Intelity

June 14, 2019 by Benjamin Keller

Extending the Reach of Your Casino Floor to Your Guest Rooms

How to Use In-Room Tablets to Engage Guests in Their Rooms

In-room tablets can be game-changers, so to speak, for casino resorts. In addition to guests being able to use in-room tablets for all the more familiar uses—such as requesting services, making reservations, and communicating directly with staff, as they would at any hotel—casino hotels have the added advantage of a fresh, new way to promote gaming, and special events directly to guests while they are most captive.

Operators can easily use in-room tablets to send special offers, targeted promotions, and casino floor updates in real-time when their guests are most engaged. Depending on where the property is located, some guests can even use in-room technology to gamble right from their room as some casino hotels now offer sports and other types of betting through in-room tablets or a mobile app.

One way they do this is by adding popular gaming apps to the in-room tablets and information and tips on how to play some of the more popular casino floor games. At some casino hotels, guests can also use tablets to get real-time keno and bingo results in their room, as well as to see who won daily drawings and receive real-time jackpot notifications. Using in-room technology in this manner means guests don’t have to worry about missing out on the excitement of the casino floor while in their rooms.

Today’s core casino customers are generally between 55 and 75 years old and increasingly comfortable using digital devices, including in-room tablets and mobile apps, which makes adding gaming to digital devices a logical, and smart, next step. Also, once they arrive in their room and find the mobile app and in-room tablet integrated with the property’s loyalty program, they are apt to take advantage of customized and targeted promotions and other offers that encourage them to visit the casino floor.

Ultimately, casino guests are eager to spend their time gaming — not standing in lines — so a streamlined mobile check-in process means more time they can spend on the casino floor, or using the custom-branded in-room tablet for gaming while they are in their room.

INTELITY is the provider of the most robust guest engagement and staff management platform in hospitality. The platform features multiple customizable solutions designed to help operations optimize staff efficiencies, increase revenue opportunities, and further delight their guests.

A variety of casino properties, from the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas to smaller tribal casino properties, like Angel of the Winds and Black Oak Casino, now use the INTELITY platform, and 7 Cedars also plans to implement the INTELITY platform at its new hotel scheduled to open in the summer of 2020. To learn more about how you can extend the reach of your casino floor with hospitality technology, schedule a demo with INTELITY today.

INTELITY will be attending WIGA in June, email demos@intelity.com to schedule a time to experience the INTELITY platform first hand.

May 8, 2019 by Autumn Barker

4 Ways INTELITY Staff Better Engages Your Employees

In an age when travelers expect instant service and immediate access to information, hoteliers must embrace technology that streamlines staff management and automates daily workflows so they can provide the best possible experience for their guests.

Staff management and service optimization tools provide solutions to common pain points. This type of technology seamlessly connects staff and guests, streamlines operational workflows, gives management teams the ability to monitor and track task status in real time, schedules and tracks preventative maintenance, and provides a dashboard of data-rich analytics that can guide and advise better business decisions. Giving employees the ability to streamline day-to-day operations and optimize their efficiency means they’ll be able to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time providing guests with elevated service.

INTELITY has created a robust staff management solution, INTELITY Staff, that can help you better engage your staff, streamline your operations, and increase your efficiencies across property. Using technology that engages your staff, streamlines their daily workflow, and integrates seamlessly into the other software systems has endless benefits. You’ll experience lower turnover, increased staff satisfaction, and improved guest service.

Here are some of the unique benefits INTELITY Staff offers hoteliers:

Guest-to-Staff and Staff-to-Staff Communication

INTELITY’s staff-facing tools allow employees to communicate better not only amongst themselves but also with guests. When it’s easier for staff and guests to converse, there is a better understanding of what guests want and less risk of human error in fulfilling requests.

INTELITY’s staff management platform also includes built-in escalation notifications to help with service recovery and enables properties to gather real-time feedback on guest satisfaction. The platform even monitors all in-room tablets from one centralized hub, performing automated software installations and upgrades and restarting them remotely, so devices are always up-to-date without disrupting your guests’ stay.

Cross-Department Workflow Management

The INTELITY Staff ticketing solution means you’ll never have to worry about a lost service request, work order, or in-room dining request. Because INTELITY Staff features a central location where management and staff can manage, track, and dispatch task-based work, and because both desktop and mobile versions sync their data, operations teams across property have access to real-time updates and notifications.

Properties can manage work orders, service recovery, preventative maintenance, service requests, and dining orders through INTELITY Staff’s comprehensive ticketing solution, which also integrates with other leading hospitality ticketing systems.

Generating In-Room Dining Revenue

Staff can use INTELITY’s food and beverage solutions to better manage in-room dining orders, reduce the risk of human error that comes with manual order-taking, and create additional revenue generating opportunities by utilizing built-in upselling and cross-selling features. Staff can also route and track orders while providing guests with status updates, as well as track order fulfillment times and sales revenue.

Digital Content Management (CMS)

Hotels control all their own content through INTELITY Staff’s content management solution, a welcome upgrade from reviewing printing proofs and paying associated printing costs. It makes for simple control of your content and quick, easy updates. The software also lets you control services, permissions, user roles, and your image and video library.

Overall, significant data is available on usage, dining revenue, marketing, performance, and other efficiencies. This information is gathered and monitored in a customizable dashboard and helps a property deliver an exceptional guest experience and make better business decisions.

Engage Your Employees with INTELITY Staff

Implementing and establishing a successful digital culture begins with giving your employees the tools they need to succeed by training them on the technologies implemented at your property. Ensuring your employees are digitally literate and able to use the tools provided to them sets your staff and your property up for success.

To learn more about how INTELITY Staff can help engage your employees or to experience the platform for yourself, schedule a demo with a member of our team today!

April 10, 2019 by Teja Bandaru

What is Service Recovery and How Does It Impact Your Guest Experience?

Service recovery is an important part of the guest experience. Studies show that 63 percent of guests would be willing to return to a property after having a negative experience if they received a follow-up apology or correction from a member of management. While you may not meet your guests’ expectations every single time, it is important to make sure you’re taking the opportunity to recover a guest complaint. Implementing service recovery methods into your daily operations could be the difference between losing a guest and creating a loyal customer.

In the past, guest feedback would often be shared via word of mouth or through written documents and be dependent on staff to relay information about service complaints. Today, technology can be used to capture and track guest feedback and escalate complaints to the appropriate management team for quick service recovery opportunities.

INTELITY Staff offers a service recovery feature, Glitch Intel, to capture and track service issues, guest complaints, or any type of negative feedback issued by the guest in real time, and has a built-in escalation feature that directs feedback to the appropriate management teams.

Glitch Intel allows any staff member to input various kinds of information on INTELITY Staff, including:

The original guest complaint
Staff members involved
Most common guest complaints and service issues
Who the complaint was escalated to
Steps taken to recover the service
The total cost of service recovery

Using this service recovery feature, hotels are able to track, monitor, and organize all guest complaints and service issues, and ensure that they are responding to and addressing guest feedback in a timely manner. Management teams can also use Glitch Intel to generate reports that can be used for further review and analysis.

Another key benefit of INTELITY’s service recovery is the customization available within the feature. We know that no two hotels are the same and each hotel’s operations differ, so we’ve made each field within the Glitch Intel feature customizable to the specific workflow of your hotel.

Are you ready to enhance your guest service and improve your guests’ experience? Contact us today to learn more about the broadest guest engagement and staff management platform.

January 1, 2019 by intelity

INTELITY Founder David Adelson Reflects on the First 10 Years

What I’ve Learned So Far and What’s Important Moving Forward as the New INTELITY

Looking back on INTELITY’s first 10 years, I think about how much I’ve learned as its founder and first CEO for the past 10 years. I’m truly excited about what is yet to come in these next 10 years, now that we have merged with KEYPR and have developed into an even stronger brand with a more complete, integrated hospitality technology platform. Building this business from the ground up wasn’t always easy, but it has absolutely been the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my professional life.

Here are some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about leading and growing a SaaS company in the hospitality industry.

1. It’s about the people

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all. – Michael LeBoeuf

Before I started INTELITY, I worked as a hotelier, which is where I learned that guests are truly the foundation of this business. It was true in the hotel business, and it’s still true now at INTELITY. We deliver what hoteliers need, but most importantly, we deliver what their hotel guests want. Putting guests first is our recipe for success.

2. Customer success is everyone’s job

The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place.” – Orison Swett Marden

Sales, implementations, engineering, and marketing can be functions that only the specific teams responsible for them worry about. But customer success needs to be something that everyone on the team internalizes. One thing I’ve learned along the way is that the best measure of success is when a customer or brand hires us again. We can deliver 110 percent of what a hotel needs, but if they aren’t delighted with the experience and willing to hire us again, then we’ve missed the mark.

3. Selling SaaS for hotels is fulfilling

Choose a job that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. – Confucius

When hotels purchase INTELITY, they buy a solution to a problem that is often very painful. Checking in with hoteliers who are using INTELITY and realizing that they’re either more efficient now or making more money as a direct result of using our tool is incredibly rewarding.

4. Remain Agile

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. – Everett Dirksen

Being flexible in mind, in practice, and in structure has served us well. Technology changes so rapidly. The INTELITY platform was first designed as a web experience, and then for touch screen, then mobile, and now voice. If you don’t change, you get left behind.

5. Discovery never ends

Our business is about technology, yes. But it’s also about operations and customer relationships. – Michael Dell

When a deal closes or implementation ends, don’t convince yourself that discovery is over. It’s crucial that your discovery never ends because customers will keep having new problems. Use current customers to help inform your roadmap, and make sure your tools are matching their pace of innovation.

6. It takes more than tech to build a terrific tech company

Tech is all about building human connections. – Padmasree Warrior

You need more than tech to build a genuinely successful tech company. Customers care much more about the problems your product can solve than the elegant design or ingenious implementation of your solution.

7. Celebrate the wins and understand the losses

It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. – Bill Gates

One of my favorite INTELITY traditions is ringing the bell every time a hotel goes live with our platform. Celebrating every hotel and every achievement along the way is important. And it’s just as important to understand the losses. Both the “what” and the “why” are important and what’s most crucial is reacting to those and learning to win again.

8. Maintain your integrity and vision

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. – Jack Welch

I believe that integrity and vision are among the most significant roles of the executive team. It’s so important to be able to communicate the company’s vision and reinforce it by every means possible. And when you lead with integrity, you inspire your employees to engage with the same values.

9. Don’t be the smartest person in the room—be the strongest collaborator, connector, and communicator

I think it’s important for people to stay human and remember that genuine human connection is more fulfilling than anything that technology has to offer. – Jon Batiste

Nobody does it alone. It takes a lot of people working together, so be the one helping those people function at their best.

10. It always takes longer than you expect

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. – Leo Tolstoy

It takes time to educate the market as to why your company and product matter. Over the past 10 years, INTELITY has created and delivered only to need to recreate and then deliver again. That’s the way it works. Success is never accidental—you earn it over time through excellence and hard work.

The past 10 years with INTELITY have been a great journey and I look forward to seeing where the next 10 years take the company. Our merger with KEYPR has created new opportunities for the company, opening the door for us to expand into the casino, cruise, luxury residential, and other emerging markets. As we move into this new chapter, I look forward to the company’s continued growth and development and am excited to see where the future will take us.

May 3, 2016 by intelity

Hotelier Survey: Why Choose Intelity for Hotel Technology?

Adoption of hotel technology is the talk of the industry. About 54 percent of hoteliers plan to increase hotel technology budgets this year, and 19 percent plan to invest at least 9 percent or more of revenue on hotel IT needs. However, many in the industry express concern or frustration with the demands of expanded technological needs. A recent survey of hoteliers revealed the following hospitality technology challenges:

Keeping pace with guest expectations: 43%
Shortage of internal IT talent: 31%
Not finding technology sufficient to meet needs: 19%

Our company is the leading hotel app developer and provider of sophisticated software to the hospitality industry. With leadership that has experience in both hotel and IT management, we’re able to understand the unique needs of this industry to deliver results that matter. It’s no wonder Intelity is trusted by more hotel brands and individual properties around the world than any other company in this space.

“Intelity is the leader in bridging the gap between technology and hospitality.”

Our company is the leading hotel app developer and provider of sophisticated software to the hospitality industry. With leadership that has experience in both hotel and IT management, we’re able to understand the unique needs of this industry to deliver results that matter. It’s no wonder INTELITY is trusted by more hotel brands and individual properties around the world than any other company in this space.

So just why are we the leading name in hotel guest engagement technology? Here are comments from a hotelier survey of our clients on why they chose to partner with INTELITY for their hotel guest technology needs.

Couples Resorts Director of Operations Abe Issa: “We selected Intelity based on the company’s incredible proven record for developing solutions that deliver results. We were impressed by their reputation and portfolio of clients, and after our discussions with them, we realized they had the ability to meet all of the desired functionality we needed as well.”

Stephen Johnston, Boston Harbor Hotel Managing Director and General Manager: “We tested different guest service technology, but we opted for Intelity’s solutions because of the capabilities beyond the basic features. Our hotel needed a partner that offers integrations with our other systems. We’re also excited at the prospect of removing the majority of paper from our rooms.”

Dream Hollywood General Manager Ayo Akinsete: “It’s an incredible way to elevate engagement and improve brand perception. We’ve selected Intelity for this partnership because they’re the leaders in bridging the gap between technology and hospitality.”

Playa Largo Resort & Spa General Manager Shakir Hussain: “Intelity was the only company we considered as a partner for this project. Based on their level of expertise, we knew they would be able to meet all our needs for providing a high-quality in-room guest experience.”

Edie Rodriguez, Crystal Cruises President and CEO: “A key component to my vision for Crystal to continue as a leader in redefining luxury is to embrace technology and allow it to help streamline our guests’ experience. Not only does the Intelity platform make a significant step in this direction, but it also helps us reduce our paper consumption and inform our guests in a more efficient way.”

March 18, 2016 by intelity

Hotel System Integration and the Future of Guest Data

Hospitality technology will only succeed when it comes to providing insightful guest data through hotel system integration.

It’s become commonplace for there to be several different hotel systems by various hotel technology vendors and software developers running at a single property. Such a reality means that many hotels have a fragmented back-end environment that can be overwhelming and frustrating. It also allows potentially useful data to be lost or overlooked rather than leveraged with a single view capability. The solution is prioritization of hotel system integration.

Todd Hotaling, Vice President of Revenue and Marketing at Lodging Hospitality Management, said, “Looking ahead, I think the major issue will be obtaining key guest information and having the ability to dissect and present it. Since various systems are used in the total process of booking a reservation, some key data such as time of reservation, sub-channels, and event guest preferences can fall off once it gets into a PMS.”

A hospitality industry vice president of revenue strategy and distribution was quoted in a recent report as saying, “Our systems very much hinder our efforts today to provide a personalized experience. We have a hard time welcoming a guest back. We can sometimes identify someone who has been to the same property again, but because of the separate property management systems, it’s hard to identify guests across properties.”

Developments in hotel technology are making it more of a reality for the hospitality industry to benefit from a collection of operational and guest data, but this depends on the ability of enterprise software providers to enable hotel system integration across the board.

“Our systems very much hinder our efforts today to provide a personalized experience.”

Benefits of system integration go beyond improved transfer of guest data, too.

Having information automatically communicated between systems means it won’t have to be done manually by hotel staff, which increases efficiency and reduces possible errors. Hotel management can also reduce a number of paper tickets that need to be kept track of and updated by storing information electronically. Improvements can also be made the

The hotel Property Management System (PMS) is a key component of hotel system integration. An interface between the hotel PMS and other systems is critical because it allows for verification of guest identity, status, and room number.

Another key hotel system integration is with the Point-of-Sale (POS) system. It results in a more streamlined SOP when it comes to charging guests for onsite purchases and updating the guest folio. Few things are more annoying to a guest than incorrect charges to their folio, and automating the process of keeping track of this information can result in increased accuracy.

Guest relationship management software has been identified as the third most commonly used hotel management system and, as such, should also be considered during the hotel system integration conversation. The fact that this software is guest-facing and is used by guests to input such large and varied amounts of information makes it necessary that this type of system be connected with all others to amplify benefits of collecting guest service, satisfaction and engagement data.

Still, there are a number of issues that still stand between the hospitality industry and total hotel system integration:

Security
Differences between legacy and modern version of systems
Lack of unified standards between systems
Integration between Cloud-based and on-premises systems
Insufficient hotel information technology support staff

Douglas C. Rice, Founder and CEO Emeritus of Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), said, “Systems also need to expose data and core processes through easily accessible Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The days of systems that insist on initiating a particular process only through its own user interfaces are history. A PMS needs to be able to check-in a guest, but it also needs to expose that check-in process to mobile apps, kiosks, websites, and other systems.”

Hotel system integration should be part of the discussion between hoteliers and hotel technology providers before implementation. Integration can often be a complex topic and ensuring that a selected technology vendor understands the significance of seamless communication between all property systems can improve the overall experience.

Mark Pate, Assistant Controller and IT Director at Highpointe Hotel Corporation, said, “We’re dedicating more time and resources to complete [system integration] projects. It is very easy to hit a hurdle, get off track and then never finish the initial plan. We partner with vendors that specialize in system integration.”

Rice also added that mobile is changing the nature of hotel system integration by “forcing a decoupling of business logic from the user interface.”

“The nature of integration changes dramatically when consumers start accessing your system through a [hotel] mobile app that might do a hundred other things that you don’t do,” Rice said.

Intelity offers more integrations between guest service technology, both on mobile and in-room devices, and other hotel systems than any other company in the world. For more information about how guest service and engagement technology can integrate with other hotel systems to enhance hotel guest data strategy, visit our website.

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