If I were to ask 10 hoteliers who just recently made a sizeable investment in their hotel's Wi-Fi infrastructure, "Do you think your guests are happy?" chances are high that all 10 would say "Yes." The answer to my next question, however, may be more telling . . . "Do you have any dead zones in your hotel? Any places where obtaining a cellular signal is iffy or nonexistent?"
Now that summer has officially ended, many of us begin some serious travel to industry events. Just a few weeks ago Hospitality Upgrade hosted their annual CIO Summit, which gave me the opportunity to spend some quality time with HTNG's (Hospitality Technology Next Generation) new CEO, Mike Blake. For those of you who may not recall, HFTP was one of the first supporters of HTNG when it was created in 2002 at HITEC. Mike and I have been industry friends for a long time and one of the events held at the summit was a sailing regatta competition and it just so happened we were assigned to the same team. We worked very hard as a team, but despite much effort our group was voted "most likely to sink" and came in dead last. It's a good thing our groups didn't hire us for our sailing skills!
More than two-thirds of American adults now own a smartphone, making mobile technology part of daily life for most travelers. As such, travelers now expect to see mobile technology integrated into their hotel experiences. Gone are the days when offering Wi-Fi at a hotel was enough; travelers are booking hotels, finding travel information, and controlling every detail of their trips from their smartphones and tablets.
I have been honored to work for some amazing CEO's in my career. They all had one thing in common, other than their strong leadership skills and their inspiring, visionary aptitude. They understood the need to be first and fast.
Technology is one of the most important parts in any business today, especially those that place a substantial emphasis on customer satisfaction. The hospitality industry always needs to be at the cutting edge of the technological amenities customers demand. This is especially true with the changing demographics of travelers and business needs. Here are some trends happening in 2015 that all hoteliers and hospitality professionals should be on the lookout for.
Big hotel brands have seen unprecedented growth over the past decade. Even when the global financial engines slowed down, they grew exponentially in global markets (ie, Asia, Middle East, Latin America). But unfortunately, they have forgotten what every Stan Lee fan already knows: with great power comes great responsibility. One of the leaders of the pack – Marriott – has decided to appropriate one of the most important aspects of modern human existence: Wi-Fi.
Executive Summary: Hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality industry operations are experimenting with self-service kiosks, tablet devices, and other technologies intended to augment or replace interactions between guests and front-line employees. While the combination of technology and people is designed to improve service, research suggests that service technologies can impede development of employee-guest rapport and lead to lower service evaluations. The studies presented in this report apply social equity theory to determine when (and why) technology can improve guests' satisfaction with the service process and when it diminishes the guest experience. Equity theory suggests that when the use of technology prevents guests from responding to an employee's friendly advances, guests experience psychological tension and decrease their evaluations of the service experience. The reverse situation also applies, so that when employees are less than friendly the barrier created by technology increases service evaluations by reducing guest anger. However, it is not always the case that friendly frontline staff and technology don't mix. In a follow up field experiment, guests who used a Monscierge touchscreen system located not far from a bell stand preferred interacting with the technology when a hotel employee was nearby though not directly engaging guests. Thus, frontline employees should still develop a rapport with guests, but when technology acts as an "equity barrier," the employees should provide guests with "social space," without abandoning them entirely.
There was a time when a website was viewed as nothing more than a digital brochure. Hoteliers had one goal: putting heads in beds. They approached website development with a "take it or leave it" attitude, mostly because they lacked the human resources and knowledge base to execute it. There was also the uncertainty that guests -- whomever they were and wherever they came from -- would even use it to find your hotel; after all, travel agents were being paid to drive traffic to the hotel, right? The year was 1999.
Until I subscribed to Netflix, I never gave it a lot of thought. Its share price, which has seen soaring increases since its IPO, is a hot topic amongst many investors. I, for one, sadly admit that I have no shares; although with performance at that level, I wish I had.
Data breach incidents have dominated the news in 2014, and they are only becoming more frequent and damaging. Every industry and every type of business has been a victim of cyber intruders or other types of data loss or theft. Information criminals take everything from sensitive corporate trade secrets to customer or employee personal information, including credit card account numbers, bank account codes, social security numbers, e-mail addresses and other items useful in carrying out identity theft. Security industry experts have estimated that 78% of all companies and organizations in the United States suffered some sort of data loss or theft within the past two years. The prevailing view among most analysts is that data breaches are unavoidable, and that it is not a question of if companies will become victims, but when, and how prepared they will be to react when it happens.
Early this year, news broke of a data breach at White Lodging, a company that maintains multiple popular hotel franchises including Hilton, Sheraton and Marriott. The breach, which actually took place in 2013, resulted in hundreds of cases of credit card fraud for customers who had previously stayed at White Lodging-managed hotels. As writers hurried to draft stories with the latest updates and worried customers checked their bills for unusual activity, White Lodging, along with the major hotels it manages, were tasked with locating the hack, securing their remaining data and cleaning up this PR mess. It was a costly undertaking in terms of time, resources and reputation.
My first adventure at HITEC was over thirty years ago. Since then, I haven't missed one. Each year, one technology niche stands out above the rest, even in incremental years. This year, it appeared to be the year of the mobile app.
This week Hilton Worldwide's chief executive Christopher Nassetta announced the company was doing away with room service in its New York Hilton Midtown hotel. Turns out, this is the second Hilton to end room service, following the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Apparently Nassetta thinks this is such a good idea for Hilton that at the hospitality conference hosted by New York University where he announced the change, he also called on other hotel companies to close down their room service operations too. After all, he claims, few guests use room service and it turns out not to be profitable anyway. So who needs it?
New case from the second circuit in NY... Multinational companies, like hotel companies, often face challenges in enforcing claims against their employees and agents located in foreign jurisdictions. In December 2012, a federal appeals court decision -- MacDermid, Inc. v. Deiter, No. 11-5388-cv (2nd Cir. Dec. 26, 2012) -- made enforcement a bit easier when a company goes after employees who commit cyber theft beyond U.S. borders.
What to my wondering eyes should appear, but a giant imbedded computer screen across which the concierge and I could peer. During these times of so many technology innovations, some of which can be confusing, detached and frustrating in hospitality environments, I was astounded by a whole new look and feel at the InterContinental Miami concierge desk. A smooth, uncluttered, streamlined desk with a gigantic computer screen imbedded into the table stood before me. Chef Concierge Eduardo Rosello, stepped around to my side of the desk, and stood next to me. That's when he brought out his finger…and touched the sleek desk and computer screen. He swirled his finger around a few places and absolutely delighted me with what he could do. It was personal, exciting, even intimate yet also professional and interactive. It was a completely new experience for getting information and resources from the concierge and added a whole new level of engagement for both guest and employee.
I read an interesting post today from Michelle Schumate who is a Regional Director of Operations with The Hamister Group. Michelle and Hamister"s idea about "Treating Guests As Friends In The Extended Stay Industry" helps to remind all of us who are involved in the hospitality industry that hotel guests deserve attention that goes well beyond check in, a clean and comfortable room, and a receipt upon check out. So the question becomes is technology beginning to create barriers that are isolating hoteliers from their guests?
During a two-week period in the middle of January, Las Vegas - sets aside its otherwise upstanding morals to the selling of porn. And, what's more - it's completely legal! Hundreds of thousands of people descended upon this desert oasis, which has more than a bit of a reputation for being a party town, and perhaps none more so than at this time. This high profile period also attracted thousands of the world's Press who waited patiently in breathless anticipation to unravel what's new and hopefully captures the money shot.
The No. 1 priority for hoteliers: Take care of the guest. Unfortunately, a lot of projects and decision-making duties can get in the way and push that focus aside. Rapidly advancing technology trends, for example, have career hospitality veterans scrambling to solve high-tech problems and determining how to implement cost-effective tech solutions. For some, the time has come to get back to basics—let the hotel experts figure out how to deliver a quality customer experience while the technology experts work on solving such issues as data security, network bandwidth and cloud computing.
Just because hackers have been able to get through the front door before doesn’t mean you can’t install stronger locks to keep them out in the future. Here are nine steps—some easy and cheap, some more time-consuming and costly—you can implement to strengthen your defenses.
Electronic channels have changed hotel sales and marketing forever. Internet web site marketing, the Global Distribution System, social media, and third-party aggregators have all presented new marketing opportunities for hotels around the world. In effect, the Internet has created the first affordable global marketplace for large and small hotels everywhere.