The hospitality industry is where customer experiences count the most. Finding new and innovative ways to enhance the guest experience is a foundational pillar for the growth of the hospitality industry.
Hotels of all sizes are enhancing their product offerings to ensure that they capture a share of increased reservations. They achieve so by shifting their focus on ROE (Return on Experience). Hoteliers take the advantage of technological advancement using hotel management software to increase guest’s loyalty & experience.
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Here are a few ways hoteliers can increase their customer experience using software technology.
Hoteliers can enhance customer experience even before they arrive. You should not wait until a customer reaches out to you. Just grab the opportunity from the time customer makes room bookings or engages with you on any other network.
Let’s find out how this kind of software can bring customer experience to the table:
Using mobile technology, guests can book their stay, browse rates and rooms in a few easy steps. This has opened the doors for hoteliers to get connected with travelers via phones & tablets.
GDS, IDS & OTA:
According to the reports by economic times in 2013, “Online room bookings are growing almost 100% year on year”. Nowadays, a large part of bookings is made via the online environment. This has been made possible using GDS (Global Distribution Services), IDS (Internet Distribution Services) & OTA (Online Travel Agencies) technology of inventory distribution. This system helps to optimize the hotel’s visibility and get more bookings.
Send Pre-Arrival Emails:
Pre Arrival emails are the first touch point between hotelier and guests. It enables hoteliers to make an in-depth relationship with guests through; a thank you message, social links, beautiful image of hotels, success stories etc. It provides an opportunity to cultivate a long-term relationship with the guests.
On Arrival Experience
Every guest would prefer faster & error free check-in to quickly enter their room. A hotel management software automates & streamline front desk as well as back office responsibilities. Routine tasks like reservation tracking and check-in are made easy and fast which keeps guests happy with its quick service.
Comprehensive reporting is a key feature of web-based hotel management software. With an effortlessly available suite of reports, including housekeeping, reservations team members can stay organized and enormously reduce space for mistakes. This would drastically affect the visitor’s experience.
Property management System (PMS) encourages a complete solution to minimize organization errors and time consumptions. It also eliminates duplication of data entry processes between departments. PMS stores all key information, expected to run the property, right from room inhabitance to room rates, to visitor demographics and other tasks.
Improving customer engagement with technology is really changing the dimension of the hotel industry.
The error-less functioning of the hotel helps in increasing customer satisfaction. Today. a never-ending stream of new technologies is empowering hoteliers, to innovatively enhance the guest experience.
- GoBoards is a technology with large interactive screens in the lobby that enables guests to find a meeting room in the hotel, restaurants in the neighborhood or events at a nearby venue and print out directions.
- Interactive customer experience adds an amenity that covers the entire guest experience. It can be used to program wake up calls, order room service, order car valet parking or check the bill before the guest checks out.
- When guests spend their hard-earned income, they desire to receive the value in return. Hotel operators can leverage this sentiment by offering their guests special room packages, that not only increase the value of their reservation, but also drive greater profits to the bottom line. Special offers can range from; gift cards to discounted or complimentary services. With Property Management System, these special packages can be seamlessly incorporated into daily rate offerings for easy selection by value-conscious travelers.
Enhancing the guest experience requires both flexibility and creativity from hoteliers. The cloud-based hotel management software provides operators with a full complement of tools which ensure that guest needs are met online and on-property.
Effortless and Fast Check-Out
Let the guest know how considerate you are by saving their time during checkout.
Simple billing is a key attribute of an online hotel management software property manager. Front desk agents access and edit bills accurately and ensure the proper fees are included before handing the final to the guest.
Integrating payment gateway helps in providing easiness in payment functions. PMS also helps in gathering information for loyalty programs to attract guests to visit again.
Acting on Customer Feedback
Last, but not the least, hoteliers should act on the feedback provided by the guest after their checkout and should make changes accordingly. Everyone knows the importance of customer feedback. Technologies like speech, text analytics as well as customer surveys are often used for gathering customer opinions. Hoteliers can also make use of other mobile apps for getting quick feedback or review of their potential guests. You can also view what are the emerging trends in the hospitality industry.