HITEC 2019 NEWS: HCN Debuts DineIN for Managing Room Service Operations

Do you have a love/hate relationship with your hotel’s Room Service operation? Do you want to meet guest expectations but hate the operational headaches? Next week at HITEC Minneapolis, the Hotel Communication Network (HCN) will unveil a new program that removes Room Service pain points forever. Called “DineIN,” HCN’s digital dining experience gives hoteliers options for managing Room Service operations via its popular HCN Navigator Tablets, including the ability to outsource Room Service altogether to HCN.

HCN will showcase "DineIN" in Booth 1210 June 17 to 20 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Hotel guests want a completely connected experience while traveling, and that includes digital dining. Replacing printed menus with digital tablet ordering is nothing new in hospitality; some of the largest hotels in North America have been offering digital Room Service ordering for many years through the HCN Navigator Tablet, and today are are seeing revenue increases of 22% or more. The Navigator Tablet also enables guests to keep onsite restaurant and grab-and-go options top of mind by facilitating menu item ordering from any outlet and having those items delivered to their rooms or picked up in a designated location. This ensures that fast and accurate ordering reaches every guest, and it reduces ordering errors by enabling immediate changes to be made if menu items are no longer available.

At HITEC Minneapolis, HCN will unveil a new DineIN package that enables limited-service hotels without food-and-beverage to offer Room Service and HCN will manage the process entirely. Using Navigator Tablets, guests can order f&b from up to 12 local restaurants that are handpicked by hotel staff to provide a wide variety of local dining options. Items can be charged to the room folio, and delivered right to the room, just like a normal Room Service order. With guest safety and a secure experience top of mind, HCN established a very thorough delivery protocol. Not only will this program boost guest satisfaction scores at limited-service hotels, but the properties can share in the profits. And, through HCN integration partnerships with the industry's leading PMS providers, guests' orders can be billed directly to their rooms or paid via credit card. It's Room Service 2.0 – and the perfect solution to eliminate high f&b operations costs. HCN even provides its own Help Desk should the need arise.

Rather than relying on a mobile app delivery service such as GrubHub or Uber Eats, Bidner said hoteliers will find the DineIN outsourcing program to be highly successful, as guests will get "a better meal and a better deal" because they aren't paying Room Service surcharges.

After testing a popular food delivery service, a 1,500-room downtown San Francisco hotel tried the HCN-managed Room Service offering. Almost immediately, satisfaction scores jumped from 50% (achieved by the food delivery service) to 85% (realized by HCN's DineIN Service).

To learn more about DineIN and the Hotel Communication Network, visit HCN in Booth 1210 at HITEC Minneapolis or visit www.hcn-inc.com.