Motivated by the altering needs of the clients, the hospitality industry continues its tremendous growth year by year.
However, if you think about it, the quickly changing desires, requirements, and demands of the customers stimulate the hospitality industry to follow and adapt to new trends on an ongoing basis. Because happy and satisfied customers lead to socially and economically sustainable business operations.
It may be surprising, but an extremely effective and innovative way to contribute to the level of customer satisfaction in the hospitality business is implementing a system of IoT devices. And there are numerous Internet of things examples when it comes to this particular industry.
According to a study conducted by CSG in 2018, 94% of the businesses that have implemented IoT solutions have experienced a return on their initial investment. IoT helps the hospitality industry to use data to offer more intelligent services, thus enhancing the levels of customer satisfaction and employee productivity. But that is not all: Such systems improves the decision-making and risk management processes, lowers the cost of day-to-day operations, and minimizes the losses.
All of the mentioned benefits sound vague, don't they? Well, let's see the specific examples of how IoT contributes to the development of the Hospitality Industry.
IoT for a customized experience for guests
Integrating hotel appliances with the personal gadgets of the guests is one of the aspects of IoT that offers the most convenience, comfort, and satisfaction in the hospitality industry. The data exchange between devices enables the businesses to provide tailored, luxurious experience to their clients.
For example, using your mobile device to unlock the hotel door, regulate the AC temperature and heating (even if they are not in the room), turn on and off the lights and TV, order food, and others.
On the other hand, the integration of personal gadgets with hotel devices allows businesses to remember the preferences of their guests, based on the collected data. This way, if the same customer stays in the same hotel multiple times, the services will be customized to his desires. The businesses can also analyze the collected data to identify certain trends in the customers' tastes, and later use the findings for decision-making, planning and prioritizing goals.
IoT for environmental sustainability
As already mentioned, IoT stimulates social and economic sustainability of the businesses by increasing customer satisfaction. But in fact, it can also contribute to greener day-to-day operations: by reducing electricity usage.
Integrating occupancy sensors in the rooms prevent the “waste” of energy, when the room is empty. When the guests leave the room, the TV and lights are automatically being turned off, and the temperature is being regulated. This way the hotels benefit from reduced costs of energy bills and have the opportunity to use the saved money for other purposes and investments.
Businesses in the hospitality industry can also become “greener” by repairing and prolonging the life of their machines and appliances. IoT enables the companies to receive up-to-date, real-time information about the state of the whole network of connected devices: computers, cameras, security systems, cleaning and cooking appliances, elevators, automatic doors, cars, etc. This includes warning signs for potential problems, deterioration, depreciation, loss of function, changes in location and condition. As a result, if any problem occurs with the devices, the staff can act quickly to solve it, and this way to reduce any potential tangible asset losses.
Another smart IoT solution for the hospitality industry is utility meter cameras, which can be positioned in each room. They enable real-time monitoring of utility usage, which allows the hotel to evaluate its electricity consumption, make changes, and estimate future costs. This gives clarity and transparency to the management and contributes to a better decision-making process.
Optimizing employee tasks
“Nearly 80% of American consumers point to speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service as the most important elements of positive customer experience.” This quote from PWC leads us to the fact that even though IoT solutions provide speed and convenience to the customers, they are not enough to make the CX satisfying enough. But they can be of great help when they are well integrated and well aligned with the work of the employees. This way the staff will be able to prioritize and optimize their daily tasks according to the situation. And guests would receive both convenience and friendly customer service.
An IoT example is the integration of voice-controlled room assistants that help the guests to reserve a table at the restaurant, request room service, book a massage appointment and quickly receive any information they need. All that by simply talking to a device. With this voice assistant, the employees have more time to focus on face-to-face communication and spend more time building relationships with the guests. Also, with fewer tasks, the staff becomes less stressed and more positive, productive and friendly.
Remember how the location of every device from the IoT network can be tracked (it is mentioned a few paragraphs above)? Well, this also helps the employees to optimize their tasks. Let's say that some new guests arrive at a hotel and they need help with their luggage, but there is no luggage cart nearby. If the carts are being tracked, the bellboy can locate the closest one to his location and quickly help the guests. This way he will not only save time and worries, and prevent annoyed guests, but he will also contribute to a better CX.
All those benefits which IoT can offer to the hospitality industry are extremely attractive. Well, it allows businesses to continuously adapt to the changing trends and tackle problems in an innovative and smart way. It provides smart solutions to both customers, employees, and management. And when proper care is being taken of all those three aspects of business, the steady and constant growth of the organizations is ensured.
