Hotel brand apps and other forms of technology are serving to connect guests with the industry.
The entire industry is buzzing about hotel technology and how to make the most of it. Figuring out how to use hospitality technology trends to help achieve goals, such as increase hotel revenue and guest satisfaction, can be challenging. Hotel brands are leading the charge when it comes to this, though, as a number of them have established innovative digital standards across their entire portfolio, from keyless hotel room entry to mobile check-in.
Among those around the world making headway with effectively leveraging technology, here are three hotel brands doing an exceptional job of making the most of new hospitality technology trends. “Conrad Concierge helps by putting the entire hotel experience in the hands of their guests via the technology they are using most often.” -Claire Newell, global travel expert, best-selling author
Conrad Hotels & Resorts
Conrad Hotels & Resorts, owned and operated by Hilton Worldwide, released a brand-wide enterprise mobile app a few years ago named Conrad Concierge. In fact, the brand was the first with an app that boasted integrated services at all 31 properties in its portfolio.
More than just basic, traditional luxury, Conrad puts a premium on exactly what a guest wants, which for the majority of guests includes meeting their digital needs. It’s the notion of “smart luxury,” and this brand is successfully defining the concept.
A central part of that is Conrad Concierge, which intuitively connects guests with a convenient means of communicating with staff for a variety of purposes – from general information room service orders to restaurant bookings. The hotel app even includes information about the local area of the Conrad hotel the guest is staying in.
Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts made headlines in summer 2015 when it became the latest luxury brand to launch a mobile app, which is the widest available of any in the hospitality industry with 96 included properties. The brand, long known for an exceptional mastery of high-touch service, was able to successfully embrace a high-touch and high-tech experience that still felt personalized.
A Forbes review of the app stated, “I’m here to report back that Four Seasons’ app-wise move has worked out well. It’s helpful and lovely to look at, and, most important, it’s unassuming. It’s there for you as a guest when you want it and it fades out of the experience when you don’t. The to-be-expected features of the app work just fine (Check-in, Check-out), and some of these expected features are super-handy, like the ‘local recommendations’ feature.”
In fact, the greatest success is “where the app moves over the line to functions that human employees can’t do for guests or can’t do as well,” like providing multilingual maps and directions to navigate the area around the hotels.
The Peninsula Hotels
Connected travelers demand the latest and greatest when it comes to hotel technology, and The Peninsula Hotels is among the most impressive brands when it comes to meeting these expectations.
For example, both The Peninsula Paris (styled as a modern European palace) and The Peninsula Hong Kong (known as the Grand Dame of the Far East) have been able to use multilingual touchscreen panels in guest rooms to tap into the hotel Internet of Things.
These in-room panels can control the lights, television, thermostat, curtains, and have access to Internet radio. The rooms come with three in-room tablets total that can also be used to order room service, turn on the Do Not Disturb sign, place housekeeping requests, and more, all through a sophisticated hospitality technology software system.
