Mobile Tech Adoption in 2023 and Beyond
Chris Green, President at Remington Hotels, has been working within the hospitality industry (both for restaurants and hotels) for more than 30 years. He’s held positions such as: General Manager, VP of Operations, and – prior to its merger with Remington Hotels in April of 2022 – he served as the CEO of Chesapeake Hospitality. As of December 1st, Green’s primary responsibilities for Remington include continuing to build on the company’s strong foundation as it pushes the boundaries within the management space.
“I’ve always been an operations guy,” Green explains. “I’ve seen and worked on operational tech both on the granular level and on the global implementation level. I understand how it affects the guest experience, the associate experience, as well as revenue.”
As 2023 begins, Green predicts that mobile technology will continue to significantly affect the way hotels operate – both when it comes to interacting with guests and when it comes to managing and interacting with staff. This is due, in large part, to the COVID-19 pandemic which forced both hotels and guests to adopt mobile tech at a very quick pace within all aspects of their lives.
For example, during the pandemic, Remington Hotels did a few things right away. First, it adopted a scheduling system, based on mobile tech, for its housekeeping department. It helped track where housekeeping staff were for safety reasons and provided them with the most efficient route for cleaning rooms. Second, it implemented a guest messaging system that would use artificial intelligence to respond to the top questions front desk agents receive on a daily basis. This helped to minimize inbound phone volume to the desk while also providing guests with a seamless experience. Third, it leaned into QR codes and mobile menus for F&B operations.
“The use of digital menus was really helpful during the pandemic when the supply chain was incredibly inconsistent,” Green explains. “We could quickly update menu items when we ran out of specific ingredients so that guests weren’t left disappointed. Being able to operate ‘on the fly’ and being able to adjust to guest demands allowed us to be more efficient and rebound faster as the pandemic ended.”
Remington Hotels has even begun to implement location-based F&B technology that allows staff to deliver food and drinks to guests outside of the restaurant – such as in the hotel lobby, creating a better customer experience.
As mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous, hoteliers tend to debate which customer type wants it the most.
“The truth is, every customer wants the option to use it,” Green says. “Every guest is dealing with different circumstances every time they travel. Sometimes they’ll want to interact with a staff member and sometimes they don’t. But the point is, guests want to be able to choose when they use it, which means your brand has to always have it available as an option for them.”
As Remington looks to the future, it has no plans to return to its pre-pandemic operational technologies or business practices.
“The lessons we learned during the pandemic are going to become a permanent part of the way we operate now because they made us better operators,” Green explains.
And he hopes that his industry peers realize that now is not the time to take a break from innovating with and implementing new mobile technologies.
“It’s the natural tendency, especially after something like the pandemic, to want to take a break. But now is the worst possible time to do so because guests are looking for and expecting so much more from our industry. We have a huge opportunity to push our business forward and we need to take advantage of it!”