Noida, Uttar Pradesh (India) – October 31, 2017 (travelindex) – Hoteliers have been putting a lot of thought into how to create that perfect ‘enchanting’ guest experience. If you are looking for guest touch-points to target as points of guest-experience optimisation, the first key guest touch-points to set your sights on are most likely to be reservations, check-in and check-out.
Let’s look at the check-in experience. The usual time that it takes for a guest to check-in is around 10-15 minutes in any standard hotel. As a hotelier, If you want to improve a guest’s experience upon check-in, that check-in window time is a great place to start.
The challenge is, how do you create a guest check-in experience that is easier and more effective, which means that it consumes less time, but also lets the guest feel like they are receiving an increased level of personalised service? Some automated rapid check-in systems may be fast, but you lose the human touch, turning it into a cold experience.
Property Management Systems are usually created to support the hotel’s overall workflow and are generally operated operated by hotel staff at hardwired terminals usually at a reception desk in the hotel. What if there was a system that could interface directly with the guest wherever they were, that made things even more efficient and added positively to the overall personal experience of the guest?
One idea that has been providing great results when it comes to an improved guest check-in experience is the ‘Cozy Lobby’. A ‘Cozy Lobby’ is where there is a personal check-in for every guest – not just club lounge guests.
We have taken Hotelogix for a test run and we have been blown away. The Hotelogix Mobile Hotel System does everything that your traditional PMS systems can do, but now puts it into the hands of any of your staff at any place in your property due to the fact that all interactions are done via the mobile app interface that’s installed on their phones.
With the Hotelogix, each staff member can have the mobile app installed on their own device. Doing it this way allows the PMS to be taken to the guest and reduces the number of hard-wired terminals needed in a property. The staff are then free to attend to guests waiting in the lobby or F&B outlets and perform the check-in right there wherever the guest is. There is no need for scanners or photocopy machines – the phone’s camera can be used to scan all the required documents straight into the system, with OCR technology enabling the system to enter most of the required guest data fields in the system straight from the scanned ID documents. With the Hotelogix app, it takes only around 3-5 minutes per check-in!
The dashboard gives all of your team members an instant glimpse of what’s going on in the property, giving them the information that they need to be able to respond thoughtfully and creatively to any of your guests special needs, and payments can be processed on the go. If guests need to change their room preference, date, or payment, it can also be done via the app.
The system improves communication between what’s going on in front office and housekeeping, with all housekeeping data being updated in real time, reducing guest waiting time even further.
The app also has real time inventory available to all of your sales team along with the room rates, which means that they can confirm corporate booking requests there and then while they’re sitting with them on a sales call rather than having to check back with the office.
The Hotelogix Mobile Hotel app enables a much faster and the personalised experience, and creates a great first-impression with guests. It also opens up new possibilities for hoteliers to utilise different spaces around the properties in ways that hadn’t originally been planned for, as well as provides flexible options for special events where check-ins need to be performed in different parts of the hotel to ensure optimum flow within the property.
