2022 Hotel Trends: Making Tech Tools Work for Your Property
Varying travel restrictions for international border entry combined with keeping up to date with the latest safety protocols have made for another unpredictable start to the year in travel. Travelers and hoteliers alike have felt the ups and downs of navigating the new normal. Despite all of this, recent reports have found that more people are getting back on the road and travel has neared 2019 highs during certain parts of the past year. With a return to travel expected to continue to gain traction in the months ahead, there is much to gain for a competitive hotel landscape in 2022.
The travel sector’s path to recovery places more of an importance on properties of all sizes to be ready to not only meet the high demand but to create a memorable experience for every guest. More demand combined with leaner teams creates an industry-wide pain point of how to meet the needs and expectations of each new stay. Already having proven itself across the hospitality sector in meeting contactless services, i.e., digital menus, and sharing cleaning protocols, existing software once again holds the answer. Technology partners continue to provide the solutions to guest personalization and incorporating the latest insights hoteliers are looking for.
Two-way communication and utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the two key factors that will empower hotel staff to provide a more personalized experience for guests, no matter the size of the team.
MORE INTEGRATIONS, MORE DATA, BETTER GUEST INSIGHT
Reliance on digital modes of service and communication will remain a consumer preference. Prioritizing guest engagement tools will be key in 2022. The use of two-way communication as both a way to interact with guests in addition to an internal method of sharing data across departments, ensures the latest information is accessible in real-time. Hotel departments cannot work successfully in a silo. A steady flow of the most up-to-date guest and task management data empowers smaller teams to complete items efficiently and effectively.
Implementing guest engagement tools that are effectively collaborative across the back end allows a hotel to meet and even exceed guest expectations. Building upon guest profiles, based on the latest preferences and requests shared, can be utilized to incentivize future visits. For example, effective communication across departments can look like anticipating the need of additional towels based on a request shared via a guest chat app while the same visitor was inquiring about a reservation at the onsite restaurant. Leveraging data to make better guest decisions in 2022 will play a pivotal role in gaining back bookings.
THE IMPORTANCE OF AI
AI is one of the next technologies that will prove powerful for enhancing guest service capabilities across the hotel industry. While the existence of AI is not in itself new, the hospitality sector has not begun to scrape the surface this technology holds as a support tool. Capabilities range from equipping management with an easier way to train staff to creating guest data insights in real-time to helping team members deliver a better overall experience. From a staffing perspective, the ability to implement an efficient training tool to best equip each team member from the start will produce a better work environment. On the guest-facing side, AI can be utilized to pull the latest data throughout their stay to generate service recommendations.
The underutilized potential of AI will soon be a thing of the past. Hoteliers who begin to implement this powerful tool will find themselves ahead of the competition and gain back the expansive range of bookings expected in the months ahead.
Hoteliers that source the full potential of communication tools and AI technology into their daily interactions will work to set themselves apart across the saturated market in 2022. Prioritizing guest engagement tools and how existing and technologies gaining notoriety, such as AI, hold the power to support this, will help to drive the bottom line for hoteliers.
While we cannot predict the future, many signs are pointing to a strong recovery for the travel industry in the months ahead and that means more bookings are up for grabs for hoteliers. Properties that work alongside the right tech partner to incorporate existing technology into their day-to-day will find themselves ahead of the curve.