Guest Feedback

November 26, 2019 by INTELITY

3 Ways Your Hotel Can Benefit from a Mobile App

Given the worldwide increase in smartphone usage, it should come as no surprise that nearly two-thirds of travelers rely on mobile apps during trips. OTAs, rideshare companies, and airlines have embraced this trend and created seamless mobile experiences for travelers. For hotels, offering a mobile app can not only meet travelers’ technology-focused expectations but can also greatly benefit the property and its staff.

Here are three ways in which your hotel, casino, or resort can benefit from offering a mobile app experience to guests:

Streamline the check-in experience

A mobile app can dramatically streamline the check-in process and reduce the amount of time spent at the front desk. Implementing mobile check-in and mobile key solutions into your app not only increases guest satisfaction, but it also reduces front desk friction and frees up time for staff to focus on providing more personalized guest service.

By putting the power of check-in (and check-out) into guests’ hands, hoteliers can manage room inventory more effectively. By allowing guests to initiate the check-in process via their mobile app before stepping foot onto your property, room assignments and availability can be better forecasted to ensure that each guest receives their selected room preference. Inventory can also be updated in real-time as customers check out using your mobile app, allowing for more timely updates compared to physically checking rooms for occupancy.

Perhaps the most immediate benefit of implementing mobile check-in is the cost savings from plastic room key reduction. Given that the life of an average key card is just 2.5 days, digitizing your keys can have a significant impact on your bottom line. Assuming that, on average, a single room uses 292 cards per year (two cards issued per day divided by the 2.5-day lifespan of a card), a single 100-room property could save upwards of $14,600 annually in key card costs alone (assuming a $0.50 cost per card).

Create new guest communication channels

Once your mobile app is downloaded, you have a direct line of communication with your target audience before, during, and after their stay. While the guest is staying at your property, they will be able to submit service requests, receive timely notifications and messages, and submit feedback in real-time. Over 60% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a staff member — a mobile app helps to meet this expectation.

When a guest is able to submit a service request (dining, housekeeping, concierge, etc.) through their mobile app rather than over the phone or in person, a more efficient operational process is enabled. Service requests can be routed directly to the relevant department through your integrated PMS, ensuring that requests are always accurate and timely. In addition, the hotel staff can initiate communication with guests by sending relevant information through the app’s push notification feature. This keeps guests informed and happy, and can create new opportunities for ancillary revenue in the form of property-specific promotions and upselling opportunities.

Enable guest feedback and service recovery

One issue plaguing the hospitality industry is a lack of real-time insight into the guest experience. A mobile app allows you to capture this critical feedback by implementing surveys upon the completion of service requests. Capturing feedback from guests before they leave your property provides opportunities for real-time customer satisfaction monitoring as well as instant service recovery by proactively resolving any potential issues.

Through your app, you can also encourage guests to leave reviews on third-party sites and OTAs by sending timely push notifications and easy-to-fill forms. Capturing your audience’s attention upon a positive service experience can both prevent bad reviews and induce positive reviews. 76% of travelers say they would be willing to pay more for a hotel with higher TripAdvisor review scores; improving your third-party reviews allows you to increase your average daily rate (ADR) without sacrificing occupancy.

To learn more about how your property can benefit from introducing a guest-facing mobile app, sign up for INTELITY’s bi-weekly newsletter or contact demos@intelity.com.

October 30, 2019 by INTELITY

Using Retail Psychology in Hospitality to Increase Revenue and Delight Your Guests

How Hoteliers Can Leverage Technology to Drive Incremental Revenue

If you’re reading this, chances are you have a calendar of upcoming events and happenings that you’re juggling. This means your staff needs easy ways to send offers and promotions directly to guests. According to a new survey published by Kelton Research and SheerID, 84% of Americans say exclusive offers make them more likely to shop, which is good news if you can deliver relevant messages to your hotel and casino guests.

This positive research indicates guests react in real-time. The same survey shows that consumers who will use an exclusive invitation will use it quickly. 41% said it would likely make them seek out something to buy, just to use the offer. Utilizing push and SMS messaging to guests with these promotions becomes a powerful way to increase revenue, whether they’re tailored to individuals or groups.

Below are some great ways you can delight guests with special offers that drive revenue.

In-Room Dining

If your property has a high-volume IRD business, you need to seamlessly connect and track the full dining loop-from order placed, to order delivered-and everything in between. Guests need to access menus where they can immediately place (or schedule) their orders. Those orders need to route directly to the kitchen. You should know precisely how long the transaction took, and the bill should land automatically on your guest folio.

Humans are visual creatures, so feature high-quality photos of your menu items; this will increase engagement and check-size (in some cases, up to 30%). Automated up-selling also guarantees your guests get a consistent experience, and you don’t miss opportunities (think: would you like some fries with that shake). You cannot replace human interaction, but let your staff focus on what matters – timely and friendly delivery.

The best approach to manage in-room dining this way is by implementing in-room tablets in your guest rooms. In addition to dining menus, tablets ensure your guests have up-to-the-minute information about hotel amenities and offerings. Guests can quickly request hotel services, communicate directly with staff, or book a spa appointment from the comfort of their room.

Retail

Do you have beautiful artwork throughout your hotel for purchase? Or, perhaps guests can take home some of the amenities they enjoyed during their stay, like spa and hair care products, or a luxurious robe and slippers set. Without technology, it can be difficult to highlight these offerings, but with the use of in-room tablets or a custom mobile app, guests can easily browse items and make selections. Integrated technology allows those exclusive offers guests love to occur seamlessly. For example, guests who dine in a certain restaurant filled with art may receive an invitation to purchase their own piece. Guests who visit the spa receive an opportunity to purchase spa products at a discount. Adding the purchase to a guests’ folio means shopping occurs with one-click. And instead of waiting a few days for delivery, a beautifully presented package can be brought in person by staff, creating an exceptional guest experience.

Reviews and Loyalty

Although providing personalized opportunities and an exceptional guest stay is paramount, generating reviews and brand loyalty should be the result. Once a guest leaves your property, it can be difficult to reach them for comments. And yet, consumers are counting on those reviews more often than not when choosing their next hotel.

Make it easy for happy guests to leave happy reviews, as soon as possible. Guests can receive a simple prompt through a hotel app, which continues to engage them and grow loyalty, and allows you to capture valuable information about their experience. The right technology empowers you to engage with guests throughout their stay so if something goes wrong, you’re able to listen and resolve the concerns, rather than wait for a nasty review to go viral. All of those actions increase the guest experience and, ultimately, loyalty.

Using retail psychology and technology in tandem to send out exclusive offers and promotions creates new opportunities for you to simultaneously drive incremental revenue and delight your guests. Find out how the INTELITY platform can help you achieve these goals by scheduling a demo today!

May 15, 2019 by INTELITY

4 Ways Hoteliers Can Use Tech to Streamline Daily Operations and Elevate Guest Experience

Providing an exceptional guest experience is paramount to any hotelier, but the modern traveler’s desire for a highly personalized digital interaction has created a challenge. Implementing a tech platform that streamlines daily operations, staff workflows, and offers expanded communication tools will lead to elevated guest service, and free up staff time so they can focus on crafting those exact experiences guests crave.

Here are four ways technology can be used to increase operational efficiency:

1. Streamline Daily Workflows

Incorporating a service optimization solution, such as a ticketing system, can go a long way in streamlining your staff’s daily activities and decreasing service delivery times. Using a ticketing system gives management and operations teams the ability to track, organize, and manage daily tasks and guest requests for more efficient management.

INTELITY’s newly enhanced ticketing system was crafted with hospitality operations teams in mind. Features like preventative maintenance, service recovery, and work order checklists give staff the ability to organize, track, and manage workflows and tasks while giving management teams a comprehensive view of all activity on property. The ticketing system also includes real-time escalations and notifications, so that service delivery times are reduced and the guest experience is elevated.

2. Access Real-Time Content Updates

Gone are the days where you have to spend countless hours reviewing and editing printing proofs only to update the content and go through the same process all over again a few months down the road. Using technology like mobile apps and in-room tablets, hoteliers can replace printed collateral and in-room compendiums with digital content hosted through those platforms.

At INTELITY, we’ve created a robust back-office solution that includes a comprehensive content management system that gives operations teams the ability to easily make real-time updates to their digital content across property.

3. Make Better Business Decisions

Hoteliers can use the data generated by their tech stack to make smarter business decisions and streamline their revenue dispersion. In-room tablets can lead to data that indicates which spa services are most popular at specific times, which in-room dining menu items are most popular during certain months, which items are requested most frequently from housekeeping, and much more. By using this type of data, management teams can gain further insight into what their guests want and how to best meet those needs.

INTELITY’s platform features robust business intelligence analytics to give hoteliers a complete view of activity across their property and provide rich insight into guest preference.

4. Personalize Your Guest Service

Today’s guests are looking for highly personalized service that is tailored to their unique preferences. Technology has made it easier to provide this type of custom service at scale. Using the data generated by guests’ reservations, stated preferences, and interactions with in-room devices, like in-room tablets and mobile apps, hoteliers can elevate their guest service and meet their guests’ expectations.

INTELITY’s back-end dashboard gives hoteliers snapshot of guests’ preferences and expectations in a single location. This unique feature provides staff with the information they need to streamline operations and craft the hyper-personalized experiences the modern traveler craves.

May 8, 2019 by INTELITY

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.

February 19, 2019 by INTELITY

How to Use Personalization to Increase Guest Loyalty

Today’s travelers want hotels to provide them with personalized experiences tailored to their preferences. This fact is extensively covered within the industry, but why should hoteliers care? Studies show that hotels that take the time to create unique experiences customized to their guests’ preferences generate increased revenue per guest and strengthen brand loyalty.

So, how do you give your guests the service and experience they expect? Use technology to engage with them before, during, and after their stay and use the data generated by these interactions to build stronger relationships with your guests.

Create a Seamless Connection

How do you ensure your guests want to come back again and again and encourage their friends to do the same? Start by giving them a way to connect seamlessly with your staff. Research shows that hotel guests who are engaged during their stay are 40 percent more likely to return and will spend up to 46 percent more per year than disengaged guests.

In-room technology like mobile guest apps and in-room tablets allow you to create this connection without being invasive and give guests control over when they interact with your staff. Give your guests the opportunity to submit service requests, order room service, or request additional housekeeping items through these digital solutions. Mobile apps and in-room tablets can also be used to promote specials at your spa, bar, or restaurant to the right audience at the right time.

At the end of a guest’s stay, invite them back, ask them for feedback on their experience, and request they review or rate your property online. Shortly after their stay, follow-up with a personalized offer or promotion that keeps your property top of mind and encourages guests to return.

Understand One Size Does Not Fit All

Just like no two hotels are the same, no two guests are the same. It is important to remember this and create experiences that are truly personal and tailored. This can be as simple as displaying a welcome message on an in-room tablet or ensuring that a guest is offered their favorite corner room.

Guests have a wide variety of options when it comes to choosing accommodations, so making personalized experiences a rule rather than an exception will set you apart from your competitors. In an industry where consumers have more choices than ever before, it is important for you to understand your guests, what they want, and how to deliver on those wants.

At INTELITY, we’ve created a complete guest engagement and staff management platform that allows you to build better relationships with your guests, gain deeper insight into what your guests want, and develop increased brand loyalty. To learn more about our platform, schedule a demo today.

A Blog by INTELITY

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