A Blog by INTELITY

At Your Service

The latest innovation and trends in contactless guest experience and the products that are revolutionizing the service industry.

INTELITY

Introducing Carousel: The App Design Update Created for Immediate Guest Engagement

Use an attention-grabbing new design to engage guests, generate clicks, and drive revenue while highlighting amenities and services.

This year, hoteliers haven’t had the same face-to-face access to guests that they normally do—and it’s looking like that won’t change anytime soon. Even with a vaccine on the horizon, distribution concerns and a cautious public may slow progress out of the COVID window. In fact, only 58% of Americans reported being willing to take a vaccine in a November poll.

With physical interactions still out of reach, digital engagement continues to be the best way for hoteliers to connect with guests. The INTELITY platform is tailored to help hoteliers engage guests at every point before, during, and after their stay—and today we’re excited to announce yet another new feature to facilitate the guest-staff connection. A new design module for INTELITY guest apps is now available to customers to help bring the most important promotions and information to guests as soon as they open the app.

Carousel – Now Available for iOS and Android INTELITY Mobile Apps

Designed to sit at the top of the app’s homepage, Carousel highlights important announcements and offers top services and amenities in a set of rotating slides at the very top of the app’s homepage. In addition to the visual real estate Carousel adds to the app, properties can also add a short title and call-to-action to their slides—encouraging guest engagement, clicks, and purchases as soon as they open the app.

With the option to feature an unlimited amount of slides, the possibilities are endless. Evergreen slides offering guest requests, housekeeping services, spa reservations, and more can create higher awareness of everything a property has to offer, and keep guests coming back to the app for anything they need during their stay. As COVID remains a primary concern for travelers, it’s also a great way for properties and brands to put their commitment to guest safety and convenience front and center, with slides featuring in-demand digital amenities like contactless check-in, mobile key, or mobile dining—which can both reassure hesitant travelers and accelerate adoption of the new technology.

But there’s so much more that properties can do with Carousel. In addition to always-on slides, it also presents the perfect opportunity to advertise special events and promotions. Properties can create engaging content in new slides weekly or monthly to keep guests up-to-date with the most current deals. From Mother’s Day Brunch to summer movie nights to special dinner deals on New Year’s Eve, Carousel can generate interest and reservations at critical moments.

Even better, utilizing the design couldn’t be easier. It’s as simple as flipping the feature on in INTELITY’s content management system, then uploading the content to fill in the new area. Like the rest of the app, it can then be updated in real time whenever necessary. From there, it’s just a matter of watching app engagement and ROI rise.

Interested in learning more about how your property can digitally engage guests and drive revenue with the INTELITY platform?

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How Are Travelers Planning for 2021 in Anticipation of a Vaccine?

With two potential vaccines on the horizon, consumers are eager to get back to travel. Here’s what they’re looking for in a stay next year.

We’re quickly approaching a critical window in the COVID timeline: two vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have been announced as over 90% effective, but neither has been approved for distribution, and both face challenges that have consumers expecting they may not be widely available until April 2021—or later. But it’s not all bad news: with the vaccine on the horizon, consumers have turned their attention to day-dreaming about sunny escapes and post-pandemic vacations.

While things are expected to change dramatically and go back to some version of normal next year, guests remain cautious as they plan their 2021 travel. Here are a few key stats that show what the consumer mindset looks like right now:

95% spent time “looking for vacation inspiration” during lockdown.

If there’s one thing that’s certain for 2021, it’s that demand for travel remains strong and will come surging back once consumers feel safe again. During the pandemic, excursions within driving distance have been the most popular option for travelers looking for a change of scenery. But as soon as a vaccine becomes widely available, consumers have indicated they’ll be eager to take longer and further trips, significantly boosting markets that rely on high tourist volumes.

84% of travelers say technology would increase their confidence to travel in the next 12 months by addressing concerns around mixing with crowds, social distancing and physical touchpoints.

If you thought contactless experiences would evaporate after a vaccine, think again. Guests have become used to transactions that don’t include physical touchpoints. Until the vaccine reaches high adoption rates, travelers will remain cautious about their face-to-face interactions with others. And in the future, consumers are likely to choose contactless options during flu season or when they themselves are feeling under the weather. It’s expected to become a normal part of life for many consumers.

63% say they want hotels to use “the latest tech” to ensure safety.

Between new cleaning technology and digital amenities, guests truly feel that technology will play a key role in safety. And what is it they mean by “the latest tech”? A few things come to mind: mobile check-in and mobile key, hotel apps that facilitate guest-staff communication outside of face-to-face interaction, digital dining, and contactless payments come to mind. Essentially, whatever they can do to stay separate from others and enjoy a safe stay—without compromising service.

42% of travelers cite contactless and mobile payment options such as Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo as key to reducing incidences of physical contact throughout the journey.

It’s regularly been at the top of consumer wishlists through COVID, so it’s no surprise that contactless payments will remain important to travelers as we enter 2021. Adoption has always been the barrier to contactless payments becoming routine—and during the pandemic, adoption rates skyrocketed. Now, it’s about both safety and convenience: not having to touch money or exchange a card is both cleaner and easier for consumers who are more than happy to just tap their phone during a transaction.

Find out how your property or brand can leverage technology to not only offer safe 2021 travel experiences, but also a streamlined stay with self-service options. Request a demo of the INTELITY platform now.

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Sources:
Booking.com Reveals Five Predictions for the Future of Travel
Rethink Travel Global Survey US Insights 2020

4 Steps to Choosing the Right Mobile App for Your Hotel

Discover top lessons from Hotel Tech Report’s The Ultimate Guide to Guest Mobile Apps for Hotels: 2021 Edition.

Just about every hotelier has considered implementing a mobile app at some point in 2020. With demand for contactless service and mobile capabilities on the rise, it’s no longer a question whether or not hotel mobile apps are a standard of the industry. It’s now a question of how quickly and effectively hotels can implement them to modernize the guest experience and meet new guest needs.

Yet the process of selecting and implementing an app can be a huge task—and many hoteliers are worried they simply don’t have the time or the budget to invest right now. That’s why INTELITY sponsored Hotel Tech Report’s The Ultimate Guide to Guest Mobile Apps for Hotels: 2021 Edition, which leads hoteliers through the process as easily as possible—while at the same time ensuring you’re prepared to make the right decision for your property. Here are the four key steps outlined in the guide:

1. Understand the key benefits of a hotel guest app and how the market is evolving.

Before investing your time and money into the buying process, it’s important to build a foundation of knowledge about what types of apps are currently on the market, their primary benefits, how they work, and how experts see the technology evolving over the next decade.

During this step, you’ll discover why an app is a key competitive advantage, the myriad ways it can help your property drive revenue, and why it’s become a critical communication touchpoint for guests—especially during COVID. It may sound trite, but it’s true: as you dive deeper into the process, the stronger your foundation of knowledge, the better for your decision-making.

2. Establish the specific needs of your property: what features and integrations are most important to you?

Once you have a baseline of knowledge, it’s time to drill down into the details. Does your property need a web app or a traditional mobile app? Both? Is mobile check-in important or are you focused on in-room dining revenue? In the last ten years, there’s been an explosion of innovation within the mobile app space, and there are now countless features to track. But not all of them will be relevant to what your property needs.

Beyond features lie areas like security and compliance, which can be difficult to understand at first glance, but have far-reaching implications for the success of a deployment. Then come integrations. If overlooked or not vetted properly, an app’s integrations (or lack thereof) can lead to disaster. If it won’t work with your current tech stack—your PMS, POS, lock vendor, and more—you’ll end up with siloed information and disparate systems, a scenario where your tech investment delivers more problems than help.

All of these factors are why it’s necessary to start a list early on of what’s essential to you and select your top two or three vendors with that list in mind. Many companies list features on their website or in their content and tools like Hotel Tech Report make it easy to see which vendors can deliver on the areas you deem most important. Take advantage of every opportunity to ensure you’re not wasting time or money on a product that can’t deliver what you need.

3. Put a process in place for evaluating vendors and comparing products.

Armed with the knowledge of what’s most important to your team and your property, it’s time to evaluate vendors and products. Of course, the features and integrations you’ve isolated in step two should come into play first: can the product truly provide the functionality you need?

Once you sort out your product questions, it’s time to vet the vendor. The more you ask up front, the more likely you are to find the best vendor partner for you. Here are just a few of the topics you may want to cover: cost, implementation timelines, business stability, customer support, commitment to innovation, and more. In many ways, these factors can be just as important as the product itself.

With a full picture of exactly what you’re getting into when it comes to both the product and the vendor, you can create an in-depth comparison and weigh exactly who meets your needs best.

4. Set implementation, ROI, and performance goals to track value after the contract is signed.

Plenty of properties and brands stop there. You have everything you need to make a decision, right? But your app’s ultimate potential relies on more than just picking the right product: it requires a strong implementation and rollout plan. Plan how you’ll train your team, introduce guests to the technology, and set tangible goals to measure success.

By taking this extra step, you’re setting yourself on the path to realize all the benefits that make apps so popular today: increased guest satisfaction, revenue, and cost savings.

Ready to get started on these steps? ReadThe Ultimate Guide to Guest Mobile Apps for Hotels: 2021 Edition, available now!

Get the Guide

Expert Perspective: The State of Casino Recovery Part 3

In the last post of the series, INTELITY’s resident casino expert Ben Keller answers the single biggest recovery question casino operators have: what comes next?

Over the past few weeks, INTELITY’s resident casino expert, Ben Keller, has been answering questions about the state of the casino industry and recovery. In part one, he covered topics like safety measures, guest and player satisfaction, and how to boost revenue as 2020 comes to a close. Then, in part two, he talked about trends: which products are sticking around for the foreseeable future and which will fade with COVID.

Every question discussed so far comes back to one topic: the future. What is the future for casinos? Turns out, this is the hardest question to answer, but also the most rewarding and interesting topic to discuss. Here’s what he has to say about what the short- and long-term future looks like for casinos and casino-resorts.

Is the post-COVID future for casinos a return to normal as soon as safety concerns fade or is the industry going to be changed forever? If so, how?

Ben Keller: Let’s get the easy part out of the way. The one thing I really do think we know is that mobile key is here to stay. Have you tried to go to a concert in the last few years? A sports game? You’re not printing out a ticket, you’re pulling out your electronic ticket on your phone. Right now, mobile key technology is finally advanced enough for hotels and resorts to streamline the entry experience for guests. There’s still a ways to go to make it completely convenient, but I think over the next 5-10 years, the physical room key will be used less and less until using a mobile key becomes a requirement in many places.

Now the hard part. Other than mobile key, it’s a mixed bag. Some trends will last and others won’t. Some people will feel comfortable going back to the way things were as soon as restrictions are lifted while others will take precautions for a long time. That’s not just the future of the casino industry either; that’s true across the board.

There are also still lingering issues to be figured out. Here in Vegas, if you go to the casino and walk around with a drink, you don’t have to wear a mask. Which is typical because if you’re eating or drinking, it’s not required. But think about that: if you’re literally just holding a drink, you can do what you want. Without a drink, you need a mask. That’s clearly a loophole. Casinos and resorts are trying to solve that and other issues on the fly as long as COVID remains a challenge.

As for gaming itself, do I think every other slot machine will be turned off forever? No, of course not. Do I think casinos may need to eliminate some machines off the floor? Maybe. It could make people more comfortable in the long run and allow for social distancing should we need it again in the future.

Bottom line: casinos have been around a long time and will continue to be around for a long time. Things remain up in the air right now, but when it comes to the future of “normal,” I think we’ll end up with a lot of the same activities and places, but how they’re set up and how we interact with them will change.

People always have a choice. Do they want to go camping? Do they want to go to the lake? Or do they want to go to a casino? What casinos need to do—and what many are already doing well—is figure out how to make the experience feel as normal and as entertaining as possible.

You can institute a ton of safety measures while preserving the feel and the ambience of the casino environment. But there’s a scenario where casinos become very depressing, with only one person at a table or movement severely restricted. That’s dangerous for the industry. In the end, the best “normal” will be finding innovative ways to keep people safe that have little to no impact on the amount of entertainment or fun they experience. It’s a difficult task, but one worth taking on.

Want to hear more about how the future of casinos and how you can prepare to drive recovery and revenue in 2021?

Request a demo of the INTELITY platform

10 Key Takeaways from This Week’s Cyber HITEC Conference

Discover the best quotes and insights from the hospitality and technology leaders who hosted sessions at HITEC.

This week at HITEC, hospitality leaders and operators gathered together to discuss the future—what should hoteliers be doing next week? Next year? In the next ten years? And yet, even as experts spoke and shared their opinions, the overwhelming attitude of the conference was one of community and learning. In a year of complete disruption, everyone was eager to listen to the experiences of others and find innovative solutions to the unexpected problems hoteliers are facing in the COVID era.

Over three days, hundreds of hoteliers, vendors, and industry leaders gathered to compare notes, hear stories of struggles and success, and plan together for what’s next for the hospitality industry. Here are some of the best quotes and insights shared during the conference:

1. Visibility plays a crucial role in safety. It’s not enough to be effective, hoteliers also need continuous “hygiene theater” that shows a deep commitment to clean.

– Cyber HITEC Session: Hotel Technology Choices in a Pandemic World 

There’s a huge difference between being safe and feeling safe. Once new measures and protocols are in place, what hoteliers show and tell people about safety measures will directly impact their comfort level. Don’t underestimate the power of signage, digital communication, and visible cleaning supplies.

2. Labor is an investment, not an expense—and right now, it’s critical to get staffing right. No one cares how much you save if service quality drops.

– Cyber HITEC Session: How Your Largest Operating Expense Can Produce Your Biggest Profits

Traditional labor cost controls enforce a false binary that says under budget = good, and over budget = bad. Instead, hoteliers should be looking to build the most efficient teams with productivity standards, forecasting, and automation. Then, they can optimize—saving costs, raising productivity, and recognizing the value of their team all at the same time.

3. There is no guarantee guests will ever be comfortable with the amount of contact they had with staff and other guests pre-pandemic. It’s likely there will be a shift towards a more digital and less physical future.

– Cyber HITEC Session: The Digital Transformation Movement

Many consumers haven’t hugged their friends and family in months. The vast majority definitely aren’t looking to interact with strangers, and even if a vaccine got approved tomorrow, that likely wouldn’t change. The truth is, social distancing and contactless measures are here to stay for the foreseeable future. And when the pandemic is over, who knows what the new normal will be?

4. Everyone is reducing physical touchpoints and congestion in areas of gathering to manage hotel liability and reduce anxiety. As a result, there are new challenges during arrival, especially with communication.

– Cyber HITEC Session: Can’t Touch This: Ideas for Social Distancing at Hotels

New safety measures also need to come with entirely new processes, and can’t leave out the critical guest communication aspect. From pre-arrival emails to SMS messaging to signage, hotels can’t do enough to make sure guests are kept informed about requirements to socially distance and options to embrace contactless service.

5. IT and technology are no longer just a cost center, but a revenue driver. Companies that involve IT in decision-making see lower costs, more accurate project timelines, and a more future-proof business in the long run.

– Cyber HITEC Session: Human Factors: CapITal at the Table

That’s a combination to be reckoned with in any year, but the value of IT has been reinforced even more strongly this year. Their ability to recognize hidden costs and lead innovation delivers terrific ROI. When it comes to project and budget planning, make sure they have a voice.

6. “Mobile key is the technology that hotels around the world are clamoring for. There are limitations and questions every property has to ask themselves, but it’s out there and it’s possible.”

– Cyber HITEC Session: Hotel Technology Choices in a Pandemic World

Speaking of contactless service options and the arrival experience for guests, mobile check-in and mobile key top the technology wish lists of hoteliers around the world. As Steven D’Erasmo from Hilton points out, asking the right questions and building the right process is important before investing—but contactless entry is turning out to be very valuable to those who do it well.

7. “When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”

– Cyber HITEC Session: The Digital Transformation Movement

The only thing worse than not modernizing a property or brand is doing it poorly. Hotels can’t afford to make a monetary investment that isn’t also embraced on the cultural and human level. Otherwise, technology is just wasted budget. Real digital transformation only occurs when management and staff buy in from the start and educate guests effectively.

8. Digital transformation and digital synergy aren’t the same thing. Digital synergy will go beyond digitally enabling traditional processes to create totally seamless and connected experiences for consumers.

– Cyber HITEC Session: Payment Trends: Just Waiting to Check In

While some hoteliers are just now embarking on the path to digital transformation, others are looking even further ahead to digital synergy—planning for a future where neither a wallet nor a phone may be necessary for purchases or ID verification. It’s futuristic, but closer than you think.

9. “When consumers say they want things like privacy and safety, what they’re really saying is that they want to trust you.”

– Cyber HITEC Session: The Digital Transformation Movement

Hospitality is one of the oldest industries in the world—and no matter how the industry evolves, it always comes back to these core values: making guests feel welcome, gaining their trust, and keeping it. Whether it’s COVID measures or data security, that value should remain front and center in every hotelier’s decision-making process.

10. There are four key elements in any successful mindset shift: necessity, disruption to sociological norms, financial incentive, and a champion to lead the transition.

– Cyber HITEC Session: Game-Changing Disruption: Shifting the Legacy Mindset

COVID has provided the need, the disruption, and the financial incentive—the industry is seeking a new equilibrium, an innovative way forward. Who will lead? What can you do? It’s a great reminder for every vendor and leader who’s in the midst of planning for 2021.

Looking to find out more about how contactless technology like mobile check-in, mobile key, and mobile dining can transform the guest experience at your property or brand?

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G2E Recap: The 3 Topics That Dominated This Year’s Virtual Conference

Read about the research, recovery strategies, and success stories woven into every conversation at Virtual G2E earlier this week.

This Tuesday and Wednesday, the Global Gaming Expo put on a virtual version of this year’s G2E conference. And yes, everything revolved around COVID—but not always in the way you might think. Overall, it perfectly demonstrated the resilience of the gaming industry: thousands of attendees gathered online, 75 exhibitors showed off everything from cleaning solutions to contactless technology, and almost 70 industry leaders shared their experiences and advice in over 40 sessions.

Everyone was eager to share their experiences and hear from others. What’s been working? How are consumers changing? As a result, a few through lines appeared in nearly every session: research insights, recovery strategies, and success stories.

The Most Impactful Research Insights

Stats were popular in every single G2E session, covering topics like contactless payments to technology choices to shifting consumer attitudes. They dominated for a good reason—casino and technology leaders are grasping at what the path forward might be for the industry. And it does seem like there’s now a glimmer of understanding about where we’re headed. Five data points in particular stood out:

1. It turns out, masks aren’t that controversial at all.

Over 50% of casino visitors say masks actively improved their experience, while around 40% say masks made no impact, and fewer than 10% say masks negatively impacted their experience.

2. Americans are gaining confidence in casino safety.

As of September, fewer than 20% of Americans believe casinos are doing a poor job of reopening safely.

3. It’s not just good marketing—mobile key really is as popular as it seems.

Before COVID, mobile key usage rates sat around 20% at most properties. Now, the average is about 40% and rising, with some properties hitting even higher rates.

4. Contactless payments are never going away. In fact, they’re just getting started.

Digital wallet transactions are up 263% from last year. Merchant adoption rates have increased by 43%. And those stats are cyclical: the more consumers use it, the more merchants adopt it and vice versa.

5. At least temporarily, gaming is once again the core revenue driver, over events and amenities.

In Vegas, visitation is down 57%, but gaming is only down 39% and the amount per night being spent at casino resorts has actually gone up. The core gamer is the one who’s returned.

The Most Proven Recovery Strategies (So Far)

With casinos in different states, under different restrictions and regulations, with vastly different customer bases, you might think there’s no use trying to piece together recovery strategies that work for everyone. But you’d be wrong! It was quite the opposite. As vendors and operators shared one after the other, it became clear very quickly that two strategies have risen above the rest to dominate the recovery.

Sanitization is everything, but simple measures mean far more to consumers than fancy solutions.

Turns out, you definitely don’t need a cleaning robot for every room. Getting the basics right is everything. While UVC lamps and electrostatic spraying robots are cool, and can be useful in the right circumstances, they don’t even crack the top five things consumers are looking for in a casino experience. Instead, it’s masks, hand sanitizer, and frequent cleaning of high-traffic areas that make guests feel safest. Before anything else, get those things locked in.

Contactless anything and everything is all the rage–and it’s here to stay.

Restaurant orders? Contactless. Room keys? Contactless. Payments? Definitely contactless. And it doesn’t stop there: contactless mobile gaming options are also seeing massive interest. Behind cleanliness, a contactless, digital future for the gaming industry is the only other thing it seems just about everyone agrees on. Casino operators interviewed all said they had either already started implementing contactless measures or were strongly considering them in the months to come.

And Finally, the Most Encouraging Success Stories

While there were stories of struggle and furloughs, optimism shone through every conversation at G2E. But none more so than Tuesday morning’s G2E keynote, Leading Through COVID-19: Real Conversations on Resilience.

During the session, Firekeepers Casino Hotel CEO Kathy George, General Manager of Hollywood Casino Toledo Justin Carter, and Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort and Hotel CEO Laura Stensgar discussed their COVID journeys and how they achieved record revenue numbers in spite of safety regulations and capacity restrictions.

Each agreed that their success is a result of critical actions like fighting for staff protection throughout shutdowns, going above and beyond safety requirements during reopening, and strictly maintaining the safety protocols they put in place. But what’s even more remarkable is where their stories diverge.
Kathy is a team-driven leader. Everything she did at Firekeepers was centered around her staff, all 1800 of them. Her motto is “Treat staff the way you want them to treat guests.” Justin has a hands-on approach and a keen sense of how to balance safety and entertainment, elevating both rather than letting either slip. Laura is fiercely loyal to her tribe. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe relies heavily on the casino for jobs and revenue that supports community programs—and her motivation to support the tribe led to the first successful reopening in the country.

The overall lesson is clear; every leader has a different skill set and every property has its own unique set of needs. Your recovery strategy should work for you and play to your strengths—that’s where casinos and casino resorts will find the most success.

Remember this: while there’s still so much no one knows—like when the pandemic will end or how consumers will be affected in the long run—there’s also a lot we do know, especially compared to March. Initial consumer research shows a clear preference for safe and contactless experiences, the industry has pivoted to adapt technology and protocols that meet those needs, and successfully reopened properties are providing invaluable models for others to follow.

Did you miss us at G2E? Our session, How a Contactless Guest Experience Fits Into Your Casino Vision, is available on demand for the rest of the week. Watch it now!

Already seen the session? Check out INTELITY SVP of Sales Ben Keller’s interview series on the state of the casino industry and what the future of gaming resorts looks like. Read part one here!

Looking to find out more about how contactless technology like mobile check-in, mobile key, and mobile dining can transform the guest experience at your casino property?

Request a Demo

Sources

    1. Kevin Bagger, Vice President of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Research Center
    2. David Forman, Senior Director of Research at the American Gaming Association
    3. Benjamin Keller, Senior Vice President of Sales at INTELITY
    4. Warren Tristam, President of Worldpay Gaming Solutions
    5. Kevin Bagger, Vice President of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Research Center