Customers across industries have high expectations for service and personalization in their experience with brands they do business with. This is especially true in the hospitality industry, where the competition is strong, and keeping customer loyalty is an ongoing battle. Brands need to stand out regarding how they communicate, the service they provide, and how they respond to feedback. These expectations can generally be met through technology that can facilitate great service, give guests more flexibility in how they interact with your hotel, automate hotel tasks, and provide an overall better and more personalized experience to your guests.

Technology trends in hospitality

Internet of Things (IoT) 

Allows multiple devices to be connected through the Internet and controlled by a single, centralized source like a cell phone. Giving customers access to their rooms through digital key cards, controlling the temperature, lighting, or TV through smart technology, or ordering room and poolside service by voice or an app. Smart controls can also help in reducing your hotel’s carbon footprint and costs by automatically turning off lights and minimizing heat/air conditioning consumption when guests are not in the room.

Personalization through Data and Artificial Intelligence

Using data shared by guests or collected through behavioral data through various online channels gives hotels the opportunity to provide a personalized and enhanced experience to guests, helping to meet and exceed their expectations. Storing and analyzing guest preferences can go beyond their preference of floor or proximity to an elevator. You can learn from your guests when they tend to travel, what kind of music they like, what their favorite activities are, or the beverages they enjoy so you can be prepared to offer them tailored experiences and target messaging and promotions. Customer engagement platforms like Braze allow you to utilize this data for your campaigns easily.

Mobile Technology

Mobile technology continues to improve and grow quickly. Top trends in this area include chatbots, contactless payments, and mobile check-in and check-out. As guests require faster and more efficient service implementing these tools give guests a way to get quick answers to questions regardless of timezone or time of day and to control their ‘front desk’ experience. These services also give hotels the opportunity to learn more about their guests through short forms, linkage to loyalty programs and to provide popup offerings like a discount promotion on late checkout. A major hotel chain implemented a campaign that would upsell guests through pre-arrival and checkout offers. They found that 20% to 40% of guests chose mobile check-in and the hotel saw a 141% return on investment from the late checkout offers they pushed in the first 30 days (Hospitality Tech).

Contactless payment is a growing trend across the consumer space, especially in hospitality. While the pandemic made services like this necessary, consumers are becoming more and more aware of privacy and security concerns. Having the ability to pay through an app or through tapping makes them feel more secure in the safety of their information. 

Having a secure and reliable network infrastructure from your web based channels to your payment systems is very important. Future-proofing your networks and building up cyber security measures is important for your business and for your guests to ensure their data is protected. Making sure your employees are educated to ward off ransomware and phishing attacks as well as human error is key.

Digital marketing technology in hospitality

As noted above, customers expect a personalized experience at your hotels and this continues in how you talk to them through your marketing. Digital marketing technology is equipped to capture data and build insights that you can use to create personalized marketing campaigns that speak to where your customer is in their journey and what their needs are. Learn more about personalization in the hospitality industry. 

Paid advertising, social media, and marketing automation can improve customer engagement and enhance your brand’s overall exposure. By streamlining your digital touchpoints, the customer will have a more meaningful experience increasing their loyalty to your brand despite the crowded space and temptation of whatever’s newest or cheapest. Understanding your customers’ behavior and preferences will drive engagement and really modernize the way customers interact with your brand and how they book travel. 

If you’re looking to get started or need help in expanding how you use marketing technology, reach out, we’re here to help!