Hotel automation is having a huge impact on the hotel business. Since Covid-19 pandemic, hotels face a changing landscape and maintaining the competitiveness and productivity of the business has become a real challenge. Automation in hotels has proven to be the key to optimizing operations quickly and easily in order to improve the guest experience.
If you are thinking about implementing hotel automation but need more information on it, read on! In this post we’ll take a look at what hotel automation is, why it’s worth automating hotel operations and all the benefits it can unlock and bring to your business.
What is hotel automation?
By hotel automation, we refer to techniques that turn time-consuming manual tasks and procedures into automated processes. These processes typically involve less human intervention. Their main purpose is to save time and costs, to reduce human errors, to improve the guest experience and to increase hotel revenues. These are some of the operations that include:
- Motorization of guest access, systems such as mobile check-in or check-out that are more efficient and can be managed by guests through their smartphones.
- Automated guest messaging. You can avoid overbooking or not completing all guest requests and queries.
- Automated upsell tools can identify opportunities to promote the hotel’s best rooms, offer additional services or highlight amenities. In addition, it allows you to motorize upsells during their stay.
- Real-time guest requests for housekeeping, laundry or maintenance.
Advantages of hotel automation
Technology and hotel software are the reason for automation and it can benefit both hoteliers and their guests in so many ways, often by saving time, and money or reducing stress. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits automation can bring to your business.
Increase hotel revenues
Automation allows you to increase your return on investment (ROI) by enabling dynamic pricing, hotel upselling and cross-selling automation, reservation automation, improved customer satisfaction, automated marketing and much more. Automated revenue management systems can adjust room rates based on demand, competition and other real-time inputs, enabling hotels to maximize revenue and hotel occupancy.
Reduce the costs
Hotel guests expect to be able to manage their booking themselves at any time. This allows the front desk staff to focus on other tasks. Thanks to automated services and management systems, your hotel will not require a large team, so you can reduce staff costs. In addition, these tools can help manage repetitive tasks. In short, you can do more for your hotel with fewer resources.
Optimize your team’s efforts
Another positive effect of using automation is to empower employees’ daily tasks. When staff and managers are well aligned on what is expected from them, tasks can be completed without wasting time.
With a hotel automation system, as a hotelier, you can not only be aware of the tasks your staff must complete, but also distribute the workload in a balanced manner among your team. This way, your employees will know what you expect from them and ensure the best use of their time. In addition, using software to optimize your team’s tasks allows you to monitor their performance in real time.
Increase the operations’ efficiency
Automated hotels are really useful for optimizing a large number of daily routine processes. These include payments, task assignments, manual updates to your hotel’s inventory, etc. By implementing automation to manage these operations, your employees will have more time to focus on other important tasks, such as listening to guests and delighting them, resolving special requests or complaints, etc.
Individualized communication between guests and staff
Another advantage of using hotel automation software is that guests and staff can interact in a more efficient and direct way via an app or smartphone. Guests can make their requests using web applications at any time without visiting the front desk.
Automation in the hotel industry sends the guest’s request directly to the appropriate staff members. The future of this technology goes beyond online guest booking. Using hotel software enables you to connect in an online way your guests and their needs to the staff vía smartphones and powerful PMS integrations.
Improve the guest experience
Improving guest stays is undoubtedly one of the most exciting benefits of using automation. Guests will most definitely thank you in many ways for the implementation of automation in the hotel or resort. After a long trip, any delay in any procedure can be very frustrating. In other words, the less time they have to wait at the front desk to get into their room, the better for everyone.
Using smart applications allow guests to control the lighting, heat, TV or blinds to enhance their level of comfort. In addition, hotel software can help guests order something via room service, request an activity or resolve queries on a smart device.
In short, the more impressed your guests are, the easier it will be to have them recommend your hotel to their family and friends. This will increase your brand awareness and opportunities for the future.
The Goguest platform is a system that connects the software and hardware of your hotel or resort to digitalize all your business operations. Are you ready? Book your demo and jump-start your hotel’s digital transformation!
