The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has radically changed the state of affairs in various areas, especially in the traveling industry.
While staying in hotels, tourists are concerned about their health, safety, and comfortable living during their trip. So, all the hotels are applying different improvements to convince potential clients to choose their services.
That is why the best option for the hotels to come with – use the latest technologies. In such a way, they can attract more people and increase their safety during and after the pandemic period and significantly boost income.
Also, this method allows optimizing the business by opening up new opportunities for further development.
This article will look deeper into the technology trends in the hotel industry, discover the reasons and benefits your business can get from their applying, and learn more about the latest trends in this area in 2021.
Future Hotel Technology Trends: What to Expect?
Due to the recent changes in modern society & people’s lifestyle, travel, tourism, and hospitality industries cannot but wonder about the hotel service’s future. All the future modifications are mostly based on the following criteria:
- customer comfort level increasing
- service optimization and development
- workflow automation and improving
- the Internet of Things applying
- revenue growing
- smart marketing and reputation management
According to the research on improving the comfortability of hotel stays by Statista, 35% of respondents want their hotels to arrange contactless payment.
This hotel technology trend will increase the comfort for the hotel guests and optimize the check-in and check-out procedures and significantly improve the workflow.
One in four interviewees also expects the smart room keys in their hotels. That’s because being on vacation or business trip in an unfamiliar city, people often tend to lose some items like the room keys, or else forgetting to lock their door, etc.
However, by providing the smart room technology trend in the hotel industry, you can quickly solve this problem. For example, modern hotels are now recommending downloading the mobile app to get full access to their rooms. Additionally, you will save a significant sum of investments, as you no longer need to order the plastic cards or re-issue the keys.
These examples were demonstrated to show the hotel industry’s real need to keep up with the pace and apply new technologies to enhance their business. Nevertheless, there are many more technology trends in the hotel industry that can be useful for your business, so let’s dive in.
The Main Technology Trends in Hotel Industry Nowadays
At present, various hotels apply more and more technology ideas to reach the final consumers and encourage them to book the apartment immediately.
Some trends are common worldwide, when others may depend on the hotel’s location and targets. So, here we will look through the key points of hotel industry technology trends widely applied now.
Hotel Guest Room Technology Trends
One of the first things that make the visitors’ first impression is the room they will stay in. That is why hotels are now making their focus on improving the customer experience, accommodation, service, and facilities.
Here are the top trends, which you can consider for improving the hotel performance.
#1 Mobile Keys
Needless to say, everyone has lost their stuff at least once in their life. And when it comes to the small things like keys or cards – the numbers might get even higher.
However, you can easily get rid of that headache with the smart keys installed into the app. These keys provide comfortable access to the visitors’ rooms. They include different features like booking a restaurant, paying some extra bills, or reminding about the personal preferences to provide the perfect experience for any client.
#2 Smart Rooms
Since our world is going digital, many technologies are created to make the routine easier and comfortable. For instance, voice control, facial recognition, and mobile control can put the visitors’ personal experience to the next level and feel them stay here a little longer or come back later.
Just imagine yourself entering your room after the tiring strolling on the streets of the unfamiliar city or the working conference. Along with your command “tired,” the voice assistant will instantly prepare the relaxing bath, offer some TV series to watch, etc. Sounds great, isn’t it?
American Hotel Technology Trends
In America, the customer-centric model of business has already transformed from a trend to a necessity. Simultaneously, the hotel founders are still interested in their business optimization to make the most of it.
Here are the leading hotel technology trends in America, which are still on the top in 2021.
#3 Booking Technology Optimizing
The ability to book a room online is certainly a must for today’s hotel industry. That’s because it can not only facilitate the booking process for your potential visitors but also helps the hotel staff efficiently track and manage it.
Furthermore, online booking is a great option for visitors to learn more about accommodation and some crucial points about their future living place. For the hotel managers, this feature will help to be aware of the number & type of rooms they can offer to other visitors, which is always important.
#4 Check-in Automation
Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, most people tend to minimize contact with society for their safety. And one of the must-have things to offer is to apply the automatic check-in feature to your hotel.
For instance, this element can be installed directly to your hotel app, offering your guests to manually input the personal information. When it’s done, the data is sent to the hotel managers to complete the check-in process in their system. That will greatly reduce the risks for both clients and staff.
#5 Hotel Software System
Additionally, you can optimize the workflow by creating an app for your hotel. By applying the SaaS technologies to your business, the hotel staff can efficiently leverage such processes as booking, checking-in, and checking-out, tracking the working schedule, etc.
For the hotel owners, this can benefit while measuring the metrics of the business performance and thinking over the ways of its development.
#6 Social Media Interaction
Now people no longer want to be bothered by the hotel staff, and so far some hotels have already found the solution: send messages and notifications via social.
With this feature implied, the staff can send the immediate message to the visitors, be aware of the guests’ preferences, and save a lot of time on the service processes.
As an example, try using Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram messenger for this purpose. Such an individual approach will ultimately yield results as soon as applied.
European Hotel Technology Trends
The Hotel Technology Innovation Summit has moved even deeper into the hotel industry technology trends. So, let’s learn more about the most interesting solutions presented there.
#7 Wifi & Band Width Distribution
The hotel guests are now widely using the Internet, especially when coming to a foreign country. The Internet is needed for work or pleasure, to discover the restaurants nearby, or plan the places people want to visit during this trip. That is why the Internet connection must be stable and fast for providing the best service for the consumers.
Furthermore, if the hotel is planning to imply smart services to their managing, controlling, and service systems, the fast & efficient Internet is a must for that improvement.
#8 Blockchain Solutions
Cryptocurrency is expected to become the e-wallet system’s future since more and more millennials are making large investments in blockchain technologies.
And that’s why a lot of modern hotels developing plans include cryptocurrency as the alternative method for paying for the hotel service.
So, if you are planning to enlarge the number of visitors, who mostly prefer using cryptocurrency, you can include the blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies in your hotel payment system. This step will help your business to recommend itself as modern and forward-looking and encourage more guests to use your services.
#9 IoT Solutions & Building Automation
One of the latest trends in hotel technology is the Internet of Things application. The automated system of the apartment control can greatly boost the customer experience and leave an unforgettable impression about the hotel’s comfort level.
For this purpose, there have been so many modern gadgets invented so far. The voice assistants, automated lighting, and climate control is only the beginning.
The smart systems include the AI and ML latest technologies, analyzing the big data and personal information about the guests’ preferences to make their stay as comfortable as possible. The automated hotel systems can greatly save energy consumption as well while turning off the devices that currently are not in use.
Latest Trends in Hotel Technology for 2021
Nevertheless, there are some hotel industry technology trends you will certainly notice in 2021. The hotel virtual reality tours, chatbots, and widgets are widely applying at present.
#10 Hotel Virtual Reality Tours
The VR technology now helps the consumers to explore different hotels, discover their accommodation, and great features for getting the most relevant information about a certain place.
The highest-rated hotels widely use this feature for presenting all the benefits guests can get there. Additionally, they encourage them to book the apartments immediately.
As an example, here are the VR videos by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, which fully present the technology implementation and let the website visitors definitely consider booking this hotel.
#11 Chatbots & Widgets
Guests no longer need calling on the reception or finding some stuff on their own, as they can easily use the chatbots for this purpose. The most common preferences and requests are easily processed with the chatbots and transferred to the hotel’s appropriate department.
Furthermore, these chatbots can be automated to answer the FAQ like “the restaurants nearby” or “must-see places in this location,” etc, without any human involvement. That feature can be another advantage for boosting the customer experience.
Emerging Technology Trends in the Hotel Industry
Emerging technologies like cybersecurity, mobile check-in, and automated service by robots are also expected to be the hotel industry technology trends. They will secure the hotel management and service system and adapt it to the present state of affairs.
#12 Cybersecurity
The hotel technology system now implies various processes and services to operate and control. Also, it is more reliant on data than ever before. So, if this system isn`t protected thoroughly, anyone can easily disable it and put the entire workflow in a mess.
Cybersecurity’s main targets include the system protecting from ransomware attacks, phishing attacks, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and human error within the company.
Additionally, the cybersecurity improvement will keep the customer data secure, ensure it is backed up and recoverable, so you no longer need to worry about the process vulnerability.
#13 Hotel & Restaurant Service by Robots
One of the most impressive technologies in the hotel industry is using robots to complete various tasks traditionally performed by humans. For example, the FlyZoo hotel by Alibaba has used robots to occupy the room service staff, provide the guests with all the necessary information, clean the rooms, and automate the routine processes to the extent possible.
This practice can be essential for minimizing social contacts and making the present environment more COVID-secure.
Hotel Innovation Ideas in Future
What’re the future predictions about hotel technology trends? Well, the entire system will be changed by automation technologies, including predictive smart systems, smart recognition, AI and AR technologies, and more.
Let’s discover the main insights, which change the traditional hospitality industry services and managing.
#14 Predictive Smart System
Being aware of the major preferences of your guests, the predictive system will help to customize their place of stay: set up the alarm clock, send the notification about the breakfast or lunch service, remind them about the important tasks for today and track lots of important points of your visitor as well.
With the customized predictive system, guests no longer need to keep in mind complex tasks, reduce the stress level, and have a wonderful experience in the hotel. Additionally, it will help to convert the customer retention, which means increasing the retention as well.
#15 Smart Recognition Technology
One of the latest trends in hotel technology is smart recognition technology, which has been already applied by huge industries while identifying the company workers. In the hotel industry, you can try using this feature to replace the old-fashioned key or card system, so it becomes much easier for your guests to enter the apartment and manage any process there.
For the hotel staff, it becomes easier to manage the workflow process and track the work of every member as well as their daily attendance and punctuality in reporting for duty.
#16 Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Augmented Reality (AR)
First of all, AI and AR technologies may become the integral option of the clients’ service, as they can easily perform simple tasks and provide common information for guests. And the Hilton hotel has already proven this by introducing “Connie,” the innovative AI robot which informs guests on local tourist attractions, dining recommendations, and hotel features and amenities.
Why is Hotel Technology Becoming More Important?
Technology has already become an integral part of our society, so the various industries now must keep up with the pace, especially the hotel industry. By providing your client with exceptional service and unrivaled accommodations, furnished with all the latest technologies, you can significantly enlarge the number of guests who choose your hotel for living.
The technologies will help you optimize the worCoverkflow, improve the service level, and increase the clients’ retention and satisfaction level, and boost your business revenue.
As technologies now greatly influence every field, reliable and up-to-date custom software development for travel and hospitality will help you survive the competition, attract the attention of new customers, improve performance, and succeed. Talk to our hospitality experts today and start benefiting from the topic right away!
