As per a recent report, the worldwide Smart Hospitality industry is expected to reach USD 49.8 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 29.8 percent. Right from the time of booking a room till check out and returning home, the hospitality services providers can streamline the experience at every touch point.
Brands that focus on a traveler’s experience outperform their competition. These brands not only manage to get tangible benefits like revenue growth, improved brand preference but can also retain high customer retention rates. In an era of hyper personalisation, positive traveler’s experience has become even more relevant today.
Every traveler is important because of their unique personality and needs. There is a business traveler who has a fixed itinerary. There is a revenge traveler who is determined to take back as many experiences as possible. There is a family of five – the parents, two kids, and a dog – building memories for life. There is a mother of a toddler, taking a solo trip and gifting herself a much-needed break.
While each of them would tread their own path, the hotels they stay at could make or break their experience as a whole.
As the travel sector lifts itself up, a huge onus is on hotels to help travellers make the most out of their journeys. Delivering exceptional guest experience is imperative for their revival and continued survival. With the advancements in digital technology over the last several years, it is also within the realm of possibility.
Building experiences that matter
During the pandemic, the hotel industry has seen the shift from “zero vacancy” to “zero occupancy”. Are we beyond Covid? I am not sure. But we have certainly arrived on the other side of global travel restrictions.
As per a recent report, the worldwide Smart Hospitality industry is expected to reach USD 49.8 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 29.8 percent. Right from the time of booking a room till check out and returning home, the hospitality services providers can streamline the experience at every touch point.
Convergence of digital technologies like robots, connectivity solutions, and analytics is culminating into the development of an experience-driven, customer-first ecosystem. Robotic bartenders and concierges, self-check-in kiosks, sensors-enabled HVAC Control, and Cloud-based digital menu app are some of the use cases already being implemented across the world.
The pillars of guest experience
Quality, Convenience, Sustainability, and Speed are the four pillars on which the guest experiences can be built. High quality convenience, delivered in real-time, at every touch point is the name of the game now. Other dimensions of quality like reliability, performance, security, and robustness ultimately contribute to the “Exceptional” in experience.
While developing use cases, investing in technologies, and formulating digital strategies, it is important to determine ‘how’ and ‘where’ they fit into this purview to justify the ‘why’. For example, contactless access to the rooms through app-based key or RFID sensors is convenient and fast. It uses technology that is sustainable, no-touch, and cost-efficient for the hotel owners. Similarly, automated check-in and check-out processes through kiosks or robots offer convenience at speed and safety through sustainable technology.
Smart foundation for smart hospitality
Smart hotels are anchored to advanced digital technologies such as Robotic Process Automation, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Big Data & Analytics.
Smart connectivity: Leveraging IoT devices, a connected ecosystem can be enabled across the hotel. This offers control to the guests to manage their room’s ambience as per their own preference and comfort. At the same time, it also improves the ability to anticipate and predict technical issues proactively, and address maintenance & repair through continuous monitoring and providing timely alerts.
Smart in-room assistance: Voice-based assistants, AI chatbots, and robot concierge unlocks the Goldilocks experience for the guests. They can schedule wake up calls, order room service, control IoT devices, hail cabs, deliver items to guest rooms, report Wi-Fi zones, alerts for empty food trays, trash in hallways and more – convenience at their fingertips! Voice commands can be used to control things like thermostat, drapes, television, and lights.
Smart personalisation: The trio of AI, Cloud, and IoT can help tailor the right experiences for guests. By tracking past preferences and behaviors, hotels can customise the room settings (TV, Lights, heating) in the precise manner the travelers prefer. Digital concierges provide personalised experience and assistance while reducing contact with guests. Interactive maps would deliver real-time information, such as events, places of interest, restaurants, and online reviews.
Smart utility management: Adoption of technology leads to sustainable and cost-efficient operations for hotels. AI-led IoT devices can monitor utility consumption, optimising availability based on occupancy and usage. With the pandemic more or less behind us, and travel resuming, travellers and hotel guests are becoming concerned about safety and cleanliness. UVC light and virus-killing robots increase disinfectant capabilities. Contactless payment and access control technologies like elevator buttons and room keys also address high-touch surface concerns.
Smart demand management: With AI and Big Data & Analytics, hotels can derive predictive insights related to trends, seasonal factors, and demand fluctuations. By proactively monitoring market demand signals, hotels can optimise the distribution of resources and pricing.
To summarise, digitalisation in the hospitality sector is driving transformation across operations, customer experience, and the entire ecosystem. Digital innovations are offering unprecedented growth opportunities for the Hospitality industry. The Indian hospitality sector witnessed an 'exponential' growth of 339.3 percent year-on-year (YoY) for Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) in Q2, 2022 over Q2 2021. To sustain this growth, hotels will need to smarten up their guests’ experiences through technology.
Digital Assurance-led Digital Engineering will be the key to fostering and fortifying robust, reliable, and secure hospitality experiences for the guests. Taking pre-emptive measures to ensure scalability & sustainability in these efforts will create the differentiating factor in the experience offered to the guests.
Access the full report here.
The author is president, digital engineering services, Cigniti Technologies.
About Cigniti:
Cigniti Technologies Limited (NSE: CIGNITITEC; BSE: 534758) is the World’s Leading AI & IP-led Digital Assurance and Digital Engineering Services Company. Headquartered in Hyderabad, India, Cigniti’s 4100+ employees help Fortune 500 & Global 2000 enterprises across 24 countries accelerate their digital transformation journey across various stages of digital adoption and help them achieve market leadership by providing transformation services leveraging IP & Platform-led innovation with expertise across multiple verticals and domains.
To learn more, visit www.cigniti.com.
Contact:
Midhun.pingili@cigniti.com (+91 8886093093)
