When you are working in the hospitality industry, your customer satisfaction is naturally your primary goal. However, if your guests were satisfied with the accommodation and the service that you have provided them with, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are planning on returning to your hotel.
So, what else can you do to make sure that your guests would want to come back? The answer is rather simple – you need to connect with them on a more personal and emotional level! If you really go an extra mile to show them they are valuable to you, their overall experience with your hotel will be more meaningful and they won’t hesitate to recommend your services to their families and friends. Cloud-based hotel PMS has quickly become one of the most popular automation tools in the hospitality industry, and it offers unique features to automate and benchmark service levels to help you achieve the aforementioned goals. So, in this article, you will find out more about hotel management software and how to quickly improve hotel guest experience. 1. You and your staff need to have high EQ EQ is short for emotional quotient, and people who have developed emotional intelligence are kind, thoughtful, and empathic. And – when you are involved in the hospitality industry – these are the most essential qualities you need to possess. It goes without saying that you and your staff need to be polite with your guests, but showing them that you really understand their wants and needs is what will keep them stick around for long periods of time. To make sure that your staff has high EQ, ask them how they would react in some imaginary scenario where empathy is required, and be sure to give them some suggestions and valuable feedback. 2. Carefully design interview questions When you are hiring new people who will be a part of your team, you need to make sure they have what it takes to really connect with your guests. That is why you need to include some real-life situations apart from the usual interview questions to determine whether they will react properly when some of your guests are dissatisfied or even angry about something. If the candidate doesn’t know how to handle problematic situations, chances are they won’t be able to deliver a great hotel guest experience. 3. Prevent technical inconveniences from happening If your employees are handling everything manually, mistakes are bound to happen. One of the most common of such mistakes is double booking, for instance. Luckily, if you implement hotel management software to your everyday operations, this will no longer be a problem, as the technology will help them ensure that everything is done the right way. 4. Make sure your guests feel at home What will contribute to your hotel guest experience the most is making them feel at home. That is why you and your staff should always address them by their surname, make sure that they have everything they need at all times, and ask some friendly questions such as “How are you feeling today, Mr. Jones?”, “Is there anything I can get you?”, “How are you enjoying your stay with us?” etc. Moreover, if you are expecting a family with small children to visit your hotel, you can prepare some toys or sweets for them, as a warm welcome. If, on the other hand, your guests are newlyweds, you can send a bottle of champagne to their room as a gift. 5. Get an insight into your guests’ preferences If you have many guests, it is difficult to remember what each one of them prefers. This is where cloud-based hotel PMS comes into play – this software system serves as a knowledge base in which you can include all of the important details about your guests, which will be available to all members of your staff at all times. For instance, your employees will be able to find out whether a certain guest has complained about something the last time they visited your hotel, and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. 6. If your guest are loyal – be loyal in return It is needless to say that you need to be respectful of all of your guests. But, when it comes to your regular, loyal guests – you need to make them feel more privileged than the others, to show them just how much they are valuable to you. 7. Make the booking process more convenient As we are living in the digital age, the majority of your customers will find it much more convenient to book a room online, rather than making phone calls. Cloud-based hotel PMS offers online and offline reservation and booking features, which will make this process significantly easier for both the guests and the employees. If you want to attract more guests, provide them with top quality services, and keep them coming back to your hotel, follow our simple tips, and you will quickly see the results! Also, don’t forget about feedback collection. Collect feedback during your guests’ stay not at end. This gives you the opportunity to improve things and nip any problems in the bud. Content Source: https://www.mycloudhospitality.com/blog/how-to-connect-with-guests-on-a-more-personal-level
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2020 has been devastating for the travel industry during the COVID-19 outbreak. The whole sector Came to a grinding halt, and brands couldn’t do anything to prevent their losses. In fact, many hotels, online travel booking agencies, and other travel companies have shut down permanently.
But a year later, things are slowly starting to change. The industry has begun adopting new tech to prepare and provide the most safe possible experience to travellers. But at the same time, recent research has shown how traveler behaviour has changed. This behaviour can help hoteliers understand how they must modify their services and guest approach. Not only this, but they will also understand which technologies they need to deliver the best services. 1. More and more people are working from their homes The coronavirus pandemic has changed many things. Remote work was not uncommon before the outbreak, but most larger companies preferred having their employees in the office. Of course, they were able to work remotely occasionally. At the same time, people who had disabilities were allowed to work remotely full time. But COVID-19 has made remote work a standard for all companies that could do business this way. But numbers show that this trend isn’t going to dial down as the coronavirus pandemic starts to slow down. Companies around the globe have adopted remote work policies with more flexibility. In the past, this was seen as a “perk”, but this practice is not a standard. Some of the largest companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter have announced that they will continue with these practices after the pandemic has passed. Forecasts show that the number of full-time remote workers is going to double by the end of 2021. The workplace as we know it has changed for good, and many wonder what the future will look like. More importantly, this trend will have a significant effect on occupancy and the services they offered. They will need to rethink their complete offer and how to increase the falling ARR because of low occupancy with changes in travel and work trends. 2. Almost two-thirds of travellers plan on staying in hotels The annual US Consumer Travel Report published in July 2021 has shown some exciting numbers and consumer behaviour. Even though the whole hotel industry took a big hit in 2020, things are going much better today. In 2020 hotels were closed as most countries banned travel and implemented safety measures that prevented people from coming to hotels. But 3 out of 5 people in the US say that they will travel in 2021 and around 60% plan to stay in hotels. One of the reasons for this is that they no longer feel that hotels are dangerous. Consumers know what coronavirus is, what its mechanisms are, and how they can prevent being exposed to it. Lots of hotels have put in the effort to protect their guests and ensure their safety. In 2020 the pandemic wasn’t the only issue. People were afraid and were reluctant to go out in public even when they were allowed to do so. But now, consumers have the will to book a hotel, but only if the industry adjusts and ensures their safety. 3. Flexibility is more important to travellers than ever In the past, travellers focused on finding the cheapest accommodation, busy destinations, or exciting cruises. But the pandemic has changed this as the most important priorities for travellers today are safety and flexibility. People don’t want to get infected with the virus or have any other issues, for that matter. But at the same time, we are still not living in a stable travel environment. This means that things can change quickly in regulations, protocols, and even travel bans. This is why travellers need flexibility regarding insurance against cancelation fees, fees for changing travel dates, travel time, and all the costs surrounding baggage issues. On the other hand, travellers also want flexibility with rescheduling, loyalty programs, accommodation, etc. Earlier, hotels had the liberty to charge hefty cancellation and no-show fees. Now, they would need to focus on guest retention and how to ensure guests are accommodated due to changes in the travel market. Even though people are ready to travel, they are aware that the pandemic isn’t over. This is why they’ve adopted a flexible mindset and expect the travel industry to do the same and this includes hotels as well. For Full Article Click Here: https://bit.ly/3zpNQ8C It’s hard for revenue managers to keep up with evolving technology. On the other hand, the latest technological advancements in the field of business software, such as Hotel Revenue Management Software, make revenue management a straightforward activity.
So what is it that revenue managers can use to do their job better and automate the majority of their daily tasks? Here are the 5 must-have tools in today’s revenue manager’s tech stack. Hotel Market Data and Benchmarking Tools Collecting all sorts of data and drawing actionable insights from it is of utmost importance in today’s world. With so many things taking place on multiple online platforms and different channels, it has become very important for revenue managers to collect this data and benchmark it in real time. As a revenue manager, you should know that not all business intelligence tools providers are the same. Each one of them works with a different data provider. It is important to identify the most relevant data provider and choose BI tools accordingly. This action will provide you with actionable data on your ADP indexes, Rate Insight, RevPar, and occupancy. Rate Parity Monitoring Tools If you rent your accommodations via several OTAs, it is very important to monitor their pricing policy. You don't want to lose money by allowing OTAs to try to make more cash on your deals and thus make your services appear significantly more expensive then they are. If you want to take full control of all your listings you should start using a parity monitoring tool. This software is designed to help you track rate parity in real time. You will be able to cross-reference prices on the majority of search channels, your website, and all OTAs in your network. Hotel Revenue Management Software Revenue analysis is a very important effort towards optimizing your strategy. Collecting and analyzing data across all your channels is a daunting task, not to mention comparing it against your KPIs. Fortunately, a hotel revenue management software will automate it by collecting the data from your PMS. This is especially useful in terms of optimizing marketing better. In fact, with just a few simple clicks you will be able to see exactly where the most bookings come from and take a look at your KPIs. Rate Shopper As a revenue manager, you are aware of how important it is to stay tuned to the pricing strategy of your competitors and to the shopping rate of your clients. Browsing through all their listings manually can eat up a lot of your time, and since you do it manually, you can make a few errors along the way. You can automate this with a rate shopper platform. This tool will help you see your competitors’ prices in real time and see how the accommodations are being rated. By identifying the market demand, you will be able to become proactive and seize market opportunities. A Reliable Booking Engine A booking engine is one of the most important tools in a revenue manager’s toolbox. And this is not only because it will help you streamline and automate online booking, which is easily the most important channel you have. When looking for a booking engine, make sure that your PMS supports it. Why? Because when you integrate a booking engine in your PMS, your inventory will be updated automatically. A bonus is if you can connect it with your rate shopper to monitor and cross-reference the rates on your website and the ones on your OTAs. Channel Manager If you want to effortlessly manage your inventory, you will have to use a channel manager tool. It will help you get control of your inventory and manage online rates across all the booking channels. Your channel manager tool should be supported by your PMS so that you can make updates across all the channels with just one PMS entry. Property Management System As one of the most frequently used property management system (cloud hotel software solutions) is a pivotal tool every revenue manager should have and use on a daily basis. A PMS will help you automate a bunch of tasks. And, remember, it is always better to invest into one that supports more integrations and has more features so you won't have to worry about upgrades down the line. Using any of the cloud hotel software tools will make your job a lot easier. The best way to go is to leverage the synergy of their integrations so that you can collect the data, monitor the KPIs, draw meaningful insights, and become more proactive. Source: https://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article104404.html For hoteliers of this generation, technology comes easy and they know how important it is to use the latest and new technologies to stay in the game and keep business flowing. Technology has been a huge milestone in the development of ways to make daily living easier for man. Many industries have owned this paradigm shifting aspect of technological implementation and this has led to a lot of success stories in the respective sectors it has been implanted in. The hotel industry has been no different with many advancements having been put in place to assist with the daily running of hotels by use of hotel management software for the managerial staff. For small hotels, there are a number of the many ways in which technology could help boost their businesses to new and higher levels without using up a lot of capital. Generally, hoteliers are first to adopt any guest-facing technology but surprisingly, when it comes to their own back of the house operations, they still run with old systems which are capital heavy and redundant technologies. In a nutshell, incorporation of technology is the only way to forge forward and keep up with current markets.
Some of the ways in which new and modern cloud-based technology could assure the stakeholders in small hotels of brighter futures have been highlighted in this article. 1. Use of Mobile Bookings Mobile bookings at this time and age are rapidly gaining immense popularity and as a result, a 25% increment in online bookings has been realized in the course of this year. The most interesting piece of information is the percentage of travelers for leisure purposes who are at 40% and that of business travelers is 36%. The percentage used is specific for the travelers that normally opt to use mobile phones in the booking of their accommodations in hotels on an overnight basis. With this data, it’s nothing but prudent for small hotels to take advantage of the loophole of travelers. Given the remarkable rise of smartphone-dependent millennial travelers, a venture into the hotel reservation software via mobile booking services would do good for the growth of small hotels. Other than just booking, the mobile booking systems are essential in giving guests hotel information, pricing, packages, special promotions and special rates that may be only available on the hotel website. 2. Door Opening Technology This is a type of technology that would enable small hotels to level the playing field with the bigger and fancier hotels in terms of security and customer satisfaction. The use of door opening technology comes in handy by providing a means for guests to be the only ones having an access to their hotel doors through the use of mobile phones. After booking a room, the guests then get a code sent to an app on their mobile phones and by so doing, they are handed control over the door to their room. This technology will better the confidence of guests in the hotel management especially in their oversight of the hotel security system. In addition to that, the guest experience will skyrocket and even enhance customer loyalty considering that they will not have to make long queues at the reception when booking and receiving their room details. Also, the old key card technology is now redundant and many times guests have to keep re-coding the keys as the information on them gets wiped out if kept close to mobile phones. 3. Wi-Fi Infrastructure Overhauls Nowadays, most people who come as guests in hotels have the tendency of tagging along with devices such as laptops and tablets. With these gadgets at hand, it has become almost a necessity for Wi-Fi services to be installed in the hotels that they seek accommodation in. This is one of the areas that small hotels could shunt their attention to and will lead to their customer in-flow uninterrupted. In order to stand out and possess the edge over most of the other hotels, the Wi-Fi speeds and connection reliability need to be off the charts. It thus calls for the small hotels to think big and set the ball rolling for the acquisition of wireless connections that cover the entire hotel and install the necessary Wi-Fi equipment to make sure there is a good signal of the network in every corner of their premises. Hotels must offer Wi-Fi and ensure they have enough bandwidth as the internet today, especially social media, is driven more by videos and images and guests usually end up on social media post office hours. 4. Cloud Services Businessman hands using cell phone with financial report at office desk.In order for hotels to have the ability to keep up with the trends in hotel management and dissipation of services, there is a coherent need of taking up cloud-based services. It is unwise for small hotels to have the need of improving their managerial systems and incur the additional costs of buying infrastructure for IT, coupled with the ideal personnel for handling the IT equipment. Instead, the best way is to invest in lower-capital-consuming-ventures that serve the same purpose and in a far much better manner. The cloud hotel property management systems have countless advantages that small hotels could take advantage of especially when it comes to the room that cloud-based systems give for expansion and upgrading without more costs for overhauling the current systems. Cloud is the latest technology and good systems now offer many options that help hoteliers engage more with their guests and get better insights into their business, cloud solutions help smaller hotels compete with larger properties by making use of advanced systems, distribution, statistics and forecasts that up to now were only available to bigger hotels as they were capital heavy and cloud has leveled the playing field as smaller properties too can subscribe to these advanced systems at a fraction of the cost. Conclusion Above are four of the best methods in which technological advancement could bring a new chapter in the books of small hotels in the market today. The types of technological implementation that have been talked about may have different characteristics that make them unique, but any of them, when used in a small hotel, are good enough to deliver outstanding results. Getting into the hotel business is a dream for many people. And it is no wonder, it is a great way of creating a stable revenue. However, like with all businesses, starting small carries plenty of challenges, and the situation is the same when it comes to smaller hotels.
The big players in the hotel game are quite experienced and have the tools and knowledge to determine what the best pricing methods are, e.g. high-end pricing software and years of solid data to draw conclusions from. On the other hand, smaller hotel owners and managers are less experienced, meaning that it is necessary to take some steps in order to optimize small hotel revenue. Let’s take a look at a couple of steps that will help you optimize your small hotel revenue. Factors that directly impact initial pricing When creating hotel room pricing, it is essential to remain realistic. You want to actually make a profit don’t you? Well, in that case, the following are the most important parameters you should take into consideration.
Staying ahead of the curve with technology trends has become an important aspect of almost any type of business, and when even supermarkets without cashiers are becoming a reality, it is not strange to expect that even the smallest hotel business would have to overhaul their approach to doing business if they plan on staying relevant in this age.
Any smart hotelier will tell you that the competition is growing at an increasing rate, and that even companies that do not actually possess any actual rooms, can be quite successful if their business model is well defined. Changes in demographics are forcing innovation at a pace that has never been seen before, and we all agree that, nowadays, you either get on with the program or get off the train. Free soaps are simply not enough and introducing technological advancements such as hospitality software that could benefit not only your customers, but hotel owners and staff as well – these are a priority. So, what are some of the technologies that will come to dominate the hotel landscape in the future? For such a prediction, we will not even have to look very far: 1. It’s Mobile Phones All the Way Down Let’s face it, our smart-phones are constantly with us, in our hand, and making use of that is only a natural move. Why shouldn’t your hotel introduce digital keys that can use NFC technology that is built into every mobile device and use that as for everything – from check ins, payments to serving as room and facility keys? Not only will this allow better tracking of where each customer currently is with the phone’s GPS, but you will see what facilities are used and when. This technology has already been in use for quite for some time, so it is cheaper than ever to introduce it to your business, for your convenience and those using your services. 2. Automation Never Tires The benefits of hotel management and automation software are well-known. They allow you an immediate insight into everyday processes that happen, how to optimize them and create a truly “smart” experience that will put you in control. Most of the data gathered this way will help you analyze costs and show you how to increase your ROI – in turn increasing the efficiency your hotel runs at. This starts with the process of booking itself and ends with generating receipts and invoices for your customers when they leave. This also includes software solutions such as a Hotel Channel Manager that will make sure the room availability is synced across all platforms, such as your apps, different specialized websites (online bookings), travel wholesalers etc. Manually managing such a big number of channels (a number that is only growing) can only lead to errors, reimbursements on your part and a negative customer experience. Therefore, hotel managers need to start moving away from old systems and move on to new, modern systems that offer better integrations and accessibility, not to mention the latest technology and features that are based on current trends and needs. 3. Environmentally Friendly Increasing customer satisfaction without being wasteful is a big problem hotels face. Energy costs with all these improvements are also on the rise, and in order to shift to more sustainable practices, some measures will have to be introduces. The same automated software we’ve mentioned in the last paragraph will also be designed to consider whether a room is heated or cooled based on the physical presence of guests. This information can be taken via different sensors that in no way endanger privacy, such as passive infrared sensors, or based on the position of the guest’s mobile phone. Furthermore, this will create an illusion of a perfect welcoming experience. When a guest comes into a room, the light will turn on, as well as the TV, while the AC has predicted that the guest is approaching. This can create a lot of savings for you; and despite seeming like a much more luxurious experience, it will actually be a more economic (simply put: cheaper) experience for guests. 4. Vocal Experience It is only natural to think that all the rooms will have voice activated commands in the future. Guests will be able to use simple commands that are already in use such as Hey Siri or Alexa, to turn off the lights without having to leave the bed. Not to mention that this will allow a much more seamless integration with hotel management. Do you have a problem? A request to talk to the staff? Too hot or too much light? Just say the word and the thermostat will reduce the heating or draw the drapes. This might not seem like a big step, but it is a step in the right direction nonetheless. This only creates a better experience for guests, and as you well know, that always translates to a bigger profit for hotel owners. mycloud PMS has been recognized as best usability 2021 award in the hospitality property management system category by SoftwareSuggest, one of the popular software business directories. We are excited as we have won SoftwareSuggest awards for the 4th consecutive year.
SoftwareSuggest goes the extra mile every year to curate hundreds of standout software across various categories. The team evaluates by: – Shortlisting the features any business owner requires. – Comparing those features with multiple software. – Asking for quotations from vendors. – And finally presenting the perfect evaluation report. The award given by SoftwareSuggest not only motivates us but also demonstrates the commitment to provide the best solution for customers and offer outstanding quality and the current requirement of the Hotel industry. mycloud hotel PMS software is a complete ecosystem designed by Prologic First including an inbuilt website booking engine, e-POS, channel Manager, back-office system, contactless check-in/out, contactless dining, contactless payments, 175+ interfaces/Open API, and more. Our mycloud system provides hotels with a smooth, fully automated way to manage their hotel operations and optimize revenues. Winning the best usability 2021 award proves how easy the software is to learn and how quickly hoteliers are managing their business without any hassles by automating their hotel IT operations and spending time with their guests. mycloud is a complete integrated solution that is designed to meet today’s challenge and since the software is easy to learn and use this allows the staff to complete their everyday tasks easier and work more efficiently. By using mycloud hotel operators are enhancing their guest service which in turn improves the revenues and this proves that mycloud offers the best value for money. Source: https://bit.ly/3wqgioV Over the past few years, everything has changed including the way people think and feel about their hotel stays. Whether it is business or leisure, guests expect to have a unique and comfortable experience starting from the minute they arrive at the hotel till they leave. Today hotel management is looking for ways to help them better serve their guests with such competency that even starts before the beginning of their stay. The only way that hotels can do that is if they have relevant information that they can use. The impact of such data on the hospitality sector has been a key player in the game affecting both customers and hoteliers.
The Availability of Big Data Once a customer decides to make a booking for their upcoming holiday, they basically provide a huge amount of data at the Web booking engine. Once the guest arrives at the hotel, various modules like PMS, POS, digital menus, mobile apps collect guest specific data during their stay, and post stay reviews and feedbacks or even after the end of their hotel stay in the form of a review on the hotel’s website or on social media. Such data includes more than customers’ payments and time of arrival. There will be information available about each guest, their individual stay and meal preferences, services utilized and spend histories, during the stay, in addition to special requests. With all this online and offline data available, hotel managers and employees find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of information available to use. But what does this mean? How can hotels use such data to customize the individual guest experience, Improve per room revenue, guest spending and build customers’ loyalty? Frequency and profitability are two different things. Hotel earnings usually follow the 80/20 model, where 80% of the revenues are generated by 20% of the customers. This means that hotel managers need to identify the potential of every guest and create a special rewarding program that especially cater to his or her needs. Identifying the potential customer’s lifetime value is not easily done based on one single visit. Marketing specialists need to identify recurring customers even if they don’t spend much on extras. Identifying their needs and their preferences and upselling services based on those needs might encourage them to indulge in some of the hotel extras that will generate more revenues in the long run. Marketers also need to identify the nature and circumstances that will affect the number and types of guests who are most likely going to make a booking at a certain time of the year. This will help them create the most significant promotional offers and programs that will help attract more customers and make sure that they enjoy a satisfying stay which ultimately guarantees that they will check in again. Guest Services Management Software Solutions and What Do They Mean? In today’s modern world, those who fail to keep up with the speedy trends are going to fall behind. Hotel managers need to use a solution to help direct and channel all sorts of data that come from various sources into one single useful channel. This way, they will be able to analyse such data and use it to create a guest profile with all the relevant information. Such guest profile will help hotel managers make better decisions regarding their marketing policies and guest experience strategies. This way they are capable of designing special programs for unique customer experiences. Today’s hotel guests have high expectations regarding their experience and the kind of service they will receive. Hotels need to use guest service solutions to increase the level of satisfaction of the customers by providing a hotel stay that specifically caters for their needs and preferences. Using Multiple Applications A hotel PMS has access to different data related to every single customer who has ever checked into the hotel. This includes their food preferences, request for alarm calls, using different facilities like the gym or spa and whether they arrive with children or not. A PMS and guest services software collect all these different types of data. This data when connected to a BI, presents a hotel with a 360-degree view of not just guest profile but also every service provided within a hotel. This allows them to focus on each guest plus also re-look at revenue strategies, online selling statistics etc. By dealing with customers on a personal level and making them feel that they are special and unique, a hotel will be able to build a customers’ loyalty, which automatically generates more income. Meanwhile, all systems within a hotel naturally generate big amount of data that should be available for use. Still, such systems lack the ability to provide accurate and critical data that could support proper decision-making. Business owners used to compensate for these shortcomings by generating huge amounts of reports. This meant that a lot of individuals would spend time to write manual reports, sending them to other departments; still lacking the most relevant information that can enable decision makers make more profitable choices. BI offers handy tools that would enable employees to examine data and derive insights. These tools analyse big data in order to provide timely and accurate information that would enable business owners analyse booking patterns, customer satisfaction levels and the overall success of offers and promotions; and not just to simply increase revenues. Such analyses would amend the decision-making process and ultimately allow hoteliers to improve on the whole business strategy. Today creating a personalized guest experience is what it takes to get ahead of other competitors in the hospitality business. This can even start before your guests arrive by sending them promotional offers at the times of the year they will most likely think about booking a hotel. A guest services and engagement solution helps hotel managers and employees to automate communication related to most crucial data touch points. The future holds a lot for the hospitality sector. Machine learning and using the latest technologies will allow managers and marketing departments to predict revenue patterns and guests’ behavior in advance to design the most relevant programs. This will give hoteliers more time on focusing on improving the services provided and making their guests happy and comfortable. Deepak Chauhan is vice president at Mycloud Hospitality. He is responsible for marketing and positioning of “mycloud” platform and is a veteran in the hotel software industry with over 25 years’ experience giving him a strong understanding of the product requirements in the industry. He has very rare mix of working in operations of various hotels and chains for over 10 years and then co-founding a software product and service company, servicing 5 star hotels and chains for 14 years. Deepak has led the development and marketing of cloud based hospitality systems to meet the specific, business objectives of small and mid-size properties across the globe and has worked closely with a diverse group of hoteliers and hotel technology vendors. Source: https://hoteltechnologynews.com/2018/01/big-data-mean-hotel-management/ |
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December 2021
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