Hospitality Technology is now second nature

Technology is no longer a luxury but a necessity in today’s changing hospitality landscape. Computing data is now more important than ever because of the weight of the data that flows for any given process, during any point of time. Hotels process a lot of data, on any given day- be it independent hotels or chains. From the number of reservations that take place to the requests raised by guests, to stocking up on inventory, the list is endless.

The advantage of mining this data is simple. To read patterns and behaviours in a particular time frame and offer predictions to optimise the way a particular process needs to be run. The misconception, though, is that data mining isn’t something that’s of importance to medium to smaller properties. It is true that the larger chain hotels use data to predict fluctuations in the inflow of reservations and the outflow of materials to optimise allocation and purchase simultaneously. You could say it’s a more statistical approach towards increasing revenue.

But that’s not all on how technology helps. New-age hoteliers are focusing on more than just predictive insights to run their hotels. Operational efficiency is also a concern as the man-hours saved and the optimum use of manpower also contribute to how profitable your hotel can be. Stepping away from the revenue earning streams, branding and advertising standpoints for hotels also contribute a lot to its success. Technology is also working in areas of increasing online reputation, guest experience and also the centralised access to data which helps in decision making.

In an attempt to plot out the view of hoteliers on technology and its use in their hotels, here is a quick survey that will help us get a better understanding of how technology is playing a role in your daily hotel operations. The results of the survey will be shared with you soon after we have compiled this data. Here is a link to the survey.

This article was originally published on HotelNewsResource

Different Stages of Customer Journey and How Hotels Should Market?

The significance of a customer’s journey has, in a way, been diluted in today’s digital age. With the landscape diversifying and the consumers inquisitiveness at its peak, searching for the most beneficial option out of the now more numerous options, boils down to a matter of preference.

Take the hotel industry for example. On the one hand, we have the OTAs which burst into existence for the purpose of having a directory of hotels for customers to sift through and make a well thought out decision. On the other hand, we have hotels pulling in guests from sources like corporate bookings and tour agencies apart from the occasional walk-ins. With the scales tipping in favour of the OTAs more than direct bookings from the hotels, the analysis clearly points out a change in the customer journey.

Let me break it up for you and take a look at the stages a customer goes through before making a purchase decision. Following this journey will surely give you some insights into how you can work towards tipping the scales in your favour instead of losing out to the OTAs.

1. The Awareness stage – I need a Holiday:

Most often what triggers the average consumer is the social realm. Seeing a friend holidaying in Spain or an acquaintance from work visiting Paris. It could also be a weekend getaway. Think about it, the first thing that comes to mind when you’re browsing through your social feeds and you come across something like this. You picture yourself on a vacation, breaking away from routine life. Here are some stats that will cement this statement:

1. 52% of people reported that the inspiration to travel comes from a friend/acquaintances FB photo
2. Booking coming from offline travel agents
3. 52% of people reported that the inspiration to travel comes from a friend/acquaintances FB photo

This is most often the stage where a consumer decides his/her travel destination.

2. The Research Stage – I’m definitely going on Holiday:

So once the bug has bitten, and a holiday is on the calendars, we see the research phase commencing. Most often than not, peer-recommendations play an important role in influencing the decision. Reviews, social media images and prices are all a part of this extensive checklist. A study found that exposure to user generated content has had increased conversion rates for hotels. This is the stage where OTAs tend to provide an edge to the customers and hotels lose out on chances of a direct booking. Having a directory of Hotels simultaneously with the reviews of several travellers and an option to book as you browse is definitely a win-win for a traveler.

1. 77% of people read reviews before choosing a hotel
   
2. 53% of them will not book a hotel without reviews
   
3. 50% say that reviews have the greatest influence on their bookings
4. 125% higher conversion rates have been recorded due to customer reviews

3. The book and stay stage – I’m on vacation:

This is the most anticipated stage for the both the traveller and the hotel. Having travelled through the whole screening process your guest is finally at the Hotel and this is where a lasting impression goes a long way. This stage is crucial as it could determine how active your guest will be at uploading photos and boasting about their vacation. It could also determine how vocal your guest will be about his holiday, be it is singing your praises or complaining about a disappointing experience. As a hotel owner, this is the stage where you’d probably want to engage them with a loyalty program or turn them into one of those peers, who will act as a brand ambassador as long as the experience is fresh in the head.

4. The Post-stay stage – I should probably tell people:

The Holiday is done and your guest is back home. The vacation is fresh in their head and the time is right to sneak in that review form. This usually counts as a follow up stage that has become crucial in today’s time. Who knows, those few words of appreciation and an experience to remember might be what tips the scale in your favour for the future.

These 4 stages are the most prominent stages in a travellers hunt for a hotel. Throw in the OTAs and hotels competing for the rights of attracting a guest and we have a field that’s plagued by mist. Rightly called as the Direct Booking Bermuda Triangle by Kristian Valk the co-founder of Hotelchamp.

If this piques your interest, and you would like to dive deeper into the intricacies of where your customers are getting lost in this journey, keep an eye out for ITB Asia 2018. Kristian Valk will be speaking about ‘Why your guests are lost in the customer Journey’. Stay tuned to our social media handles for a deeper understanding about this intriguing topic.

This article was originally published on Hotelogix Blog.

5 Important PMS Features Help Hotels To Delight Corporate Travelers

The hospitality industry is heavily season-dependent and there is only so much one can do that will change this. This makes corporate travelers even more attractive to hotels as they can bring you business round the year. This being the case, how can hotels increase corporate bookings?What are some of the definite ways to appeal to the corporates and win them over?

You might be tempted to think about how a hotel can tailor-create an experience for corporates that will get the job done. And you aren’t wrong. Corporate travelers are almost always on a tight schedule, possibly hopping in and out of meetings. Making their stay a pleasant and convenient one, of course, make a difference. But in today’s world, offering free Wi-Fi, a workstation, etc in the room is basic! Even the smallest of hotels offer free Wi-Fi and a desk and a chair. If your goal is to create a lifetime customer out of corporates, then basic will not cut it. You need to address a problem that is deeper than that.

You need to fix pre-arrival and post-departure issues, as well. And this is only possible with the right cloud-based Property Management System in place.

Let’s consider a corporate’s typical journey with a hotel on a timeline. When there is the need for Mr. A to visit Singapore on a work-related trip, the facilities team gets cracking on planning the trip. Air tickets, hotel stays, logistics, etc need to be sorted. Typically, the facilities manager would email a hotel asking them about availability, requesting them to reserve a room for the specified dates, negotiate a price, etc. And this would take a few email exchanges before the final reservation is made. These exchanges could range anywhere between a day to a week. And this is certainly not the most efficient way of going about things.

Here’s how a right Hotel PMS will make everyone’s life easier.

1. Corporate login:

With a PMS like Hotelogix in place, you can assign separate and unique login credentials to your corporate clients. Like, a corporate booking console for hotels. This login gives them access to real-time inventory of your hotel, from where they can themselves select rooms, dates and make a reservation for their employees. A confirmation email gets sent automatically to the registered email id. Reservation is so much more simplified this way. This arrangement works perfectly for the hotel as well as the corporates, since there is no dependency on emails. No more waiting, no more fear of losing out on a booking due to negligence, etc.

2. Corporate Profile:

Hotelogix PMS allows corporates to create their own corporate profile or (contractor trait). This profile will contain all details of the arrangement that the corporate has with the hotel. This includes discounting details, billing details, billing address, payment details, etc. Every time you get a corporate traveler, the front desk staff just needs to key in the name of the corporate and voila! All the details relating to the billing get auto-filled.

3. Guest History

Apart from company profile, there is also the feature of guest history which immensely simplifies the check-in process. Once the company profile is selected, the front desk staff will then have to quiz the corporate traveler by name, the type of id they are carrying and other details which again can get very tiresome. With the guest profile feature, if the corporate traveler is a return guest, this data gets picked automatically upon typing out the guest’s name. As simple as that.

4. Billing

Often, corporate travelers are in a hurry. Minimizing formality and doing away with unnecessary processes can go a long way in improving their experience. Checkout is one such process which needn’t always be as hectic. With Hotelogix in place, a corporate traveler can just present his corporate id at the front desk to check out. The invoice can get emailed to the company directly, automatically. ‘Billed to Company’ if you will.

5. Allocated inventory:

Apart from all these features which are from the traveler or the corporate’s perspective, here is one other PMS feature that helps hotels. While the option of allocating a certain amount of your inventory to your corporates is handy, the hotel still has the convenience to entertain walk-ins with the rest of their available rooms. This way, not only does the hotel serve the corporates but also has scope for other bookings. This is important because one needs to diversify the sources of bookings for maximum occupancy.

Hotelogix is an extremely well-thought out cloud PMS which not only takes into account short-term requirements of the hotel, but also the long-term ones. Loyalty is not going to happen overnight. It comes after repeated positive experiences and the only way to do it is to put yourself in your guest’s shoes. With a PMS like Hotelogix in place, you set the tone right with corporates, communicating to them that you care about simplifying their experience- be it booking, check-in, stay or check-out.

This article originally published on Hotelogix Blog.

Top 4 Challenges in Hotel Digital Marketing Faced By Independent Hotel Owners

Independent hotel owners have a huge set of responsibilities to manage their hotel on a daily basis. Additionally, the increasing levels of competition only add to the worries. There are enormous challenges pertaining to an independent hotel’s digital marketing plan. Reason – travelers are getting tech-savvy and sometimes, hoteliers lack the urgency to adopt technology. Marketing your hotel rooms online is more than merely updating on OTA sites. To promote a hotel online, you require a combination of skills, strategies and of course, the right use of smart technologies.

Here are 4 challenges in hotel marketing faced by most independent hotel owners.

Making the move towards a cloud-based property management system will resolve all the challenges in hotel marketing. It’s easy to bring down costs, reduce dependency on manpower, sell rooms faster and do much more with a hotel PMS.

This article originally published on Hotelogix Blog.

How Can Hotelogix Make You a Better Hotelier – Experience The Power Of Hotelogix Cloud Hotel PMS

The dawn of the 80’s saw the rise of videos and the slow demise of the radio, which led to one of the greatest hits of that era, “Video killed the radio star”, by the Buggles. The song doesn’t welcome the change that motion pictures brought into the entertainment industry and is, in a sense, a sort of farewell to the radio, that was present in every home at the time. However, the takeaway from this is that some 30 years later, today, video has become the most popular medium of entertainment and information.

A decade ago, Hotelogix set out on mission to revamp the way the hospitality industry used technology. Hotelogix was born on the cloud as a purpose-built system, aimed at assisting hoteliers conquer this ever-changing hospitality landscape. As we’ve seen over the last decade, the rivalry that was created between the on-premise systems and Hotelogix cloud has been a major topic of discussion. Most frequently, the debate ends in a deadlock which translates to a difference in opinion and a matter of an individual’s perception.

To avoid falling into this monotonous tone of comparison and barely doing justice to the article, I’ll attempt to illustrate the real power of Hotelogix.

What sets Hotelogix apart from other PMS systems is the seamless flow of data. Cloud enables collecting data from multiple sources in real-time, giving you the ability to analyse this data in the moment. Let me start by showcasing the power of a cloud system and then tie it to how Hotelogix shows its strength.

Speed boat racing, as a sport, takes place simultaneously in several different geographic locations and involves broadcasting data to the team, with a video feed for the spectators. Add to that, the commentary required for broadcasting the event on television. The cloud funnels upwards of a 100 contrasting datasets at once, for analytical purposes.

Now, Hotelogix is built on primarily the same platform we are talking about here. Think of it as a machine that’s constantly pulling in and interpreting data, tirelessly. The data could be from your channel manager, POS outlets, website and any other systems that your PMS may be connected to. Hotelogix has around 200K system users currently and this single platform supports all of these users without breaking a sweat. This not only speaks about the storage capabilities but the quality of engineering that goes into building a system like Hotelogix.

Hotelogix supports an average of 16K concurrent users, at any given time. These 16k users suffer no loss of performance with a desktop application-like experience. An on-premise PMS was not built to cater to more than 50 concurrent users.
So, no, it hasn’t been built keeping in mind smaller hotels or properties. In fact, it is an enterprise-grade system, built to withstand much more than what we are handing out to it. But that’s not to say that smaller hotels and accommodations cannot run their daily operations on it, or use it as a part of their expansion strategy.

Another facet of Hotelogix cloud PMS is its ability to access data in real time. Take a look at on-premise systems and you’ll see that they enable the access of data in batches and barely close to real-time.

Now, you might wonder how a cloud system is capable of achieving such feats? The answer is that the cloud replicates data. And how does that help? Well, Hotelogix system is constantly pushing data back and forth from the cloud and also simultaneously saving this data in several locations. What this translates to is that, irrespective of hardware maintenance or software upgrades, Hotelogix’s systems don’t see any downtime. This lets us boast of an uptime of 99.98%. What’s more is that even if any of the data centres should collapse or cease functioning, your data will still remain safe. That’s definitely something an on-premise system can’t boast of.

Hotelogix backs up data on a daily basis and depending on the number of customers, more than 1600 backups take place every single day. Even with the most effective IT environments within hotels, you will see that the data is only backed up once a month.

Here’s something I’ve been told a lot about cloud systems – that they’re just not safe enough. Well, I beg to differ. And no, my opinion doesn’t emerge from the fact that I work with Hotelogix. I have research backing me up. It is true that an on-premise system gives the user more control when it comes to the security measures being set up. Any mishaps that happen will probably land the hotel’s IT team in a soup.

Hotelogix, however, has a different approach towards security. Unlike the on-premise system, it is not a reactionary one. Let me elaborate. Unlike most systems that focus their security measures on the entry points, cloud focuses on the overall application. This is possible due to the visibility that cloud enables on every level, which ensures that the IT manager can view exactly who is accessing the data, at what time and the purpose of doing so. Thereby, regulating access based on the role of the personnel. What’s more is that one can also analyse patterns of attackers and provide more proactive measures to reduce instances of data phishing and phone fraud. Overall, it acts as a deterrent for attackers.

Another home run for Hotelogix is the possibility of integrations. Think of it as a custom-built ecosystem, tailor-made for a hotel. Be it the budget that’s the decisive factor or the features that you are looking for, you can design the ecosystem based on your priorities. Application Programming Interface or API, as we call it, is what enables the cloud to be so versatile. Take an on-premise system, for example. The features and applications have to be built into the system and is not an add-on that will make life simple. Now, the downside to this is that you pay for a bundle of features, which may or may not be of use to you. Hotelogix, on the other hand, integrates with leaders in the space– For example, a finance tool, a booking engine, a reputation manager and the likes. So not only do you pay for what you choose but also integrate with best tech that will definitely give you an edge over the competition.

Hotelogix uniquely offers APIs for hotel brands to develop their own apps and this has led to the development of an ecosystem around the PMS. Hotelogix receives more than 3 million API calls/day. It gives rise to the possibility of mobile apps centered around the staff-facing aspect in order to smoothen operations. It also enables hotels to plug in Hotelogix into your existing MIS system, exchanging feeds in real time, for brands to take strategic decisions with agility. On-premise systems are built on platforms that are not capable of such feats.

10 years in the game and we’ve watched the landscape change drastically. The interesting thing is that even the on-premise players have started to build their own cloud platforms. I’ll leave it to you on what to decipher out of this, but to me, it seems like the cloud has cemented itself as the future of hospitality technology.

In these 10 years that we’ve been in this space, we’ve seen the market evolve and change immensely. Watched the millennials become a major customer to hotels and have seen the struggles that hoteliers have faced trying to adopt to this new category of customers. Just like video killed the radio star, the cloud will replace these on-premise systems in time. Hotelogix has evolved into this machine that is capable of computing on an enterprise level. We are one system functioning across a 100+ countries, with more than 1600 customers and over 200K system users. 16K concurrent users on the platform and still providing a desktop application like experience with zero down time. Hotelogix has evolved into a stellar product that comes at a great price, without compromising on the quality of the features that it provides.

What’s interesting is the road that lies ahead of us. An ecosystem built for hotels with tools integrated into it, that will make managing hotel operations a breeze. Customizations, based on needs and scalable as per the times to come. We aren’t here to  fix something that’s broken, just around to make things better.

This article was originally published on Hotelogix Blog.