Visioning a Post-COVID Era in Guest-Facing
By Henri Roelings, Founder & CEO at HospitalityNet
When it comes to visitor confronting innovation, the ascent of stages that offered visitors a contactless encounter started well before the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding, the most recent a half year has gone about as an impetus to the business wide execution of these stages, and the keen utilization of innovation to offer personalization in a without hands climate will get vital. Inns are as yet expected to give high-contact administration, obviously, yet without a significant number of the physical touchpoints related with the customary accommodation model.
All in all, what does the post-pandemic scene resemble for hoteliers with regards to innovation and visitor commitment?
This inquiry has gauged hefty on the brains of friendliness industry pioneers far and wide, and it is exactly the inquiry with Hospitality Net’s ongoing World Panel Viewpoint set out to reply. With an accentuation on visitor confronting innovation, Hospitality Net accumulated 10 driving industry trailblazers to share their perspectives and contemplations concerning how visitor confronting tech will change in the post-COVID time.
Steve Burk, the Managing Director of SALTO Systems, suggests that self-service check-in, contactless mobile keys, digital contact tracing methods, and antimicrobial surfaces will be pivotal to hotels moving forward. “The entire guest experience must be reimagined and reengineered to emphasize and safeguard the health and safety of guests, There have always been challenges faced by hoteliers while selecting in-room, guest-facing tech. According to Moritz von Petersdorff-Campen, Founder and Managing Director, Suite Pad GmbH, the global pandemic highlighted many of the shortcomings associated with hotel apps and, alternatively, revealed the guest-room tablet as the only viable long-term solution for hotels.
Gary Patrick, CEO at Hotel Internet Services suggests that updating tech and services focus on creating an enjoyable guest experience while minimizing health and safety concerns should be prioritized. From content casting to mobile room service, in-room “smart” technology such as voice-activated thermostats, and even VR and AR technology, properties now have a range of solutions available at their disposal.
While discussing the future of guest-facing technology, however, it’s also important to consider the staff experience. In a largely contactless future, staff must rely on the provision of best-in-class platforms in order to facilitate an exceptional, personalized, and safe experience for guests. “As we work towards regaining guest trust, it’s just as important to provide employees with technologies that allow them to likewise minimize the potential to come into contact or spread germs while still equipping them with the ability to ensure a physically secure, operationally efficient, and seamless hotel environment,” explains Markus Boberh, the Global President of Hospitality at ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions.
Reiterating this point, Alex Shashou, President and Co-founder of ALICE, shared, “The real revolution that we’re realizing as an industry is that any technology that is guest-facing needs to have an effective staff interface as well.”
For the hospitality industry, there is no “return to normal”, there is only the “new normal”. The path forward is largely defined by cutting edge guest-facing technology and those innovative leaders willing to lead the way. And as Roy Friedman, the Founder and CEO of EasyWay says, ‘The hotels that cannot embrace this new way of safely personalizing the guest experience, may face extinction.”
Additional views in this World Panel viewpoint included Robert Stevenson, CEO of INTELITY, RoomOrders’ CEO Eugene Jones, Agilysys’ Don DeMarinis and Bartech’s Pierre Agrario
