My Smartphone, My Burger, My Hotel
September 10, 2013
More and more, I use my smartphone as a remote control for life. Via a Verizon FiOS app, my smart phone has become my TV
5 IoT Solutions That Can Enhance Your Guest Experience
Leveraging data collected from in-room and building IoT devices can be used to anticipate guest needs and provide a personalized experience.
—Justin DeRise
The Internet of Things, or IoT for short is said to be the “Third Wave of Innovation” following the Industrial Revolution and the Internet Revolution. And it’s not hard to see why. The number of smart devices continues to increase, and according to a Statista report, 42.62 billion IoT-enabled devices will be connected to the Internet by 2022 – that is 42.62 billion everyday enabled devices working together to ease our efforts by interacting with each other online.
But, IoT is not just about connecting things or services but it is about changing the way things and services deliver value. In the process, products are becoming
services, and services are becoming more intelligent. Unquestionably many industries can benefit from IoT technology and that is why more and more businesses are beginning to embrace smart technology applications, especially in the hospitality industry.
While IoT certainly hasn’t reached its full potential, by taking advantage of IoT solutions currently on the market, hotels can realize increased operational efficiency and provide a more personalized guest experience and customized stay. Here are just five such ways that IoT can enhance your guest experience.
(1)
Seamless Check-In
IoT eliminates the need for elaborate check-in and opens up new possibilities in terms of making the whole process seamless. With IoT hotels can automatically send a digital or electronic key to a guest’s mobile phone an hour before the check-in time.
This can then communicate with the door, unlocking it, and removing the need for a separate key. On initial use of the key card, the guest is automatically checked in without them ever having to stop at the front desk!
(2)
In-Room Automation
IoT has the potential to elevate the guest room experience autonomously – such as, LED lighting that can detect natural light in the room and adjusts the brightness accordingly,
sensors that track activity in the room and switch off features as appropriate and similarly, detect when the guest has returned and automatically resume all room functions to their former setting!
(3)
Voice Controlled Customer Service
Hotel companies like Best Western, Marriott and Wynn have been among the early adopters of voice-controlled customer service and this is an area that is likely to expand substantially as products like Google Home and Amazon Echo become more widely adopted within the home environment.
Providing voice enabled devices allow guests to easily set up their own wake up calls and reminders, order room service, book a morning fitness class, contact the concierge, modify room functions, and do much more without budging an inch from their hotel room!
(4)
Mobile Engagement
While IoT can elevate the guest experience autonomously, IoT can also deliver a greater degree of personalization by providing guests with the ability of managing their entire experience via a centralized device such as, their own phone. Guests that can immediately sync and exchange data with every electronic device from their phone is
the new height of convenience and efficiency. IoT can allow guests to register preferences such as temperature settings for showers and instruct the virtual assistant to turn on the water, choose a specific light level, music and even TV streaming preferences and have the devices maintain those settings automatically.
(5)
Hyper – Personalization
Leveraging data collected from in-room and building IoT devices can be used to anticipate guest needs and provide a personalized experience. For example, an IoT platform could over time provide you with insights into a guest’s specific preferences such as temperature, lighting, shading etc. Every time the guest enters their room, they receive an automated personalized greeting while the room automatically switches to the last saved preference like opening the curtains, controlling the climate, playing music, streaming TV services and so on.
Moreover, by combining smartphone capabilities with beacon technology or other sensors, IoT can be used to deliver more valuable and customized information to more guests than ever before.
Messages can be sent to guests at the point they are most relevant, based on where they are, such as events, on-site amenity offers, alerting them if their favorite table is free or possible wait times for dining, capacity information related to using specific facilities at different times of the day such as the spa, or pool.
IoT in hospitality has many exciting applications and these are only five such IoT solutions that can be used to enhance the guest experience. Presently, IoT in hospitality stands to elevate the hotel guest experience. When done right, hotels that figure out how to incorporate IoT into their establishments will achieve the next echelon of customer experience.
