With the bleisure travel trend on the rise, hotels have an opportunity to showcase their properties in a new way.

Arguably, one of the biggest trends to come out of the pandemic has been the rise in bleisure travel. Simply defined, bleisure travel is when a traveler blends business and leisure travel by tacking on a personal trip directly before or after a work-related trip, and according to a June 2022 Forbes article, it has been gaining popularity post-pandemic. The article shared that in 2022, 89% of people planned to add personal vacation time to their business travel. And that number is believed to stay steady in 2023 as more and more people continue to work remotely.

Additionally, many leisure travelers are bringing along friends or family members, positioning hotels to reap many bleisure travel benefits — from longer stays to an increase in spending on the property. Here are five ways hotels can better accommodate and attract bleisure travelers in 2023.

Improve the #WFH (Work-From-Hotel) Experience

Guests who are staying at a property for work require plenty of in-room workspace, complimentary WiFi and a reliable, stable internet connection. A stable connection is key for bleisure travelers who need to upload or download large files or hop on a Zoom call. Hotels looking to attract bleisure travelers should consider installing reliable WiFi connections across their property, and, at the minimum, offer complimentary internet access in shared spaces.

Increase Workspaces

For the business traveler who might need additional work space outside of their in-room desk, or for those who require meeting spaces, hotels should consider converting empty or unused meeting rooms into rentable meeting spaces and/or free workspaces for bleisure travelers. Adding small conveniences in these areas, such as free coffee and complimentary WiFi, will keep guests — and their dollars — on the hotel property.

Highlight Relaxation

Thanks to bleisure travel, hotels traditionally associated with business travelers — such as those located near a business park or convention center — now have the opportunity to show off their leisure offerings to guests. From spa appointments or in-room massages to poolside drinks, hotels can showcase their best relaxation offerings so those combining both business and leisure travel can reside at one property for both portions of their trip. Plus, a property’s leisure offerings provide travel companions with something to do while the bleisure traveler is busy working.

Showcase Your Locale

Another bleisure travel benefit? Guests’ interest in experiencing the destination and their willingness to spend money on dining, entertainment and tours because their company paid for their flights. But, ease of booking is critical. By partnering with local tour and entertainment companies, hotels can offer bleisure guests and their travel companions opportunities to book local attractions all in one place. Hotel technology, such as smart-room tablets and branded hotel mobile apps, can highlight these offerings in a seamless way and allow travelers to book excursions from the comfort of their hotel rooms.

Incorporate Technology

The last thing a busy business traveler wants to do when they arrive to their hotel is stand in a long lobby line. Offering hotel technology, such as a branded mobile app with mobile check-in, check-out, and mobile key, allows the guest to bypass the front desk and head straight to their room. Also, by offering tech-minded bleisure travelers in-room technology — such as smart-room tablets — guests are able to seamlessly transition from their work laptops to their leisure smart-room tablets to order room service, adjust in-room lighting, or book spa appointments after a long day of emailing.

 

Wondering how incorporating hotel technology can offer bleisure travel benefits at your property? Request a demo today.

By making little tweaks across a property, hoteliers can improve hotel service quality

When it comes to gaining a customer’s loyalty, positive review or enthusiastic referral, a hotelier must first ensure their hotel quality standards are not only met, but exceeded every single time. When guests know they can expect the same level of service every time they visit a property, hoteliers have achieved effective hotel quality standards.

But how can a property improve hotel service quality? There are many simple ways, and a few of them start by focusing on the small details, such as addressing a customer by name. While this might be a difficult task for larger properties with a higher guest count, acknowledging a guest by name is one of the simplest ways to make them feel seen, recognized and welcome. At the bare minimum, opening doors to guests and welcoming them back to the property when they return at the end of the day are simple steps to make them feel appreciated.

Aside from small, personalized touches, fulfilling service requests in a timely manner, enacting service recovery quickly when something goes wrong, and maintaining a clean and functioning property are three additional factors that lead to satisfied guests. And all three can be easily managed by deploying a staff operations platform.

Service Requests

When a tired traveler gets to their hotel room after a long day, the last thing they want to do is wait on hold while requesting extra towels or placing a room service order. Technology such as hotel branded mobile apps and smart-room tablets allow guests to place these orders from the comfort of their rooms while getting real-time status updates on their request. A staff operations platform can easily allow staff to stay on top of all guest requests, work orders and maintenance tasks, as well as provide guests with real-time updates. Keeping all work orders and service requests in one digital solution also eliminates the likelihood of a request slipping through the cracks.

Service Recovery

When an issue arises, fast service recovery is key. By deploying a staff operations platform, a hotel can improve hotel service quality by capturing and tracking guest complaints, monitoring escalations and common guest grievances, track service recovery steps, and identify the costs and the staff members involved in the service recovery. All these features help to eliminate a similar problem in the future. Additionally, a staff operations platform helps hotel employees easily identify service “hiccups” and correct them on the spot, such as when a guest’s room service order arrives late or when a guest requests extra towels multiple nights in a row.

Preventative Maintenance

In order for hotels to achieve quality service standards, they must be operating a properly maintained property. By deploying a ticketing solution, hotel management can track preventative maintenance to ensure the facility stays in excellent working condition — significantly reducing operational costs by avoiding unexpected repairs. A staff operations platform’s ticketing solution also helps hotels schedule and track all routine maintenance and room inspections and keep a digital record of completed tasks.

 

Looking to improve hotel service quality at your property using hotel technology? Request a demo today.

A September 2022 survey by the AHLA saw 87% of hotel respondents reporting staffing shortages. Could hotel technology be the answer to the hotel staffing shortage?

Whether a boutique B&B, a multi-property chain, or a sprawling tropical resort, the industry is continuing to face a massive hotel staffing shortage post-pandemic. A survey of 200 hoteliers conducted by the American Hotels and Lodging Association (AHLA) in September 2022 saw 87% of respondents reporting experiencing a staffing shortage, with 36% labeling it “severe.” As travel reaches pre-pandemic levels, the decrease in available employees is creating a new wave of difficulties for hoteliers. So, what can hoteliers do to support operational strength with less staff? Leveraging hotel technology can make your guests feel like your property is working at full capacity without adding additional work for the staff you do have.

Let’s take a look at some issues understaffed properties are currently facing and see where technology can help.

The Front Desk Clog

Reduced staff and an influx of guests inevitably leads to a clogged front desk. This backup usually happens for one of two reasons: guests checking in or guests calling in. When it comes to cutting down on lobby lines, branded hotel mobile apps with mobile check-in and mobile key capabilities allow guests to check-in from anywhere, bypass the front desk and use a mobile key to access their rooms. This frees up front desk staff, while improving the guest experience.

Mobile apps and smart-room tablets also eliminate the amount of phone calls front desk staff have to field. Through a hotel’s mobile app, guests can place service requests and in-room dining orders and get automated updates in real-time. Additionally, pivoting to digital service requests reduces human error and helps ensure a guest’s request doesn’t fall through the cracks — all while freeing up the front desk’s phone lines so staff can focus their attention where it’s most needed. An added bonus? An efficient app process for simple service requests gives guests the feeling of full service.

Work Order Pile Ups

As trade shows, business trips and family vacations reach normal levels again, many properties are noticing a decrease in work order fulfillment efficiency. Making sure work orders are completed in a timely manner — not to mention prioritized accurately — can be extremely frustrating and difficult to achieve, especially during a hotel staffing shortage.

Investing in a digital ticketing solution helps properties with disorganized work order systems streamline their requests. Many hoteliers have found success by utilizing an internal ticketing system through their hotel app’s backend. The benefit of implementing digital ticketing is, once again, taking unnecessary steps off the staff’s plate and leaving less room for human error. Automated ticketing allows management to set work order priorities and track the status of each work order in real-time.

When Service Recovery Struggles

Bad reviews and negative word-of-mouth are the bane of a hoteliers’ existence. It’s also no surprise that efficient service recovery can be hard to come by. Efficiency can feel unattainable at times due the sheer number of things to keep track of during the process of any given service recovery task.

Implementing tech to manage and direct the flow of every individual recovery case keeps things from falling through the cracks. From following up on a complaint to delivering a bottle of wine to a guest whose food order arrived late, a digital service recovery system can help ensure any mistake or mishap is quickly followed up with proactive recovery.

 

Looking to combat hotel staffing shortages and create efficiency at your property? Request a demo today.

Here are a few ways hotel technology can help your property benefit from one of the latest pandemic-driven travel trends: trip stacking

Trip stacking is one of the latest travel trends to emerge from the pandemic, and it’s also predicted to be one of the biggest travel trends in 2023. But what exactly is it and how can your hotel profit from this growing trend? Let’s take a look.

What Is Trip Stacking?

To first understand how your property can benefit from this latest trend, we must first answer the question: What is trip stacking? One form of trip stacking comes when a traveler books two or more trips for the same vacation slot. Driven in large part by pandemic protocol exhaustion and the fear that their future vacation plans will be canceled, many travelers have been double or triple booking trips for the same dates. Usually the two trips vary in distance, with one being a riskier option — such as an international destination — and the other being a “safer” option — such as a road trip.

Another form of trip stacking comes when a traveler adds another destination or trip directly following or preceding their existing trip. A fall 2022 study by economy lodging brand Motel 6 revealed that nearly 57% of travelers planned to trip stack this winter.

How Can Your Property Profit from Trip Stacking?

Now that we’ve established the types of trip stacking, how can your property benefit? When it comes to travelers planning backup trips, reservation cancellations can abound when they decide to opt for plan B. That said, putting your hotel’s offering front-and-center can help sway customers to your property. By offering the latest technologies, such as in-room tablets and branded mobile apps, customers can vacation exactly how they want by getting what they want, when they want it.

For those trip stackers tacking on a vacation directly before or after their existing trip, swaying them to stay a little longer can be easiest when your leisure options are front-and-center. Bleisure travelers, or those travelers combining both business travel and leisure travel, are one large group of trip stackers that hotels should focus on. Properties that typically service business travelers now have the opportunity to show them their leisure offerings. Providing open workspaces and a reliable internet connection is key for the business traveler, but hotels must also highlight their leisure amenities to get guests to extend their stay at the property.

One way to do this is through hotel technology. A branded hotel mobile app allows guests looking to relax to order room service, book spa appointments and order drinks poolside, all from their mobile device. Smart-room tablets let travelers browse and order in-room dining, search for local attractions and stream their favorite television shows all from the comfort of their hotel room bed. By offering the best in both business and leisure amenities, trip stackers are sure to be drawn to a property that offers it all.

 

Want to learn more about how you can make your property stand out using hotel technology? Request a demo today.

One of the hottest hospitality trends for 2023 will be incorporating more technology in hotels. Will this be the year we see an even larger influx of hoteliers jump on the tech train?

It’s no secret the hospitality industry suffers from a systemic underinvestment in technology. Normally, hoteliers spend about 2.5% of net room revenue on technology. During the pandemic, spending on technology in hotels in the U.S. saw a significant decrease, rebounding slightly in 2021. Technology spending in Europe and APAC over the last two years has been estimated to be even worse. So, as technology is thought to be one of the top hospitality trends for 2023, will hoteliers begin investing more this year?

Hoteliers Current Challenges

There are a few key factors that will impact hoteliers’ willingness to invest in technology in hotels.

First off is the current squeeze on hotels’ profit margins. Inflation has affected hoteliers just as it has the average American. Costs for F&B ingredients and other supplies have all increased — as has the cost of labor. According to Hotel Management, wages in hospitality have risen 18% since 2019.

Additionally, severe employee shortages continued to plague the hospitality industry in 2022. Hotel Management reported a deficit of some 400,000 workers with 87% of hotels reporting shortages. While higher wages might woo some, experts believe it won’t be enough to attract and retain enough quality employees. As a result, hoteliers will have to offer employees a positive work environment that helps them succeed and feel rewarded in their job.

Lastly is the continued risk of cybersecurity. In the last three years, many of the major hotel brands, including IHG, Marriott and Hilton, have all suffered data security breaches. And it’s not just the large chains that are at risk, smaller hotels can suffer a cybersecurity breach as well.

Technology as a Solution

One of the key trends shaping hospitality in 2023 will continue to be technology. By investing in hotel technology, hoteliers can help offset some of the strain felt from the aforementioned burdens facing them in 2023.

Technology in hotels can help increase property revenue in the long run. Branded mobile apps put all of a hotel’s offerings literally right at guests’ fingertips — from promoting onsite dining options to allowing them to book spa appointments to listing all the products in a hotel’s gift shop. In-room tablets also help hotels increase onsite revenue by featuring the same offerings without guests having to download an app.

To help ease staffing shortages, mobile check-in and check-out, as well as mobile room keys help travelers skip the front desk and head right to their rooms upon arrival. This alleviates long lobby lines and helps front desk staff focus on other tasks. Mobile room keys also decrease the amount of guests stopping by the front desk asking to replace lost plastic key cards. Mobile apps and smart-room tablets both allow guests to order room service digitally, saving both the guest and staff valuable phone time. With apps and tablets, staff can focus on fulfilling and delivering orders.

By upgrading hotel technology and selecting a secure platform service provider, hoteliers can work towards preventing cybersecurity threats. Cloud-based systems feature encryption, which helps stop data exposure thanks to the military-grade encryption standards many cloud providers employ. Considering a hotel technology platform that offers data tokenization also combats against data breaches. Many platform service providers don’t store any PCI information, but instead tokenize guests’ sensitive data and send it directly to the property’s PMS.

 

Investing in technology in hotels will continue to be one of the top hospitality trends for 2023 and can help hoteliers overcome the obstacles facing them in the coming year. Looking to improve the technology at your hotel? Request a demo today.

Discover how high-tech hotels featuring the latest in digital offerings are changing the hospitality industry

As we enter 2023, today’s travelers are more dependent on technology than ever before. They book flights, order rideshare services, and board airplanes all through their mobile phones. So, why should their hotel stay be any different? An influx of high-tech hotels are popping up around the world — offering travelers a more luxurious, seamless, and personalized experience by tapping into the latest in technology.

Earlier this year, the Langham Hospitality Group launched new brand Ying’nFlo, made up of upper midscale, high-tech hotels targeting millennial and Gen Z travelers. They heavily incorporated technology into the guest experience by offering mobile apps that allow guests to check in, control in-room amenities like TV and lighting, and charge in-hotel purchases from vending machines and restaurants to their room.

Marriott’s Moxy brand also targets millennial and Gen Z travelers, and takes technology a step further by featuring AR immersive experiences at its Asia Pacific hotels.

And at Dream Hollywood in Los Angeles, a service robot named Alfred is programmed to deliver bottles of water, toothbrushes, and extra linens to guests’ rooms upon request.

So, how has technology changed the hospitality industry? Here are a few hotel technology trends we’ll see more of in 2023.

Branded Mobile Apps

There have been many hotel technology trends in recent years, including an emphasis on hotel-branded mobile apps. Like Ying’nFlo, mobile apps allow guests to interact with a property in multiple ways, on their own time. Apps let guests bypass lobby lines by checking in and checking out directly on the app, and once to their room, a mobile key allows them to access their guestroom through the app. Customers looking to order room service no longer need to peruse a paper menu or spend time on hold with reception. Instead, they can search updated menus from the palm of their hand and place orders directly through their mobile device.

Smart-Room Tablets

High-tech hotels have also adopted the use of in-room tablets — which are ideal for guests who don’t want to download a hotel-branded mobile app. These smart-room tablets allow customers to review onsite dining menus, place in-room dining orders, adjust in-room temperature controls, browse hotel offerings, book spa appointments, browse hotel compendiums, and more. Gone are the days when the bedside table was cluttered with devices like alarm clocks, clock radios, and bulky telephones. Hotels are replacing these outdated technologies with one smart-room tablet that integrates phone, alarm, streaming music, and more.

Guest Messaging

Many guests, especially millennial and Gen Z travelers, prefer texting over placing phone calls. Adopting guest messaging will let guests text message the front desk from their cell phone to request additional towels or a drink poolside, allowing staff to respond in a timely manner and again cutting down on lines at the front desk.

Service Robots

Like the Dream Hollywood hotel, service robots are being adopted in hotels around the world and can have a wide range of uses, especially for contactless services. From delivering room-service orders and fulfilling toiletry requests to greeting guests in the lobby upon arrival, robots are no longer just a figment of the future.

 

Looking to deploy some of the latest hotel technology trends at your property? Request a demo.