The Hotel Lobby: How to Upgrade It for Maximum ROI
While guestrooms are the backbone of a hotelier’s business, the lobby is its heart. The hotel’s lobby has the potential to foster a sense of welcome, feeling of community, and even an emotional attachment with guests. It can drive loyalty, facilitate social media promotion, and drive adjacent revenues. Yet too many hotel lobbies are overlooked pass through chambers that echo with emptiness. It’s no wonder that guests at these hotels prefer to bypass the front desk as the staff shuttles them from the front door to the elevator with no frills or flavor.
Budgets no doubt drive decisions in the hotel industry. Those with an appetite for a full lobby renovation should look to W Times Square as a model, as that property in the heart of Manhattan is benefitting from a stunning technology driven upgrade designed and integrated by a premier hotel technology integrator. That said, not every hotelier has the budget for a full renovation. Below are some more budget conscious upgrades that will make an immediate impact.
Greet your guests with technology
While personal greetings and engagement have underpinned hospitality since its conception, the economic realities of today mean that staff is stretched, turns over regularly, and likely lacks the language proficiency necessary to communicate effectively with a diverse set of visitors from around the world. The result is a miss – missed personal connections, missed sales opportunities, and missed service delivery.
Meanwhile, guests are increasingly drawn to technology and the innovations that enable the personal greeting to scale have become more affordable. Cruzr, a humanoid robot from UBTech, is greeting guests with a multi-modal smart interface in leading hotels’ lobbies in Asia Pacific and the United States today. Cruzr’s technology will enable your hotel to scale greetings, facilitate check-ins, and even accompany guests to the elevator.
Hotels in gateway cities are increasingly welcoming guests from across the globe, many of whom prefer to communicate in a language other than English. Google Assistant now offers an enterprise grade real-time voice-based translation solution for hotel lobbies.
International guests are beginning to favor hotels with this technology as it enables the personalized service they require; provide in their own native language. Not only does this solution modernize the lobby at a very reasonable price, but it also rolls out a proverbial red carpet for international guests - showing these customers that you value and welcome their business.
Cater to your guests cravings
Nothing will get your guests to spend time in the lobby like food and drink. Whether as an additional revenue stream or a complimentary benefit for your guests, incorporating food and beverage into your lobby environment brings it to life. Fantastic restaurant concepts and trendy coffee shops like Stumptown Coffee have found their way into hotels and the benefits extend well beyond some rental income, But not every lobby can accommodate or support such establishments. More and more hoteliers are adding grab and go markets enabled by Impulsify point of sale systems to accommodate their guests cravings. These markets align with the informal yet time strapped nature of today’s guests. Others are adding complimentary wine hours often featuring technology enabled dispensers - like those from WineStation from Napa Technology that are being deployed at Hilton properties - that add a modern edge to the traditional beverage. For your guest’s morning joe, Nespresso offers a sleek and cost effective way to bring high quality coffee to your lobby every morning.
Entertain and engage
Lobby entertainment that is well marketed can turn your hotel into a destination unto itself. The selected entertainment should be brand consistent and align to your guests’ interests and tastes. You don’t need Celine Dion performing nightly to make this a success. Rotating exhibitions of local artists are one way to bring high quality entertainment at a low or no cost. Live music can absolutely add some electricity to your lobby, but take care to ensure it can not be heard in the guest rooms and does not overwhelm your space - permitting guests who lack interest to go about their stay without delay or bother.
Create spaces that foster community
No hotel has fostered a community-like atmosphere in its lobbies quite like CitizenM. Whether for work or play, the comfortable, casual, yet chic public spaces at this boutique brand’s properties enable conversations, collaboration, and turn strangers into fast friends. While each hotel will tend toward its own brand consistent lobby design, the CitizenM model’s success demands consideration and study by every hotelier looking to looking to upgrade.
Hotel lobbies are evolving with the changing demands of today’s guests. Hoteliers who follow the strategies outlined above will drive loyalty, improved net promoter scores, and positive trip advisor reviews from that previously sparse pass through chamber that once echoed with emptiness.
About the Author
David Berger was the first to conceive of, develop, and deliver a viable hotel voice assistant. He is the Founder and CEO of Volara - the voice hub for the hospitality industry. Volara’s conversation management software and secure integrations hub turns the leading consumer smart speakers and natural language processing platforms into a hotel business tool. Volara is building voice interfaces for leading hotel technologies, while providing hotels the software to manage conversations with their guests at scale. Volara is the Official and Exclusive Partner of Marriott for pilots of voice technologies. It is also developing voice based solutions for leading brands like Viceroy, Melia, Two Roads, and more.