyalty app, your business will have more loyal clients who come to stay exactly in your hotel. As a result, their preferences and guest behavior analysis can help you to define the right service strategies to develop for the higher UX.

#2 Increased Bookings

Having implemented the loyalty program app into your hotel business and provided your guests with a certain reward program, you are more likely to get the undecided travelers over the line.

In this case, a loyalty program development can become an important criterion of why visitors should use your hospitality services instead of your competitors.

#3 Saving Investments

SEMRush has reported that the average American company can lose 23% to 30% of its customers each year due to a lack of customer loyalty. By focusing on your loyal clients and enlarging their number, you’ll spend fewer costs for the marketing and sales efforts.

Additionally, loyal repeat guests can have much better conversion rates than the average one-time visitors, which makes them more valuable for your business as well.

#4 Boosted Revenue

The loyal customers who have had a great experience with your hotel once are more likely to use the additional services offered in your mobile loyalty app. If offered, they can spend more money on traveling, sports and leisure, catching events, and other services organized by your hotel management team.

#5 Useful Insights

By analyzing the guests’ profiles created in your loyalty app, you can also get a lot of insights about further loyalty program development.

For instance, with the mobile app loyalty program, it becomes much easier to collect important data like clients’ interests, preferences, and behavior to improve the existing strategy for attracting more guests to your hotel and defining the right targets for your guests’ experience improvement.

Main Features of Loyalty Applications for the Hospitality Industry

To make the most of your loyalty program development, it’s also important to understand the basic features it should cover for the right client engagement. That is why we have created the list of the most effective features you must include in a loyalty program app:

• Add push notifications and reminders to keep your clients updated about the events, planned activities, and other important information.
• Consider the loyalty program ideas like guests points, special occasion bonuses, and time-limited promotions.
• Include different programs for various areas including hotel service, hotel restaurants, bars and events, leisure facilities, local guides, and city events.
• Try to personalize your rewards system to offer different options depending on individual preferences.
• Provide easy access for your customer loyalty mobile app: online and offline performance, easy registration, and sign-in.
• Offer extra rewards for using the loyalty program app.
• Cover multiple languages for a mobile loyalty app for comfortable utilization.
• Make your app available for different operating systems: iOS and Android

These are the basic functions to know for the successful loyalty program development, but the hospitality units also can add the other features they need or want to include into their customer loyalty apps.

Conclusion

To sum up, loyalty program development is a powerful and effective method of UX empowering and boosting the business performance as well.

For the hospitality industry, customer loyalty app sare one of the best options to start with for understanding the clients’ needs and preferences, and also to build a successful strategy for visitor engagement as well.

Setting up the custom software development for travel and hospitality can help the hospitality units to cover all the features they need in their applications, and save up more resources on their launching and implementation.

Additionally, that’s a perfect investment for the hotels that need the best solution for improving the clients’ engagement and getting the additional source of the service advertising.

At Intellectsoft, we have extensive experience creating innovative technological solutions for hospitality. Are you ready to take your business to the next level, then don’t hesitate to contact us.

The post Guest Loyalty App Development for Hotels appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

For hotel cyber security, it will remain a great challenge in the future: new hacking techniques are adopted day by day, and it’s nearly impossible to predict and confront them all.

The recent research published by Research Gate shows that the appraised cost of cybercrimes will approximately reach $6 trillion per year on average after 2021.

This is why more and more organizations become concerned about their security level: they’re investing in improving their digital safety and boosting their resistance to hacking attacks and data breaches.

The hospitality industry is not an exception: hotel security systems are one of the main priorities to develop for providing maximum comfort for the guests and ensure their secure staying as well.

Today we’ll cover what hotel cyber security is, the main issues hotel cyber security counters with, and also the most popular information security tools it employs to enhance the safety of their data and systems.

The State Of Cybersecurity in Hospitality

First of all, cybersecurity refers to a specific plan targeted at a company’s data protection. Most hotels are now aware of the possibility of cyber attacks aimed at stealing the clients’ personal data, internal documents, or any other information.

A well-planned strategy of improving the hotel safety and security can, in fact, minimize the risks of being hacked, thus, ensuring the data won’t be used by fraud.

But what information hackers are usually haunting in hospitality? Basically, there are various data they can benefit from, including:

• personal data of hotel’s guests
• bank card information
• employee data
• critical business information, etc

McKinsey’s best-suggested practice to improve hotel cyber security is to build a unified, integrated cyber defense that can protect the entire hotel infrastructure.

The most productive way to get started is the cyber attack assumption, after that try to build an accurate and effective strategy of building the system resistance to all the weak points discovered.

The IT experts insist on implementing an integrated defense to improve hotel security, as it can cover the most common security threats and secure the infrastructure as well.

Tools to Solve Common Cybersecurity Issues in Hospitality

One of the most essential cybersecurity recommendations for hospitality is employing the best IT technologies to get the organizations secured from a variety of common threats.

These usually include different sorts of viruses, internal attackers aimed at getting the network access, hardware theft, spoofing, unauthorized insider access, unauthorized outside attacks, and service attacks as well.

In general, the most effective protection tools and techniques used for safety and security in hospitality industry include the following:

Intrusion Detection System

This technology analyses all the events that happened in the internal network or any other system to detect suspicious activities, intrusions, and attacks.

The so-called intrusion refers to the efforts used to target the system’s confidentiality, availability, or integrity, which can result in system errors and data loss.

Intrusion detection systems can inform about the following types of attacks:

• Internet attacks (criminal connects to the system from the Internet or the outside networks)
• Authorized attacks (users authorized in the system try to find the vulnerabilities to get access to the secured information or those who misuse and abuse the privileges to get the profit).

Physical Hotel Security

This point refers to keeping all the networking equipment and computer systems updated and secure. In practice, it means not only purchasing the new equipment but also setting up limited access to it for third parties.

Hotel System Firewalls

The powerful yet effective combination of soft and hardware equipment can assist in tracking the device traffic of different computer networks, which is a must for hotel cyber security.

A hardware firewall is a device that can be attached directly to the network, while the software firewall consists of the specific program files targeted at improving the hotel Internet security and is installed on devices (computers, phones, tablets, laptops, etc).

Encryption Procedure

One of the most popular measures that can prevent data breaches and minimize the entrance of most hacking attacks is encryption. Basically, that’s a process of transforming the information so it becomes impossible to get.

For hotel security, encryption becomes a perfect method of ensuring data confidentiality, which is critical not only for the hotel’s management and service systems but also for the guests and visitors.

Biometrics

The technology of biometrics can greatly assist in the authorization procedures, as it benefits the user authentication systems and more. As a rule, the most popular biometrics systems record the physical characteristics of each individual and compare them each time during the authorization processes before providing full access to specific data stored in the system.

The main examples of the physical characteristics used for biometric technologies include voice recognition technologies, fingerprints, face, retina, or iris identifications. By implementing the biometrics form of authorization you can significantly enhance the hotel cyber security and ensure your users and the entire management system are fully protected.

Vulnerability Detecting Software

Last but not least software listed in the cybersecurity recommendations for hospitality is the vulnerability scanning software. Basically, that’s a specifically built software targeted at scanning your hotel’s systems and resources (both internal and for public use) and pointing at the possible vulnerabilities you should definitely pay attention to.

Furthermore, with the vulnerability detecting software, it becomes way easier to track the entire system performance and define which parts of the hotel security enhancement still need to be improved and what are the best practices for resolving these issues.

Access Limitations

To improve the hotel Internet security, it’s also essential to set up limited access to the critical or more vulnerable systems and resources.

By implementing the access control, you can significantly improve the authentication and authorization processes to ensure the access to the specific systems and resources will be available for a limited number of people.

Why is it so important? According to the Varonis Global Data Risk report, over 53% of companies have over 1000 sensitive files open to every employee. For hotel security, it means that after the employee password is known to the criminals, your system can be easily hacked by anyone and anytime.

Improving Cybersecurity: Protect Customers’ and Company’s Sensitive Data

According to the recent trends and effective measures to protect hotel safety and security, there are 3 key points of building the integrated cyber security infrastructure. Let’s now cover them in detail.

#1 Find Your Dedicated Team of Developers

The first step every company should start with is IT recruiting. A well-built team of IT developers can become one of the most effective ways of improving hotel Internet security.

Infrastructure groups need to always track the latest “trends and tendencies” in security, employ the most effective cyber tools and brainstorm some new ways of detecting the system’s weak points and how they can be resolved.

#2 Always Stay Focused on Security Improvement

Instead of paying a hard look only at the very first stages of security improvement, it’s critical to understand this process should be tracked permanently. So, it’s useless to make some changes to the hotel security procedures and exclude them from the priority tasks for the future.

However, organizations should create multiple scenarios to simulate the possible variants of cyberattacks for learning and practice. Furthermore, a clear understanding of each member’s responsibilities in crisis situations, as well as the plans of how to act in critical situations with the team members and public, can help to create a powerful strategy of defending the hotel Internet security.

#3 Use the Effective Security Tools

The experienced IT experts know that none of the security software, antiviruses, and other tools can ensure your hotel system is 100% secure from cyber attacks. Nevertheless, hospitality units still need to implement the most updated software and hardware for their data security.

In practice, that means dividing the process of improving the hotel cyber security into 3 phases: preparing and protection; defending and detection; responding and recovering. If one of these phases is omitted, your hotel security can become a tidbit for fraud and hackers.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, it’s almost impossible to predict the possible cyberattacks in hospitality and be 100% sure they won’t happen again.

However, with powerful solutions and effective security tools, your hotel can get ready for any sort of hacking threats and successfully confront the criminals.

Using professional custom software development for travel and hospitality can become a perfect solution to start improving your hotel cyber security, protect your system data and your guests as well.

We, at Intellectsoft, know about the importance of safety and security in the hospitality industry. Our dedicated team of developers empowers hospitality companies and their workforces with innovative solutions and approaches to ensure their successful performance online. Are you and your organization looking for some?

Talk to our best experts and find out more about hotel security solutions and how your business can start benefiting from them today!

The post Cybersecurity for Hospitality: How to Protect Sensitive Data Stored Online appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Or let’s imagine an even worst-case scenario, when you have to go up to the room with your suitcases on your own to find out the room key does not work.

None of these scenarios would give a nice first impression of your hotel to new visitors. Luckily, there are so many technologies available to enable you to avoid these situations.

According to the latest research, today there are more than 700,000 hotels and resorts around the world. This industry only keeps growing and developing every year and is worth more than $570 billion. According to IBISWorld, there are now 91,000 hotels in the United States alone, bringing in about $190 billion annually.

With the adoption of biometrics like fingerprints, face or iris scanning, or even voice recognition, biometrics have the potential to revolutionize the hospitality industry.

With this, new levels of efficiency and safety can be created. Let’s learn more about future biometrics for hospitality industry in the article!

What Is Biometric Technology?

Biometric technologies are solutions that are commonly used to identify a person based on some aspect, namely, a person’s unique physical or behavioral characteristics.

The basic premise for biometric technologies is that each person can be accurately identified by their intrinsic qualities.

Biometric authentication technology is now widely used in corporate and public security systems, home appliances, and various programs.

Convenience is also one of the driving forces of biometrics since you no longer need to dial passwords or carry different keys with you.

There are two types of biometrics used to recognize a person. The first type is biometrics based on physiological characteristics. The second is behavioral biometrics. Physiological identifiers include the following:

• facial recognition
• fingerprints
• finger geometry (the size and position of fingers)
• iris recognition
• vein recognition
• retina scanning
• voice recognition
• DNA matching
• digital signatures

How Does the Hospitality Industry Use Biometric Technologies?

Components of the hospitality industry such as hotels, resorts, and others often face the challenge of ensuring the safety of guests while maintaining all the amenities.

If your hotel has a lot of security measures, guests may not like it and they may never come back. If, on the contrary, security measures are weak, this can lead to theft or something else.

Then what the solution will be here? How does the hospitality industry provide security while maintaining comfort and convenience?

The best solution is biometrics, which can take full responsibility in case of any problem. The uses of biometric technologies can make life easier for hospitality businesses such as hotels, as well as improve operational efficiency, safety, and convenience in many ways.

One of the ways to use biometrics in hotels and other establishments in this domain is to implement registration using fingerprint or face recognition. Biometrics are already actively used in hotels in China.

FlyZoo Hotel in Hangzhou allows guests to select the floor and room number through a mobile app. Upon arrival at the hotel, there are several options for local and foreign check-in.

The first is that locals can register by scanning their faces through a mobile app. Another option is for foreigners who can check in by scanning their faces through vending machines located throughout the hotel lobby.

It has never been possible to avoid all the formalities associated with hotel check-in, but using biometrics such as fingerprint or face scanning can speed up the process dramatically.

In the same way, hotel staff control guest access to different parts of the hotel, for example by requiring a finger scan to access the pool.

Another way to use biometrics in hotels is to avoid key cards that allow guests to enter their rooms. Instead, a person just needs to scan their fingerprint, which greatly simplifies the system.

There is no need to keep an inventory of keys, give out new ones to guests if for some reason they have lost their own.

Biometrics is also widely used to pay for various additional hotel services. For example, requiring your fingerprint to authorize any additional payments for your hotel stay, such as ordering food or drinks in your room, spa treatments, or purchasing various in-room entertainment, will allow you to quickly and accurately bill upon checkout.

It will also help save guests from unnecessary expenses. A child cannot independently order what he wants, without her mother’s biometrics.

Benefits of Biometric Technology in the Hospitality Industry

Access Control System

Ensuring security in the hotel is one of the most important tasks, especially in terms of increasing threats to the hotel business associated with infringement on the lives or rights of guests.

For each team managing the hotel, one of the main tasks is to ensure the security of confidential areas and restrict guests’ access to storage rooms, warehouses, and other technical areas.

Biometrics can easily help with this, which will allow you not to worry about the fact that some visitors can get into one of the technical rooms.

Previously, keys and locks were widely used to control the access of staff and guests to the hotel premises. Typically, cleaners, like other hotel workers, had to constantly carry a huge number of keys with them, which could easily get lost.

In addition, it was always necessary to run and close or open rooms in case of a visitor’s loss of room keys or other problems. With the help of biometric security technology, such problems can be easily avoided, as the fingerprint will become the only key to all areas of the hotel, which greatly facilitates the work of technical staff and saves the hotel from unnecessary problems with visitors.

You can also monitor in real-time the access of staff to restricted areas of the hotel, such as guest rooms, washing rooms, etc. You can track which room a particular hotel employee has entered, thereby roughly understand their location.

Improving Staff Efficiency

To continually meet the needs of guests and provide them with an excellent hotel experience, managers must continually hire more and more employees.

But with the increase in the number of employees, it becomes more difficult for hotel management to keep track of the working hours of each employee and manage them effectively.

Fortunately, biometric identification technology can help with this. After all, such technologies are aimed not only at improving the safety and convenience of customers but also to facilitate the internal management of the hotel.

The use of biometric will help you easily monitor staff time, improve employee efficiency and ensure transparency in payroll accounting. Biometrics are also used to track visits by hotel staff, which reduces the likelihood of theft and other unpleasant things by several times.

Personalized Guest Experience

According to one study, 41% of hotel visitors visited the hotel more often and stayed in only one hotel if an employee could recognize them without giving their name. In another survey, 62% of hotel guests believe that such actions by staff will greatly improve their experience of the hotel.

Using biometric technology can help you easily refer to a visitor by name, as well as obtain information about the visitor and their preferences, without having to ask for any additional information.

For example, a guest arriving at a hotel scans a fingerprint at the front desk, after which the concierge will immediately receive all of his personal information, room, and service preferences, to make his stay at the hotel as pleasant as possible.

Conclusion

The adoption of biometric solutions has grown exponentially in a very short period. This technology began to be used all over the world in various industries. The hospitality industry is no exception.

You no longer need to rely on traditional methods of security, registering guests, granting them access to rooms, and tracking hotel technical staff.

All these functions can be replaced by the introduction of biometrics, which will radically facilitate hotel management and create even greater comfort for visitors.

In addition, invoicing visitors for hotel services becomes very easy. Customers can also feel secure if they only enter and exit the hotel using biometric scanning technology.

Combined with CCTV cameras, biometric technology can be the best weapon against security threats. A huge network of hotels around the world, which are found in different parts of the globe, creates a complex and confusing system that requires centralized resource management and the exchange of data between different departments. This can be easily achieved with biometric solutions.

Not all companies can provide quality custom software development for travel and hospitality services. That is why you need to be very careful while choosing a vendor that could help you with the implementation of such an idea.

The professionals in Intellectsoft have years of experience in developing innovative solutions based on biometric technologies for the hospitality industry.

Feel free to contact us, so we would take a close look at your project and offer you the best possible solution.

The post Benefits of Biometric Technologies for Hospitality Industry appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

As our guide on top hotel technologies of 2021 shows, improvements like increasing customer comfort, service optimization, workflow automation, and smart marketing are gaining momentum.

That’s how smart rooms, mobile keys, and blockchain solutions appeared and became widespread.

However, you need money to install all these up-to-date technologies. In the given circumstances, revenue management systems can assist grand hotels and boutique guesthouses alike in generating more funds.

The core value of this technology is the same for hospitality representatives of any size: it will help capture the maximum value your visitors are ready to bring to your hotel. In this overview, we’ll explain how it’s possible and which parameters this software should possess to be truly effective.

What Are Revenue Management Systems (RMS)?

The notion of revenue management software refers to the diversified set of strategies aimed at increasing the profitability of your company or organization.

Starting from the American Airlines case, the businesses have recognized the advantages of linking value to the specific conditions and yielding more revenue from the segmented pricing. Basically, RMS realizes this idea in technological terms.

The exact appearance of revenue management activities can be different, but all of them refer to finding the perfect place, time, and offering for an accurate service recipient.

The application of revenue management software reveals its best once you supplement this strategic move with the advanced plan containing the best profitability boost practices already used in your hotel.

If you don’t have this plan, here are the things to consider while making it:

1. Precise forecasting. Set the budget limitations for the nearest season and in a long-term perspective. This way, you’ll better understand your current situation and the exact revenue the technology should generate to boost your profitability.
2. Analyze your competitors. Determine the traits and characteristics your key competitors possess. Assume which of them leads to greater profitability than yours.
3. Define the key audience groups. Try to mastermind what are the main categories of your visitors. Are they sole low-budget tourists and businessmen? Are they couples of different income levels? Or is your facility a hostel that attracts one audience category because of constant price dumping? Collect as many assumptions as possible.
4. Check your technical weaknesses. To get the maximum of the existing software, determine the vulnerabilities of your existing one first. For this, make sure your website has good performance indicators, there’s an online booking engine, and you can do business with your clients online effectively. If any of these parameters are not elaborated, check our guide on hotel management software specifics and refer to our tech specialists to get a consultation.

Why Your Hotel Needs Revenue Management Solutions

Once you’ve collected the set of your hypotheses and ideas, hotel revenue management systems will provide a concrete set of tools to work with them and optimize your resources smartly.

The technology will divide your visitors into segments and offer to supply what they will surely buy. For example, you can provide an extra night for a discounted price for the visitors who arrive late at night, assuming they are likely to oversleep the checkout time and won’t mind spending one more night in the city.

What’s important: such an idea will be a data-driven decision.

Also, the software allows tracking typical consumption behavior during the stay. For example, your RMS shows only business-class visitors order dinners, while those who choose standard rooms eat elsewhere (or don’t eat at all).

In this situation, at night, you can leave extra bottles of water or drinks in the cheaper rooms and proactively offer restaurant food to business-class visitors at the time of typical orders.

As a result, you’ll get the maximum revenue for each visitor category in your hotel.

In essence, hotel revenue management means providing the maximum value for each individual guest.

Resources optimization in revenue management can have various manifestations in your hotel. It’s not only about supplying food and rooms cost-effectively.

When it comes to personnel, you can avoid the idle time problem and inaccurate price setting in the selected days of high and low season. As the sum of all these small advantages, you’ll increase your overall revenue significantly.

With revenue management technology, you’ll stop offering your services blindly. Instead, you will increase the loyalty of your visitors and the accuracy of each resource spent in your hotel.

6 Key Contributions of the Effective Revenue Management System

1. Better allocation of resources. Revenue management solutions should establish an environment where the perfect match between what you sell and what your guests buy constantly happens. Thanks to the intelligent algorithms that constantly track supply and demand, RMS proposes the most effective solutions.
2. Cost optimization. With the better-allocated resources, you don’t overpay on features and amenities your visitors don’t fancy. On the contrary, you’ll increase the sales of the items already liked.
3. Taking advantage of fluid pricing. Hotel revenue management systems will help you capture maximum from changing rates. By reacting to the demand dynamics automatically, you can increase the price of your services accurately.
4. A better understanding of your competitors. With the revenue management software, you’ll get an all-in-one overview of everything happening in your market segment. This way, you’ll get the full picture and will change prices smarter and more accurately.
5. Easy scaling. Of course, you can rely on your own observations and make decisions on the resource allocation manually. But if you have ambitions to grow and become a big hotel, automation of the key processes is what you’ll need first and foremost.
6. Informed decisions. One of the main contributions of hotel revenue management systems is collecting loads of essential data about your hotel and guests. With this information at hand, you can become more accurate in your assumptions and decisions and know what your customers really want — even if they don’t articulate their wishes proactively.

Things to Consider before Implementing Hotel Revenue Management Services

Like any technology, hotel revenue management software requires specific knowledge and proper understanding of what the project aims are from the executives.

Revenue management by itself is a complicated area where numerous specialists work and different metrics are adopted.

Nevertheless, the technology should be easy-to-use and unite all these distinct parameters in one solution. This way, all the workers in your hotel can work with it and detect the information needed for them to work.

Checklist to an effective hotel revenue management introduction:

1. Determine where you are today. You need to provide a detailed picture of the current state of your hotel.
2. Set your ideas and hypotheses. Make assumptions on the profitability boost needed, resources available, and guest categories.
3. Find a reliable technology vendor. While choosing, check the professionalism and discuss the project in detail prior to paying.
4. Keep in touch with your vendor. While implementing the software, communicate the progress with your vendor. This is needed to adjust the project on the way.
5. Pass the training. Due to the software complexity, all the workers who work on your hotel’s profitability must learn how to use it.
6. Test your hypotheses and improve them. Don’t expect revenue management software to be a magic button that will increase your profitability in a day. You still need to input the data and do something with the conclusions. Consider technology as the tool that will help you work more accurately and analyze information better and faster.

Ask Intellectsoft to Design and Install Hotel Revenue Management Software for You

You can look for a freelance revenue manager to increase your hotel’s profitability — or get more accurate, sophisticated, and professional equipment instead.

Intellectsoft developers are ready to install customized hotel revenue management systems of any appearance for you. Upon request, we can empower the software with other technological innovations of your choice.

Check all our capabilities in custom software development for travel and hospitality — and feel free to contact our consultants if you’ve found yours!

Intellectsoft is a software development company specialized in delivering top-notch digital solutions to companies of different sizes and representing various industries.

Let our experience serve your project aims too! Talk to our experts, and let’s decide on the software that will help your hospitality business profit!

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