Why don’t we see a bigger uptake on digital transformation initiatives in hotels?

Imagine the possibility of saving significant time on each and every hotel check-in and being able to give that time back to your front office team to spend quality time with guests. Or, imagine having fully accurate guest data in place that you can use to personalise your guest relations, improve your CRM system and build your loyalty in real time, sounds good right?

The reality is that because of increased legal requirements, local regulations, credit card authorizations and the high cost of hotel system integrations, innovation through hotel technology has been slow, and hotel receptionists have turned into front-of-house administrators. Front office teams spend most of their time behind the computer, looking down at screens instead of up at the guest, fulfilling administrative functions such as the manual entry of data and the printing of guest folios. What if, through mobile guest services, we can remove the majority of these administrative functions and give receptionists more time to be front-of-house, welcoming guests and enhancing their travel experience? This prospect may see the transformation of hotel receptionists to guest ambassadors.

Let's look at hotel check-in and check-out processes as a prime example, which is globally recognised as one of the most critical guest satisfaction triggers, as it's the first and last impression the guest has of a hotel. Digitising check-in and check-out through a mobile application can have a significant impact on the guest experience, and that's exactly what several of our hotel partners have done, and with great impact.

As part of Atlantis The Palm Dubai's digital transformation journey, the leadership team was looking for ways to facilitate greater levels of engagement in their customer journeys across the resort. The resort deployed Neorcha's iSign solution in April last year to provide a complete paperless and digital check-in and -out to their guests.

Eighteen months on, the team has seen strong results. With the ability to save a minute on every check-in and check-out through iSign, the front office team is relieved from an array of cumbersome administrative tasks, enabling them to spend more quality time with guests. Not only does this help to enhance the arrival experience, the front office team now also has more time to personalise the guest experience through the upselling and cross selling of services and experiences at the resort, resulting in enhanced efficiency and increased profitability.

Guests at Atlantis The Palm Dubai can now enjoy a digital check-in and check-out experience which ensures a smooth and efficient arrival and departure with reduced waiting time at the front desk. At the same time, the resort has been able to make significant savings in printing costs and operate greener, by reducing the use of paper registration cards and eliminating the need for printed guest folios.

The Meydan Hotel in Dubai recognised that the rise in available digital solutions is key to delivering an enhanced guest experience, by giving their guests the option to use a mobile check-in and check-out service. Enabling guests to use technology if they prefer to do so, has the added benefit that front office teams have more time to spend with the guests hence have the opportunity to enrich the arrival and departure experience, essentially turning them into 'Super Hosts'. They Meydan Hotel, who went live with iSign in August 2018, also used the mobile app to check-in VIP guests during their limousine transfers from the airport. Other hotel partners that digitised their check-in and check-outs with iSign include Accor and Rotana, demonstrating similar benefits and impact to their operations.

However, the uptake on digital transformation initiatives like these is generally still lower than one would expect. Research shows that more than 70 percent of hotels have no mobile functionality and don't offer guests the choice of a traditional or digital check-in experience, despite the strong demand. Now is the time to overhaul legacy systems in place and to embark on the digital transformation journey.

In increasingly competitive landscape, driven by ever-changing traveller expectations, hoteliers are looking for solutions that make their operations more efficient and allow them to effectively differentiate their guest experience from the competition and this is where Neorcha offers strategic value to our partners.

About Neorcha

Neorcha is a SaaS (Software as a Service) Company providing hotels with fully integrated digital solutions with an utmost engaging customer journey. In a growing digital world our goal is to provide a complete digital guest journey, allowing hoteliers to communicate with their guests 'pre-, during- and post-stay', offer incentives through mobile, and increase loyalty and direct bookings.

By acquiring an intimate understanding of both the industry's technological challenges and the guests uncompromising demands, we created Neorcha to design solutions that answer and link the digital and physical guest service environment.

For more information, please visit https://neorcha.com/

Hauke Lenthe
Chief Commercial Officer
NEORCHA sarl