The benefits of hotel mobile apps are a hot debate throughout the industry. A sampling of those benefits includes Improved guest satisfaction, more efficient staff interactions, and better communication with guests, all of which increase a hotel’s competitive advantage. Yet, while leveraging mobile to result in increasing guest satisfaction and operational efficiency is a top priority when implementing mobile technology in hotels, increasing revenue through the use of mobile apps can also be a major part of justifying the investment. When used correctly, hotel apps can maximize revenue in order to provide significant ROI.

Mobile Booking

This is the most straightforward method to generate revenue from mobile apps. Allowing for mobile hotel room reservations is a primary source where hotels can create profit. With hotel bookings on smartphones rising, mobile reservations are a lucrative and sensible feature to enable when seeking to generate revenue through a hospitality app.

And booking room reservations don’t have to be the end of it. Hoteliers can also generate revenue by allowing for in-app booking for other hotel amenities, such as hotel spa services, golf or sports activities, restaurant reservations, in-room dining, and more.

Mobile Ads and Marketing

The benefit of guests utilizing a hotel app is that it gives hoteliers the opportunity to market directly to guests through a channel that is always on and always in the palm of a guest’s hand.

Push notifications give hoteliers an increased reach to market their services to their guests and the ability to provide consistent reminders and prompts to app users. Implementing advertisements into a hotel app is also an effective and clever way to generate revenue when done in a way that isn’t disruptive to the user experience. Hoteliers can boost revenue through pay-per-click or banner ads embedded in mobile apps.

Enabling guests to act on these prompts and mobile ads through in-app purchasing features can be very lucrative, as 76 percent of profits from apps stem from these types of purchases.

Third-Party Partnerships

Hotels can take advantage of partnering with local companies to maximize available space through a mobile app. Allowing these partners to seamlessly advertise on the hotel app interface for a fee can generate revenue for you and provide guests with information about relevant services, such as local boutiques. It’s important to select partners that enhance the existing brand image or provide significant benefit to a hotel’s most common demographic of guests, though.

As the landscape of the hospitality industry is shifting to focus more on mobile technology in response to guests who are demanding more sophisticated digital engagement during travel, developing apps that are functional on multiple levels and provide an ROI that offsets investment is growing more important as well.

For more information about how to generate revenue with a hotel app and determine the ROI of hospitality mobile technology, explore our mobile solutions or schedule a demo with a member of our team.

 

How can you create a mobile hotel app that meets all your needs?

So you’ve finally decided to take that big step. You’ve decided to proceed with developing a mobile hotel app for your hospitality brand or group in order to take advantage of the many benefits of mobile guest engagement.

The next step is determining how to ensure that you’re going to develop the best hotel app for your organization and your guests. Here are some tips to help you create the best mobile app for a hotel or hospitality business.

Choose the Right Hotel App Developer

It’s hard to stress enough how much the right partner can make a difference in the process of developing a hotel app. If there was a book titled “How to Develop a Hotel App,” this point would probably be chapter one.

Most hoteliers are not app developers and have limited knowledge of the requirements. Therefore, it’s important to surround yourself with experts who know what they’re doing, and who have hopefully gone through the steps before.

Developing a mobile app for hospitality can be entirely different than creating an app for any other industry. Find a third-party hotel app developer or build an internal team that can address your specific needs and answer your questions to give you the confidence you need that you’re creating the best hotel app possible.

Get Input from Multiple Departments

To make the best mobile hotel app, you’ve got to involve the whole team: Sales & Marketing, Hotel IT, Operations, etc. The best hotel apps serve multiple purposes for every aspect of a hospitality business. You aren’t investing money in hospitality app development to end up with something that will just sit in the app stores with your logo on it.

Set meetings to discuss the app development in advance and to gather feedback, set goals and define roles. Who will be responsible for managing what aspects of the development process? For example, who will gather all of the images necessary? Who will upload digital menu content? Who will proofread the copy?

Being extremely organized and getting all hands on deck is a major part of ensuring maximum engagement with all members of hotel management and staff.

Give Yourself Room to Grow

You’ve read all the latest hospitality technology trend headlines, and you want it all. Despite the stars in your eyes, you need to think logically about the scope of the project, your immediate needs, your timeline, and your resources. Have an honest conversation with the team developing your hotel app and get the details on these points.

Oftentimes, a lot more effort goes into certain hotel app features than you would expect. Hotel system integrations are required for specific functionality, such as hotel mobile key to allow guests to use smartphones to open hotel room doors, and these can be time-consuming because of the necessity to coordinate activity between multiple third-party hospitality technology vendors.

Also, keep in mind that your own internal team will be responsible for providing much of the content for the app because they’ll know best what the app should say and which visuals should be used. You will have to manage the entire app development process because no one knows what you want better than you do.

Make sure that even if you’re not going to launch your mobile hospitality app with every single bell and whistle you’ve fantasized about, you’ll be able to scale up as time goes on. You want an app that you can update and expand in the future as you come to learn and understand mobile technology for hotels more completely.

Think Dollar Signs

Mobile hotel apps can be a great source of additional revenue. Generating revenue through hotel technology is of great interest to most hoteliers, and it’s obvious you’d like to think you’ll be able to generate ROI from a hotel app.

But just how do you generate revenue through a hotel app?

There are numerous ways actually, and you have to decide which are best for your hospitality business.

Allowing mobile hotel reservation booking is a primary way to increase revenue with a hotel app. InterContinental Hotels reported increases in mobile room bookings of 1000 percent following the launch of the hotel brand app. Other possible tactics include:

• Direct marketing and advertising via mobile
• Allowing mobile in-room dining orders
• Enabling reservation booking at spas and restaurants

To learn more about how you can create the best mobile app for your hotel, contact us to schedule a demo with a member of our team.

Is a Mobile Hotel App or Mobile Website More Beneficial for Hotel Marketing and Guest Engagement?

One of the most crucial responsibilities for a marketing team is to invest in hotel websites and ensure that sites are mobile optimized. More recently, hotel marketers have also had to consider the importance of a hotel’s mobile app. With a set marketing budget, how is it determined where the emphasis should be in today’s digital landscape? This can be a difficult call to make with technology and user behavior both changing so fast.

The main point that resonates with marketers about creating an optimized and responsive website can be simply summarized. A website should serve as the hardest working sales and marketing employee. It works 24/7 to address the questions that prospects and clients have about a brand. This lends significant value to this channel, with potential for major return on investment.

The discussion about whether to create an app for a hotel or brand is a bit more complex. “Because guests want one” does not seem to be a compelling enough answer for such an investment. So as a marketing professional, if given a choice, why would one invest in a mobile app vs. relying solely on a mobile-optimized website?

FLEXIBILITY

One reason is for flexibility, which is essentially giving guests what they want. Guests are on their smartphones and by offering features such as mobile check-in, check-out, in-room dining orders, direct staff messaging, mobile key room entry, and more innovative mobile capabilities, the guest experience can be elevated. These also work together to increase staff efficiency and opportunity for revenue.

LOYALTY

For hospitality brands, there is also a unique opportunity to encourage hotel loyalty program member acquisition. Eleanor Powers, insight director at business intelligence firm L2, said, “Some brands are promoting features such as keyless room entry through their loyalty programs, requiring guests to become loyalty members in order to access.”

ENGAGEMENT

What appeals to both small and larger brands collectively is customer stickiness. More and more, mobile hotel apps are being used to facilitate communication and service between customers and brands, and now “[mobile users’] engagement with brands is likewise migrating to apps, with 68% of mobile users engaging with brands via apps,” per a post by Fliplet.

Having a guest engage through a brand or hotel app can extend the experience they are able to have while physically on the property, also providing a fun new opportunity for marketers and hoteliers to interact through a new direct, digital channel.

In addition, it’s been stated that “apps running reliably on devices are reported to lead to increases in productivity of between 20% and 40%, creating extra time that can be used to generate additional business and revenue. Apps are also extremely effective at handling and manipulating complex data, producing charts and reports. Mobile sites, on the other hand, are generally slower to load and harder to optimize, particularly when it comes to complex data, which can inhibit productivity and make workflows slower.”

To learn more about Intelity’s solutions for both web and mobile to improve guest satisfaction and increase hotel revenue opportunities, take a look at our suite of guest-facing solutions.

EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
This post provides insight directly from a member of our executive committee, CEO & President David Adelson.

The news about the release of my company’s new hospitality-specific in-room tablet is out, and I felt it would be appropriate to address why we felt like this move was necessary.

The iPad was released in 2010, and it was a revolutionary moment for mobile technology. Within a month of the iPad being released, we became the first to deliver these devices to hotel rooms as self-service tools to provide guests with more convenient access to information and integrated guest services. Now, six years later, my company has delivered tablet technology to guest rooms in hundreds of hotels throughout the world. We’re even now installing this technology in staterooms aboard cruise ships as well.

My company’s interest in tablets stems primarily from a desire to create amazing software solutions that enable both the guest and the hospitality operator through the use of our hospitality technology platform. Furthermore, the design of the tablets themselves are a fitting form for any guest or stateroom.

Hotel guests have an obsession with mobile technology, especially as they relate to streamlining the travel experience. Jean Philippe Bouchard, IDC’s Research Director for tablets, has said these devices continue to be popular because they are viewed as “PC replacements.” Reports show that PC sales have had the largest decline ever, and tablets with comparable performance capabilities have had an impact on that.

Somewhere in between a PC and a smartphone, tablets offer screens large enough to accommodate easy viewing, from reading to watching movies, while still being lightweight and portable.

Over the years, they’re proven to be a perfect bedside feature in hotel rooms. Luxury hospitality was the first to embrace this trend, largely due to price point. The cost of installing brand name tablets in every room was a challenge for the majority of the industry, and the technology was still new enough that it was hard to tell whether guests would take to it long term.

Neither of those statements are true anymore. Tablet costs have fallen significantly, with a variety of models now available that rival leading names in both appearance and quality. And consumers have shown genuine, ongoing interest in tablets, with nearly half of U.S. consumers reported to own one by end of 2013. Furthermore, our installed hotels are engaging their guests with over 84% average daily usage.

Placing tablets in hotel rooms makes sense.

• They can easily replace antiquated landline phones, alarm clocks-radios, and binders of paper with an all-in-one solution for a digital compendium that can be regularly updated with real-time, relevant content.
• In-room tablet technology bridges the communication gap between guest and hotel staff members in a more personal, organized way.
• It’s a step forward toward modernizing the hotel guest experience to match travelers’ at-home lifestyles.
• Most guests already carry smartphones loaded with all their personal information, so placing smartphones in the room might not make as much sense, whereas tablets are able to serve numerous functions within this setting.
• Tablets are also much more familiar and accessible to today’s guests than any of the traditional guestroom staples, like landline phones.
• They have longer life cycles than smartphones, or hotel hardware such as alarm clocks, and don’t have to be replaced every single year, thanks to software upgrades and durability of the hardware.
• In-room tablets are considered a beneficial factor for AAA Diamond ratings for hospitality.
• Tablets are already a proven in-room solution. One of our first partners, Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, reported 51,000 impressions in the first week alone and saved $12,000 on printing costs after installing tablets in guest rooms, and we generally see guest engagement for most of our hotel partners at over 84%.

It’s long been a goal of mine to make our in-room tablets available to the entire hospitality market, not just the upscale or luxury segment, and presenting this new tablet allows me to finally do so. I look forward to introducing the industry to it at this year’s HITEC in New Orleans, and I hope you’ll reach out to me and my team to get your own hands-on experience with it in the weeks to come.

—

David Adelson is president and CEO of Intelity, the leading provider of guest services technology to hotels. For more hospitality & technology news and insight, follow Intelity on Twitter,@intelity.

Our team is excited to be attending HITEC for another year, and this year the event is taking place in New Orleans, one of the most soulful cities in the U.S. In preparation for the trade show, we’ve unveiled a new hotel app, but this one is especially for hoteliers and those interested in hotel technology. Here are 3 reasons to add this app to your smartphone before you head to New Orleans on June 20.

Regular Updates on Hotel Guest Technology News

There are a ton of news updates and announcements coming out right now. This app will provide some of the highlights for your convenience, all in one location. Stay informed about our newest products and features such as Mobile Key, which you can also try out with your own smartphone in our booth by downloading this App.

Mix Business and Pleasure in New Orleans

HITEC isn’t just about demos and business meetings. It’s a great opportunity to stop by various social events, such as the annual party thrown by Samsung. We’ll announce some of the top social events so you can add them to your schedule.

You can also do a bit of sightseeing or souvenir shopping throughout New Orleans with our virtual mobile concierge suggestions on the best city attractions. Built-in maps also provide you with directions on how to get from your hotel to the Convention Center, the airport, or other locations, such as restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, we’ve partnered with a number of local restaurants to provide our App users with exclusive discounts. By showing the app at any of these partners, you’ll receive a discount on your meal.

Daily Giveaways (And Not Just Regular Tchotchkes)

We’re giving out more than just pens and flash drives in our booth this year. You could leave with a number of cool prizes, co-sponsored by our partners, Guestware and ASSA ABLOY Hospitality. We’ll be sending some lucky HITEC attendees home with a GoPro video camera, Samsung touchscreen tablet, or a cruise getaway.

Download new Hotel Tech App to register today, and you’ll get an extra entry in this drawing if you bring a business card to our booth, #1345, from June 21-23 during exhibition hours.

For more information on our app, schedule a one-on-one meeting with a member of our team to learn more about our innovative solutions to enhance your guest service and engagement.

It’s no secret that mobile technology is the way of the future. In 2009, mobile app downloads reached 2.52 billion, and that number is projected to reach 268.69 billion in 2017. With technology rapidly evolving, hoteliers need to keep up with the evolving preferences of their guests by harnessing the benefits of a hotel app and other hospitality technology to gain an advantage over the competition. A recent survey revealed a hotel app and other hotel technology factor in the booking decisions of 70 percent of travelers.

“Today’s guests expect to be able to use their smartphones to do almost everything,” said George Corbin, senior vice president of digital, Marriott International. “They’re more mobile than ever and consider technology to be a central part of their lifestyle.”

By creating a hotel app that makes information and service more easily accessible for guests, hotels are able to attract more guests and reach a larger mobile audience, which is one of the primary benefits of a hotel app. The convenience for guests of using an app can increase guest satisfaction by giving them control of their stay in the palm of their hand. Guests can access the concierge for requests or questions within seconds or book hotel services such as massages and room service right from their mobile device.

Hotel apps give hoteliers the opportunity to create a luxury experience for their guests without stretching the budget. Giving hotel guests customized services and a convenient method to interact with hotel staff results in stronger brand perception and increases the likelihood that they will choose to stay at that hotel again in the future.

“Today’s guests expect to be able to use their smartphones to do almost everything.”

These hospitality apps afford hoteliers the opportunity to strengthen the relationship with guests, which can foster the development of guest loyalty and encourage members in hotel loyalty programs through incentives available to guests who take advantage of the hotel app. As an example, some hotel brands offer exclusive features, such as mobile key room entry or mobile check-in, only to hotel loyalty program members.

Other innovative features that can be made available to guests through a mobile hotel app include such things as location-based targeted messaging or push notifications hoteliers can use to alert guests to available marketing promotions.

One example of a hotel brand app that has performed particularly well in improving the guest experience is Conrad Concierge, the official app of Conrad Hotels & Resorts. It allows guests to experience top-notch service by replacing outdated methods with an innovative and seamless process to check in and out of rooms through their hotel app. Guests can even check in on their ride from the airport to one of the brand’s global properties, allowing them to minimize their time in long lines at the front desk and get to their hotel rooms more quickly.

Mobile check-in and –out, in addition to mobile room key technology, are among the more popular aspects of a hotel app and exemplify one of the outstanding benefits of a hotel app – streamlining hotel processes and making guests happier.

The use of technology in the hospitality industry has further increased the competitiveness within the industry, and hotels that want to stand out to their guests as leaders when it comes to comfort and convenience should look to where the interests of modern guests lie. As guests have continued to express an overwhelming preference for using mobile to communicate with staff and manage travel experiences, the benefits of a hotel app continue to become more apparent.