Hotels out of touch with guests' tech needs

The hotel and hospitality industry remains one of the fastest-growing sectors in the Middle East, despite the current economic climate.

There are still a raft of hotels and resorts poised to open their doors over the next five years, even if they have been delayed a tad.

When building a property or preparing to manage one, there is always a temptation to cut corners on certain aspects of that development and all too often it’s the IT systems – and by that I mean everything from front- and back-office to in-room technology - that loses out.

It doesn’t matter how many times a column piece is written in Hotelier Middle East or on www.hoteliermiddleeast.com about how important it is to install the right IT solutions from the start, most hotels seems to ignore these words of wisdom.

Is it the IT speak that scares people? Is it like Shakespeare in that unless you understand it and have studied it, you just can’t see the attraction and your interest level is zero?

That fact is that money talks, so why — if you are being offered guaranteed return on investment in terms of improved productivity and efficiency, better monitoring of staff and importantly, world-class guest services that boost satisfaction rates through the roof — would you look this gift horse in the mouth?

There are so many outstanding hotels in this region in terms of architecture, interior design and sheer size and scale, yet all too often, from a guest perspective, the in-room technology is a big letdown.

There’s nothing worse than entering a suite that costs thousands of dollars per night, kitted out with luxurious fixtures and fittings, only to find that the TV is a no-frills brand that you’ve never heard of and the guest tech services provided are archaic. It’s disappointing to say the least.

But there’s much more to it than TV functionality.

There are IT solutions out there that can record guest profiles and ensure that when they next return to your property, their requirements are automatically met.

Just imagine entering a hotel room and finding the air conditioning temperature is already set at the level you set it at last time you visited and that all your most-consumed mini-bar purchases have been loaded into that fridge?

From a hotel manager/owner perspective, imagine the guest’s delight and their satisfaction levels and imagine your delight when you realise this system not only operated automatically with minimal manpower required, but also translated to other properties in your group via your centralised IT system?

These kinds of tailor-made IT structures can be built and what’s more, general managers and even their IT managers don’t really need to know much about them for them to work.

There are experts and advisors out there with international experience who can help – I won’t name them as this is not a paid-for advertorial, but if my comments have piqued your interest, feel free to give me a call.

I travel to hotels throughout the region but have yet to be impressed with the in-room technology on offer. In fact, most of the time it’s old-fashioned, useless and on occasions, makes my life hard work.

Sometimes I wonder how a hotel could have managed to have made switching a light on and off so cumbersome.

In fact, it wasn’t until I visited the Dolder Grand in Zurich, Switzerland, that I discovered technology that I actually felt compelled to write home about.

Imagine an iPod-esque tool that you could use to control everything, from the opening and shutting of the blinds and curtains to the angle of the TV?

This system, the first of its kind, was developed by Bang & Olufsen exclusively for the property for one year following its re-opening - the hotel underwent a massive refurbishment and is now an impressive city resort with user-friendly IT gimmicks everywhere that are stylish and make guests feel as if they really are staying in accommodation deemed the crème de la crème.

At the end of the day, if guests are to pay top dollar to stay in your hotel, how can you justify scrimping and saving on IT, particularly when there are rival properties in other regions of the world charging less but offering unparalleled guest services?

So, don’t be scared of the IT jargon that people of that ilk speak – or of Shakespeare for that matter. All you need to know is how it can work for you and let the geeks do the rest.