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Hotel guest expectations have changed – has your technology?

Gone are the days when hotel guests expected little more than a clean room and comfortable bed.

A recent report from Deloitte revealed how the average traveller today has higher expectations than ever before. These expectations form the ‘new basics’ of the hotel customer experience.

While guests still prioritise staff friendliness and room cleanliness, the ‘new basics’ revolve around feeling known, heard, engaged, empowered and delighted during their stay.

But how can hotel operators possibly achieve this personalised service at scale?

Technology is not the full solution, but it’s an important piece of the puzzle. Through thoughtful integration, technology can support the real asset of your hotel – your employees – to provide the service they give best. 

With that in mind, here are 5 new technologies that we believe can equip your staff to deliver a great guest experience, far beyond the ‘new basics’:

  1. Know your guests with Alice Concierge

From airport connections to museum hours, dry cleaners to dining suggestions; guests come with needs that demand a nuanced, localised knowledge from staff.

74% of guests find the most stressful aspect of travel figuring out the details.

What if you could know guest requirements, before they even arrived?

Enter ALICE Concierge; a hotel concierge software that equips staff to best meet guest expectations.

With custom itineraries and granular guest profiles, plus a smart notification system that ensures tasks never slip through the cracks, we like how ALICE Concierge makes it possible to personalise the guest experience efficiently. And it looks pretty slick too.

  1. Hear your guests with Mymanu

Mymanu Clik

Guest requirements can be tricky to understand in any context – let alone in a different language. That’s why the potential of Mymanu Clik excites us.

Mymanu Clik are the world’s first truly wireless translation earbuds. They operate in real-time and can understand 37 different languages. Pretty impressive, right?

When this technology was piloted at the Madrid Marriot, 90% of international guests claimed it improved communication. Another 90% said it enhanced the overall experience of their stay.

Whether in tourism, hospitality or other customer service sector, the Mymanu Clik earbuds could be game-changers for breaking down language barriers.

  1. Engage your guests with GestureTek

Give GestureTek almost any surface – be it a screen, floor, wall, window or table – and they can turn it into an engaging digital experience.

For 30 years this company has been harnessing leading gesture recognition and motion sensing technology to build interactive installations across the hotel sector.

From experiential foyer interactives, to multi-touch restaurant table menus; sensory in-room entertainment to high-tech conference room capabilities – we’ve seen GestureTek products used throughout the guest journey for greater engagement, and a touch of fun.

  1. Empower your guests with Whistle

Whistle app

Whistle won Best Guest Messaging Platform at the Hotel Tech Awards last year – and we think it was well-deserved.

Customers today are accustomed to on-demand services, whether for fast transport (Uber), instant entertainment (Netflix) or easy payments (Apple Pay). Now they expect the same from hotels. This is the strength of Whistle.

Whistle allows hotel staff to communicate with guests through SMS and mobile messaging before, during and after a stay.                           

And the communication is two-way. The ease of the system, plus the live chat and voice command functionality, also empowers guests to tailor their experience from the palm of their hands.

  1. Delight your guests with Ambie

https://www.cloudbeds.com/

In the Deloitte report, millennial guests expressed a desire to be ‘surprised and delighted’ over 70% more than other generations. This is significant, given this demographic will drive the majority of hotel bookings in the future. 

But what does it look like to ‘surprise and delight’ guests?

This comes down to meeting an individual’s needs in small, unexpected ways. And music is one fast and cost-effective way to achieve this goal.  

Through smart technology and bespoke playlists, music can change the mood of a room instantly, meaning the customer experience is always tailored – never stale.

Playlists can constantly evolve, to sound fresh to even your most regular guests. Plus, you can take the surprise-factor further, and have a loyal guest’s favourite playlist lined up to play in the room, before their arrival.

Here at Ambie, these are the music-driven, creative solutions that we love to provide. If you’d like to learn how we could grow your guest experience, get in touch with us today.

Ambie music sampler