When your guest arrives at your hotel, use these touchpoints to encourage them to download your app!

The moment your guest walks through the front door of your hotel, you can begin to encourage them to download your hotel mobile app. From a subtle to an obvious approach, there are a few creative ways you can convince guests to add this beneficial app to their personal device.

As always, make sure you offer them something in return for downloading your app. As for what to offer them, you know your guests the best so think about what would entice them most to download your app. Maybe it’s a faster check-out process, a free Starbucks coffee or bar drink, or maybe even a free dessert treat delivered to their room? Whatever you decide, make it an irresistible offer in return for their download.

Here are just a few places you can grab guests’ attention and let them know how downloading your hotel mobile app can benefit their stay.

QR Code

Before we dive into the best locations to display your hotel mobile app, make sure you have a QR code link to prompt guests to the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. With a QR code, your hotel guests can quickly download and install the app on the spot. There are a few free QR code websites available with a simple Google search. Here is one of the popular sites for creating QR codes for your business, beaconstac. Simply paste the link to download your app.

The Front Desk

The front desk is often known as the heart of the hotel, greeting travelers with a friendly smile, helping them with the check-in/check-out process, and acting as a complete resource center for guests. It’s at this check-in moment where you can inform guests about your hotel app in two approaches.

The first is more subtle, by displaying a branded image about your hotel app with the QR code for an easy download and a compelling reason as to why the guest should download the app. From a digital device, such as a TV or tablet, to an acrylic sign, utilize this location to display an image to offer guests digital access to your hotel’s amenities and services.

The second approach is to give your hotel staff some talking points and train them to notify guests about the app, its benefits to the guest experience, and suggest using it for mobile key entry into their room.

The Key Card

As you know, many hotels use the key card as a marketing tool to promote the hotel or any associated partners. So why not let guests know about your mobile app here?

Here are some examples of clever messaging to get your guest to ditch the plastic key card for a mobile one:

• It’s Time to Let Me Go
• If Lost, Download Our App
• Go Green, Lose the Plastic
• Your New Room Key … Your Phone
• This Key Card is So Last Year

Then make sure to include either a QR code or instructions on how to download the hotel app.

The Common Areas

Anywhere your guest can go on the hotel property, chances are you can find a great placement for promoting your hotel app. In the lobby, dining area, in the elevator, or by the poolside, think about where your hotel is already displaying information or advertising.

A great marketing strategy with the common areas is to lean into guest FOMO (fear of missing out). An easy way to accomplish this would be to display images of the hotel app and what guests could get or see if they had the app on their phone at that exact location. For example, you could place an advertisement in the pool area showing how easy and quick it would be to order a drink with the mobile app, without leaving their pool chair.

In-Room

Once your guest has arrived in their room and is settled, what is typically their next stop on their journey of enjoying their stay? We would bet it’s connecting their devices to Wifi. What better place to prompt guests to download your hotel app than in the Wifi connection window on their device?

Also, most hotel rooms are stocked with collateral, table tents, or in-room tablets to provide the guest with more information about the hotel’s amenities or local attractions. From paper to digital, you can add in more marketing materials about downloading the app.

Although the ultimate goal is to encourage and prompt guests to download your hotel mobile app during their stay, making sure the app provides a positive experience to your guests is what will keep them using it during their stay. A great way to accomplish this is by selecting technology with a focus on elevating your guest experience. The INTELITY Mobile App is a flexible, digital guest experience solution for properties and brands of all types. With features like contactless mobile check-in, mobile key, contactless service requests, push notifications, and in-room dining, the INTELITY app gives your guests full access to amenities and services in only a few taps.

To see how to help guests get your hotel app before they arrive, read our blog How to Prompt Guests to Download Your Hotel App Pre-Arrival. For a personalized look at our mobile app or the full INTELITY Platform, schedule a demo.

Before your guests walk through the front door, use these digital touchpoints to encourage them to download your hotel app!

Whether for business or pleasure, once a traveler has determined their destination and booked their stay, you don’t need to wait until they are on the property to engage and let them know about your hotel mobile app. Since most reservations are generated online, your guests are accustomed to using digital forms of communication, making pre-arrival one of the best times to encourage them to download your hotel app to use before, during, and after their stay.

Here are just a few places you can grab guests’ attention and let them know how downloading your hotel mobile app can benefit their stay.

Your Website

With some images and a few words about benefits and functionality of your app, a dedicated page on your website can not only let your guests know that you have a  hotel mobile app, but is also a great place to really spell out how it contributes to their stay. Be sure to include Apple App Store and Google Play Store links to download your hotel app on that page. It’s an often overlooked detail, but a great way to encourage downloads by making it as convenient as possible for your guests within the context of how it benefits them.

The Confirmation Email

One of the first forms of digital communication a hotel guest receives is their reservation confirmation email. Usually, this email confirms a booking and conveys initial hotel information—things like check-in and check-out time, cancellation policy, and your most up-to-date safety information—are a great place to offer guests a download link to your app.

With so many users using the phone to check emails, this line of communication is perfect for building awareness and giving them a reason to download before they arrive. Mentioning features like mobile check-in, offering a complimentary beverage at the hotel, or any other incentives that you think your guests would respond to are a great way to encourage them to download the hotel mobile app sooner rather than later. And because they’re likely already on their phone, just like with the website, providing links to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store within your confirmation email make it convenient and simple for your guest to download the hotel app and go.

Welcome Email

Varying slightly from reservation confirmation emails and other, more transactional pre-arrival communications, welcome emails are a bit more content-heavy and are usually the last form of digital correspondence a guest receives prior to checking in. Welcome emails may highlight hotel happenings and/or draw attention to property facilities and amenities from a more promotional angle. Guest communications like this are a perfect opportunity to include messaging outlining key features of your hotel mobile app and how it will benefit their stay.

Mobile Guest Experience

Once your guests download your hotel mobile app, there are a number of ways you can continue to engage with them. But if they don’t know about it, the likelihood of them ever using it is slim-to-none. Talking about your mobile guest experience alongside your property’s other great amenities and offerings gives your guests good reason to download and engage with you through your hotel app.

Although the ultimate goal is to encourage your guests to download your app before they arrive, making sure the app provides a positive experience to your guests is what will keep them using it during their stay. A great way to accomplish this is by selecting technology with a focus on elevating your guest experience. If your property is searching for a hotel app with an amazing check-in user experience and a high adoption rate, then you should look to the leaders in digital guest experience. The INTELITY Mobile App is a flexible, digital guest experience solution for properties and brands of all types. With features like contactless mobile check-in, mobile key, contactless service requests, push notifications, and in-room dining, the INTELITY app gives your guests full access to amenities and services within only a few taps.

To see what the INTELITY mobile check-in process could look like for  your guests, read our blog What Does Mobile Check-In Actually Look Like. For a personalized look at our mobile app or the full INTELITY Platform, schedule a demo.

Catch up on the latest INTELITY news with CEO, Robert Stevenson

At the HITEC Orlando 2022 trade show, the Lodging Magazine team stopped by the INTELITY booth to speak with INTELITY’s CEO, Robert Stevenson. In this video, Robert discusses HITEC’s 50th celebration, the INTELITY platform, and announces the latest platform release.
To see the full conversation, watch the video below.

INTELITY is the industry leader in digital guest experience and staff management software. Our platform is used in over 60 countries around the world, by a variety of hotel types, including small brands, independent, resorts, boutiques, and casinos. We focus a lot on mobility and delivering a modern mobile experience for hotel guests. We offer digital workflow solutions for all the check-in permutation processes, from validating a guest’s ID, placing a card on file and providing a sharable digital room key, to room upgrades, through our INTELITY mobile app.

We also provide hotel guests with a great in-room and on-property digital experience. Wherever the guest is on the hotel property, our platform will stay connected with them to provide the digital experience they desire. Our INTELITY platform is great for luxury, upscale, and midscale properties that are seeking better solutions to elevate the modern hotel guest experience.

Also, we announced our fifth-generation platform, Platform Release 5. This cloud-based INTELITY platform manages guest and resident services and back-of-house operations in a number of hospitality verticals, all on one platform. To learn more about this announcement, please view the press release: Leading the Industry: INTELITY Announces Platform Release 5 at HITEC Orlando 2022.

For more information, or to request a demo, please visit: intelity.com/demo.

Learn what’s new and what’s next from INTELITY’s Benjamin Keller

During the HITEC Orlando 2022 trade show, the Hospitality Upgrade team stopped by the INTELITY booth to speak with INTELITY’s SVP of Sales, Benjamin Keller. In this video, Benjamin discusses the new INTELITY platform R5®, the importance of integrations, and the future trends for the hospitality industry. To see the full conversation, watch the video below.

INTELITY R5

The new cloud-based INTELITY platform R5, is a robust consolidation of all our INTELITY platforms for managing guest and resident services and back-of-house operations in a number of hospitality verticals. Our goal is to make it easier for our clients and partners to use and integrate with our platform more seamlessly.

To learn more about this announcement, please view the press release: Leading the Industry: INTELITY Announces Platform Release 5 at HITEC Orlando 2022.

INTELITY’s Integrations

Here at INTELITY it is not only important to integrate with vendors, it is vital. Like hotel guests, every property has unique needs. INTELITY’s integrations include over 60 property management systems, 15 different point of sale systems, and a variety of ticket systems to connect your disparate systems.

During HITEC Orlando 2022, we announced our integration partnership with Incode. To further enhance hotels’ operations encompassing a safe, secure, and reliable check-in workflow process, this integration fulfills hotel requirements for full ID verification and enables guest ID verification during the check-in stage through any INTELITY mobile app, either single-property or brand-level. This integration allows hotels to digitally automate the check-in process, creating a frictionless mobile check-in guest experience.

To learn more about this integration partnership, please view the press release: >INTELITY and Incode Technologies Announces Strategic Partnership.

The Next Tech Focus

Even before the pandemic, INTELITY was focused on offering customers contactless and touchless technology. Since the last HITEC, we have shifted our focus into two key areas, hotel staff and mobile key.  As the staffing market continues to fluctuate, our customers have relied more on our platform to automate, manage, and track daily tasks, so hotel guests don’t feel any disruption during their experience at the hotel. Features like mobile key and shareable mobile key can easily automate routine tasks to give your staff back precious time.

To learn more about maximizing efficiency with a limited staff, please view our eBook: How to Drive Team Efficiency with Your Tech Stack.

Requested Innovations

Here at INTELITY, we listen to our clients and use this knowledge to drive our road map. The innovations our clients are requesting over room controls, service requests, and F&B, are smart-room tablets. Hotel guests can effortlessly access services and amenities without ever needing physical contact with staff through smart-room tablets. This desired innovation is quickly becoming the new requirement for hotel guests.

For more information, or to request a demo, please visit: intelity.com/demo.

Learn key takeaways from a webinar with INTELITY and spa management software partner Book4Time

Recently INTELITY Sales Director Ben Teplitsky joined Sal Capizzi from Book4Time to discuss how hoteliers can enhance the guest experience with in-room, on-demand technologies. Specifically, the seamless Book4Time and INTELITY integration powers the ability for hotel and resort guests to view and book spa and wellness services and products, all from a mobile device. The lively conversation explored how the guest experience has evolved through mobility and innovative technology, advancing the ability to engage guests through mobile apps and promote hotel amenities–on property, in-room, and beyond.

Watch the Replay

Here are the three highlights:

Leverage digital booking engines for property amenities

With in-room tablets and hotel mobile apps, hoteliers can leverage a property’s spa amenities to increase guest engagement. Selecting technology partners with seamless integration, like Book4Time and INTELITY, augment the services and systems you’re already providing and make for increased adoption and ease of use by both guests and staff. The platform and service isn’t necessarily meant to replace what a property is already utilizing, but meant to enhance and provide a new conduit between hotel staff and guests, elevating amenities and services and leveraging the data and analytics on the back end to enhance guest engagement.

A downloadable branded mobile hotel app includes not only spa services, but also leverages other digital features such as mobile check-in, mobile key, and digital concierge menus and services. With in-room tablets, hotels can also engage with guests during their stay, promoting hotel services and amenities directly to guests and enabling one-touch booking.

Integrated mobile platforms provide a seamless experience for both guests and staff

The guest journey is evolving, and as more travelers use online booking and mobile apps for ride shares and airlines, by the time they get to a hotel property, it’s no longer just a nicety to have mobile apps and in-room technology, it’s an expectation. The INTELITY Team has seen almost double the amount of hotel mobile app downloads and a sharp increase in engagement with in-room tablets. Additionally, we’re seeing that hotels that leverage digital tools frees up their staff to spend more time with guests and provide a more high-touch, high-service experience.

Certified integrations with a property’s PMS, POS, and other tech systems such as lock providers and spa management, builds a seamless tech stack that is leveraging guest data and analytics to provide a more personalized experience for guests while easing workload for staff.

Drive revenue from spa services and products through innovative guest engagement

Pushing personalized promotions and spa services directly to guests via an in-room tablet and hotel mobile app entices guests to explore the menu and book services with one click, never having to make a phone call or leave the comfort of their room. For example, Is it warm outside? Offer guests a cooling facial treatment or relaxing foot bath. Is a guest celebrating a special occasion? Serve them a promotion for in-room bubbly and fresh berries. The possibilities are endless to offer guests personalized promotions via an in-room tablet or mobile app that immediately drives revenue.

When digital technology becomes part of your property’s ecosystem, and you’re providing guests a feature-rich mobile experience, you enable so much more than just skipping a line; guests are able to more actively engage with the hotel and the amenities offered, increasing revenue for all aspects of the property.

The additional engagement afforded by a digital guest experience, especially with in-room technology, can not only increase revenue for your property, it greatly enhances guest satisfaction, leading to more positive reviews and repeat visitors.

To learn more about what hotel tech is available to boost your digital guest experience, request a demo today.

Request a Demo

With two years of pent-up demand, vacations are back with a vengeance. How will this impact hotels?

While phrases like “the new normal” or “essential workers” have now become commonplace, the de rigueur expression you may have already heard is “revenge travel.” It sounds ominous, and you may be wondering: What does this mean? How does it impact me? Why should I care? The truth is, if you have any role in the hospitality industry, this phase of travel is a pot of gold! 

What is Revenge Travel? 

The phrase “revenge travel” in its simplest form refers to choosing to travel right now. The revenge in this expression refers to many people unable to travel or forced to postpone vacations during the COVID era, who now are taking revenge on a time when many could not travel. 

Because travel was restricted and many hotels were either forced to close temporarily or shutter for good, people began to see travel in a different way. 

Before 2020, people had a tendency to defer starting a diet, learning a new hobby, furthering their education, and even travel, thinking “there’s always tomorrow.” One blessing we universally learned during the last two years is the value of time, people, and experiences. Quality of life, nurturing relationships, and accumulating experiences and memories are more important now than ever. 

How will Revenge Travel impact me?

Although “revenge” can be viewed as a negative word, for those in guest services and hospitality, this should sound so sweet! 

For hoteliers and their staff, revenge travel means the summer rush is going to be busier than ever. Regardless of costs, people are more motivated to travel and explore. Allianz Partners found that travel to Europe from the U.S. is likely to significantly increase 600% over last year. Data collected from Vacasa found 3 in 5 Americans are planning a summer getaway. “The pandemic made people realize you can’t take travel for granted,” said Daniel Durazo, director of external communications at Allianz Partners USA. 

Not to mention, the rise in remote work will also increase revenge travel, as remote workers are itching for a change of scenery. According to Ladders projections, 25% of all professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022, and remote opportunities will continue to increase through 2023. 

Revenge travel is the key to a thriving hotel! 

Why should you care about Revenge Travel?

Bottom line, it will bring you more business. Nothing makes a hotelier happier than a full hotel. However, a full hotel with limited resources, equipment, and staff can quickly become disastrous.

At the end of the day, we know you want your guests to have a memorable and incredible experience at your hotel and you need your staff to be ready and able to provide that to guests. Employee satisfaction and staff who don’t feel overwhelmed are key components of excellent guest services. An easy place to begin immediately is preparing your hotel to accommodate revenge travelers by leveraging technology to enhance the experience for both your staff and guests. 

For example, providing tablets in each room can help limit calls to staff requesting more towels, food and drinks, information about the pool, etc. Enabling guests to browse a menu of services, enhancements, amenities, and other hotel offerings and then make requests with the touch of a finger, streamlines the ticketing process for staff and excites hotel guests with the digital offerings available to them on a familiar device. 

Investing in technology is an investment in your hotel’s efficiency and guest satisfaction. Digital requests placed through an app on a tablet or phone can help your staff manage the chaos and provide pristine service to the revenge traveler!

As revenge travel continues to rise, make sure your hotel is equipped with the right staff, the right resources, and the right technology to best manage a thriving hotel and take advantage of this travel trend.