I was amazed a few days back when I saw Hilton’s newly opened Innovation Gallery – an incubator and foreshadower of future hospitality and guest experience technologies. It houses a variety of technologies and features, like the noise masking Nightingale and Meural; a customizable digital art display. A lot of products on display have been developed with partnerships between the hotel and tech like IBM, Amazon and Tesla. Doesn’t this fact alone go on to show how much the face of hospitality has changed? I’ve been harping about the use of internet and smart rooms in improving guest experience since long. It looks like that future is here now! Not only big chains, but independent hotels will also adopt these technologies in the coming years.
Let me show you how the Internet of Things (IoT) will herald a new future for hotels.
- Predictive maintenance
The days of preventive maintenance are gone! Predictive maintenance goes one step further by using sensor data to anticipate damaging trends and notify the relevant response personnel, before the matter escalates. Let me give you a real life example. Suppose a room air conditioning system isn’t working rightly. A predictive maintenance system will notify the team while the guest is away, and before the problem is recognized.
- On cloud 9
One of my friends travelled to Seychelles recently. On returning back, he couldn’t stop gushing about the extremely comfortable stay. I encouraged him to post some pictures on Instagram as well. Once the hotel property saw the overwhelming engagement, they reposted it as User Generated Content. I got in touch with them, and they told me that the traffic generated from this marketing technique, helped them to create a cloud based database which could be accessible to them anytime they wanted. Using Customer Data Management (CDM), they were able to combine as well as process all customer data. By simply resorting to this technology, they could address the clients’ needs and get their feedback quickly. And it did help them in acquiring new customers.
I myself have started using cloud for storing personal information and feel the hospitality industry will benefit greatly by utilizing their public cloud space. There is also the option of using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) which can further be used for creating one’s own virtual Private Network Connection. This should have an immense benefit to chains, by simply making all their properties and facilities available to all, thus leading to an increased footfall.
- Super personalization
There’s an increasing amount of personal information being shared over online platforms, even as I write this blog. This allows for content personalization, which is already being used in the online advertising industry. Facebook and Google offer highly targeted ads to a particular interest group based on their search history. This same data can be used to highly personalize the guest experience.
For example, Samsung’s Hospitality business partnered with Telkonet’s Ecosmart platform to create a smart room that showcased a welcome with light, temperature and shades controls, along with a welcome message with the guest’s name on the in-room TV. The scene looks like it’s out of a movie!
I’ll also make it a point to talk about the Smart Rooms platform, which allows resources to be managed from diverse services and across networks. This definitely gives a structured functionality to the hospitality industry. Their REST service, I will point out particularly is very helpful in managing client queries, registration of visitors and aiding in their operations. This is one of the most innovative ways of handling visitors and reaching out to the prospective ones. This is a resource useful for those interested in availing the services of the hospitality industry. Smart Rooms offers a P type service that can do audio visual processing, which can bring a visually enriching experience to its customers.
Want some more digital gyaan? I’ve been putting some really helpful content on my YouTube channel. Do checkout my #AskAviArya show here – https://www.youtube.com/aviarya?sub_confirmation=1