Hotel operations and maintenance technology has evolved significantly over the years. In the past, hoteliers relied on pen and paper to track guest information, room assignments, and maintenance requests. Communication between staff was often done through radios or in-person conversations. As technology advanced, hotels began to use spreadsheets and word documents to manage their operations, but these tools were limited in their capabilities and required manual data entry.

As technology continued to evolve, on-premise hotel software emerged as a solution for hotels to automate many of their operations and maintenance tasks. These software systems were designed specifically for hotels and offered more robust features than spreadsheets and word documents. However, these systems were costly to implement and required significant IT resources to maintain.

In recent years, cloud-based software solutions have become increasingly popular among hoteliers. These systems are accessed through the internet and do not require any on-premise hardware or IT resources to maintain. Cloud-based software solutions are more cost-effective than on-premise systems and can be accessed from anywhere, making it easier for hotel staff to manage operations and maintenance tasks remotely.

Do You Need Hotel Specific or General Maintenance and Operations Software?

When it comes to managing hotel operations and maintenance, hoteliers have a choice between hotel specific software and general maintenance and deskless staff operations software.  In short, Hotel specific software is designed specifically for the hotel industry and often comes with many rigid (but useful for specific) features and a high price tag. In contrast, general maintenance and deskless staff operations software is not limited to the hotel industry, has more flexible (but less specific) features and tends to be less expensive.

One of the key differences between hotel specific and general maintenance and deskless staff operations software is its flexibility. On the surface, hotel software provides stand alone modules to handle specific processes that a lot of hotels rely on. However, these features are often rigid and not designed to be customized towards specific neuances of the property. The general software solutions have less pre-built, specific modules, but more flexible tools that can be used to accomplish the same goal. This often provides additional flexibility to decide how to operationalize or measure progress to that goal.

Another difference is in the pricing model and speed to evaluation of the solution. Most Hotel Software is enterprise sales software that requires meetings and personalized pricing and implementation packages. These tend to be more expensive and slower to get working in an organization. With general maintenance and deskless staff operations software, you will find transparent pricing that gives a set cost per user or room per month. Depending on the use case, this can result in HUGE savings. Better yet, you have the ability to start a free trial and get a feel for the technology without talking to sales. This helps management quickly and confidently evaluate and implement a solution.

A final key difference between these solutions is the integration networks and capabilities. Many hotels are used to integrations between front end PMS systems and their back end operations. This helps automate tasks such as room cleanings, VIP arrivals processes and communicating rooms under maintenance. Most non-hotel specific software is unwilling to spend the precious development dollars integrating into these PMS sytems as they are not solely hotel focussed. This is a primary driver of the high price of hotel specific software. So for operations where the PMS integration is not a deal breaker, you are likely overpaying for the hotel specific software.

Understanding Your Needs and Wants to Make the Best Decision

So how do you choose?

Hoteliers need to analyze their operations and understand the difference between their needs and wants when it comes to selecting technology solutions. It is important for hoteliers to have a clear understanding of their business objectives and the specific challenges they face in order to determine which technology solutions will best support their operations.

One of the first steps hoteliers should take when analyzing their operations is to conduct a thorough assessment of their current processes. This includes identifying areas where manual processes are time-consuming and error-prone, as well as areas where data is not being effectively collected or used. By understanding the pain points in their current operations, hoteliers can identify the specific technology solutions that will help them to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The best way to answer these questions is to ask the right decision makers. Hotel managers have a direct link with all your staff. They’re a good source for collecting employee feedback and understanding the needs of the staff. In addition, C-suite executives and presidents have a broader perspective on the growing needs of the company, so it’s important to consult them as well.

Once hoteliers have a clear understanding of their needs, they can begin to evaluate the different technology solutions available to them. It is important for hoteliers to separate their wants from their needs when evaluating technology solutions. While it may be tempting to invest in the latest and greatest technology, hoteliers need to make sure that the solutions they choose are specifically tailored to their business and will provide a clear return on investment.

Implementing The Right Tech to Ensure Success

Once hoteliers have selected the appropriate technology solutions to support their operations, it is important to ensure a successful implementation. The following tips can help hoteliers to achieve this:

  1. Set clear goals: Before implementing any new technology, hoteliers should set clear goals and objectives for what they hope to achieve. This will help them to stay focused and measure the success of the implementation.
  2. Involve all stakeholders: The implementation process should involve all stakeholders, including staff, management, and IT. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the technology is being implemented in a way that is beneficial for everyone.
  3. Provide training: Training is essential for ensuring that staff is able to effectively use the new technology. Hoteliers should provide comprehensive training to all staff members and make sure that they have access to ongoing support and resources.
  4. Monitor progress: Hoteliers should monitor the progress of the implementation and make adjustments as necessary. This will help to ensure that the technology is being used effectively and that any issues are addressed in a timely manner.
  5. Continuously improve: Technology is constantly evolving, and hoteliers should be prepared to adapt and improve their operations as needed. Hoteliers should continuously evaluate their technology solutions and make adjustments as needed to ensure that they are achieving their goals and supporting their business objectives.

By following these tips, hoteliers can ensure a successful implementation of technology solutions and achieve their goals. Additionally, by setting clear goals, involving all stakeholders, providing training and monitoring progress, hoteliers can ensure continuous improvement of their technology-enabled operations.

3 Non-Hotel Specific Platforms to Evaluate

Now that we’ve seen the kind of tech that needs to be prioritized, let’s take a look at some recommendations that are helping hotels streamline operations and boost their business around the world.

1. Xenia

Xenia is one app for facilities maintenance and frontline operations that’s designed to connect managers with deskless teams, providing the tools and data tracking to ensure smooth operations. This makes it a great fit for the hospitality industry, allowing general managers to centralize maintenance tasks such as work orders, PPMs, and inspections with other operations such as housekeeping, laundry, concierge, etc. with standard procedures, chats and task management.

This helps improve accountability and productivity, while providing clear data markers of successful teams, processes and individuals.

Features

  • Teams, Locations, Assets: Customize the app to your property to attach, track and measure performance any way you choose.
  • Task & Work Orders: Assign, track and report on every action in your hotel
  • Scheduled maintenance: Set regular PPMs, inspections and audits.
  • Checklist templates: Standardize maintenance and operational tasks by building from scratch or modifying a free template.
  • Instant messaging: Eliminate radio for good with internal chats, both stand-alone and integrated into tasks for team work.

Pricing

Xenia starts as low as 10 USD per user per month ($15 when billed monthly) making it an affordable solution for small and medium-sized properties. There’s also custom pricing for bigger teams.

2. Blink

Blink's easy-to-use frontline engagement app puts enablement at its center, making it a genuinely valuable part of the frontline day. This results in the average user engaging ten times per day, helping leaders enable, engage, and understand their whole workforce, building successful, stable, and strong organizations in doing so.

Key features

  • Feeds: A personalized feed for every Frontline worker. Share updates and news directly into employee feeds, where it's easy for everyone to stay up to date. You can also measure how engaged and active these feeds are.
  • Hub: One of Blink's key features is its Hub. Hub allows employees to quickly access policies, procedures, and guides in one convenient place.
  • Secure Chat: Secure Direct and Group chats provide company-wide communication at your fingertips. The chat also has some nice little extras, such as GIFs, using emojis and "Superpowers" allowing you to celebrate with confetti.
  • Recognition: Blink makes recognition visible across your workforce and gives individuals a platform to share their stories, offer customer insights, and celebrate accomplishments.
  • Frontline Intelligence: This analytics feature provides valuable data on employee engagement, satisfaction, retention, and more. This allows you to better understand and act on the problems your workers are facing.

Pricing and plans

There are four available pricing plans, ranging from the basic Essential plan starting at £2.65 per person per month, through to the Enterprise Plus, suited for large organizations. Full details of the pricing are available on the Blink website.

3. Infraspeak

Infraspeak is an innovative Intelligent Maintenance Management Platform (IMMP) that connects assets, teams, and software in one place. This allows you to combine data from various sources, turning it into real actions that will greatly improve your maintenance and housekeeping operations. With its flexible, intelligent, integrated, and user-friendly platform, you can build a solution that fits your business perfectly and adapts as it grows.

Key Features

Infraspeak offers the following features designed for hotels:

  • Reactive maintenance: anyone in the hotel can easily report problems through the app, automatically generating work orders and notifications for the maintenance team. This allows them to react quickly and ensure everything is working optimally for guests.
  • Preventive maintenance: Infraspeak makes it easy for managers to create and manage preventive maintenance plans. Work orders are automatically distributed and you will be notified if your team is falling behind on SLAs.
  • Housekeeping: our platform allows you to manage rooms and equipment in a centralized way. You can easily view the status of each room and automate tasks based on time and status, cutting the constant back-and-forth between you, the reception, and your team.
  • Integrations: Infraspeak integrates with various PMSs, BMSs, and IoT devices to exchange information and provide more comfort for guests. It also integrates with customer support tools and chatbots (WhatsApp, Guide 121, HiJiffy), allowing guests' requests to be automatically turned into maintenance and housekeeping requests.
  • Dedicated interfaces and in-app messaging: Within teams, between teams, and even with hotel guests. Infraspeak keeps everyone connected, organized, and satisfied with free-flowing information, putting an end to needless maintenance calls.

Pricing

Infraspeak’s pricing isn’t public and varies based on client needs. A quick demo call is the first step to assess this. Schedule a quick chat with their specialists.

Conclusion

Navigating through the plethora of hotel tech apps can be overwhelming but understanding your needs is the first step to making the right buying decisions. An app that might work well for a small hotel might not be the best solution for a global chain.