The Internet of Things (IoT) is identified as the ‘Third Wave of Innovation’ after the Industrial Evolution and Internet Revolution. According to a Statista report, the number of smart devices continues to increase. Hence, it is predicted that a whopping 42.62 Billion IoT enabled devices will be connected to the internet by 2022. Moreover, these devices will communicate with each other, thus simplifying our lives on a regular basis.
Industries across the world have rediscovered their strengths and have taken stronger grounds in the market. With the immense support from IoT, this is a reality now. The Hospitality sector is one such sector that has acquired the maximum benefit from IoT. Hospitality is not a job. It is a service. It is ‘taking care of the guests just like we take care of a newborn family member’. This sector always looks at what lies beyond the monetary benefits. This sector is all about ‘guest welfare’. It drills down to the ABCs of guest comfort and next prioritizes them at every step of the hospitality service. It is true that no extent of machinery support can replace the warmth of human assistance. But, IoT makes sure to combine both to redefine hospitality in unbelievable ways.
It is a common perception that IoT is all about connecting things and services in a way that generates the maximum advantage. With time, it has now become clear that IoT contributes tremendously to the process of things and services while delivering ‘value’ that activates the ‘buying behavior’ in an individual. 94% of the businesses that chose to implement IoT have seen a noticeable benefit. Without a doubt, IoT will turn the tables for the hospitality sector, once IoT will be implemented there.
With IoT in the hospitality Industry, it gets easier for the hoteliers to create beautiful memories for the guests. They can serve the customers better and can also boost operational efficiency. In fact, the employees who belong to the hospitality sector will be able to provide impressive housekeeping, will conserve energy better and will facilitate maintenance & room service more effectively. With the effective and vast implementation of IoT in hospitality, hotel owners can unlock endless possibilities to optimize the front desk, concierge, room service, and employees to address customer requirements through data-driven triggers and alerts.
Gaining customer loyalty will not be a rocket science with IoT strategy. It is achievable if the proprietors will automate various sensors within their properties with guest data/employees’ information. Fetching valuable data and providing ‘heart-touching’ experiences to the customers will be possible. It remains a fact that IoT has not yet reached its full potential. But, by investing in the current IoT solutions, hotels and restaurants are reaching new heights of success.
With smart IoT applications, products are becoming services (example: Alexa, a versatile digital assistant that answers questions and performs all sorts of tasks just needs one command from us to serve us accordingly). IoT technology is personalizing services, thus making them more customer-oriented. These services work in sync with the mood of the individual. Let’s go through with a few examples of the same.
Are you a hotel manager?
Want to provide guestroom automation, predictive maintenance, mobile engagement, virtual assistants and voice-controlled services to your guests? Great, here comes IoT to serve your purpose. Let’s discover the advantages that IoT provides to the hospitality sector.
1) In-Room-Automation: This takes guest room experience to an entirely new level. To quote an example, the LEDs present in the room can easily detect the presence of natural light in the room. Next, the smart LEDs can accordingly adjust their brightness to illuminate the room for the guest. This simple application of IoT onto a household device how lighting is fine-tuned to create ‘feel good’ spaces. Also with motion sensors in place, the lights and fans of the rooms will get switched on and off when guests enter and exit the room, respectively.
2) Voice Controlled Customer Service: Hotels like The Best Western, Marriot and Wynn were among the early adopters of voice-controlled customer service. This is an area that is sure to expand substantially as products like Google Home and Amazon Echo become more widely adopted within the home environment. IoT driven wake-up-calls and reminders help the guests to schedule their day better. The responsibility of setting the alarm after an exhausting day, for the next day, could quickly be done by just voicing the same.
3) Hassle-Free Check-In: IoT bids farewell to the complex and time-consuming check-in processes. By unleashing fresh possibilities of seamless check-in, IoT has taken the guest experience to an entirely new level. With IoT intelligence, guests can now receive a digital key at their mobile phones one hour prior to check-in. That digital key can communicate with the guest room door and can unlock it easily. This removes the constant anxiety from the guest’s mind of losing the key. Just one initial use of the crucial digital key promises to serve the guest until the check-out. This way, the guest will not require stopping at the reception desk to collect or hand over the physical key any longer.
4) Hyper-Personalization: Using the data collected from in-room premises, IoT devices can be used to design appropriate strategies to personalize the experience. A guest’s specific preference like room temperature, lighting intensity, music choice will be automated beforehand the guests enter their rooms. Making sure that the guests receive an automated personalized greeting after they check-in their rooms, is now easy. IoT sensors automatically switch to the last saved preference like opening the curtains, controlling the climate, playing music, streaming TV services and so on. Moreover, the successful combination of smartphones with iBeacon technology or other sensors delivers more valuable and customized information to more guests than ever before.
On a concluding note…
A few years from now, a hotel stay will be a much satisfying experience than today. With the Internet of Things (IoT), hotels and resorts are getting a productive reason to satisfy their customers. Those days are gone when check-in processes were long; the guests had to unlock their hotel room doors manually and had to call the reception for the required services.
With, IoT strategies, In-Room-Automation, Voice Controlled Customer Service, Hassel Free Check-In, Hyper-Personalization and more are now accessible. IoT sensors collect data and send messages to the guests about the latest offers on hotels. This includes updating the guests about specific facilities provided by the hotels at different times of the day (therapeutic spa sessions, pool parties, etc). In all, IoT focuses on transforming hospitality services into gateways of automated guest satisfaction platform.
