Automation tools are now being used as standard by many hoteliers who are keen to ensure their guests experience the best stay possible and are keen to make further reservations. If you’ve not yet deployed an automation platform, you may be surprised at the difference they can potentially make to your guest retention rates.
If you’re still on the fence over whether or not to try an automation tool, then we’ve got the information you need to come down on one side or the other! Below we discuss the key ways that automation can be used to increase your guest retention, as well as boost your employee’s ability to ensure that every single one of your visitors is enjoying the best stay possible.
Online Check-Ins for Greater Guest Convenience
More hotels than ever before are switching to online check-in systems to create smoother processes, boost staff productivity and, most importantly, provide greater convenience for guests: the key to improving retention rates.
Online check-ins offer many advantages to your guests, allowing them to head to their rooms to begin relaxing as soon as they arrive rather than having to wait in line at the front desk to go through a lengthy manual process. Given that a recent report revealed that the average American has a wait tolerance of ten minutes, this is a vital way to make first impressions count. Have a look here for a hoteliers guide for online check-in for all the information you need on how to deploy these processes and the benefits you can expect them to deliver.
Online check-ins turn your guests’ smartphones into their room keys, upping the convenience factor even more as there’s no need for them to remember to take a physical key with them when they’re out – and your front desk staff isn’t required to use up any time sorting out lost ones!
Maximizing Your Marketing Efforts
Automation tools designed to analyze big data, and that start to collect information about your guests’ preferences from the moment they make a reservation, can boost the effectiveness of your marketing efforts exponentially!
This will enable you to wow your guests by offering them tailored, bespoke upgrades, offers, and services at key points throughout their guest journey – which is great news for your bottom line, too! Automated marketing tools can also be deployed to manage potential leads and send both potential and previous clients messages designed to encourage them to make a reservation.
Stronger Sustainability Credentials
One of the key things that’ll keep your guests coming back time after time is ensuring that your hotel’s values closely align with their own. It can be easy to take your eye off the ball with this one, especially with so many other tasks and concerns needing your attention daily. But maintaining a close awareness of what matters – big picture-wise – to your guests is a powerful way of making sure you get those second, third, fourth, and beyond bookings.
Sustainability is now likely to be a concern for the majority of your guests, and your retention rates could be improved by getting your eco-credentials up to par. Happily, automation tools can help on this score, too!
Many hoteliers are already using thermal and movement detectors in rooms designed to detect occupancy. If these detectors sense that the room is unoccupied, they’ll automatically turn down or off the heating, lighting, and air conditioning. As well as helping to shore up your guest-loving eco credentials, these systems could help you save a significant amount of money at the same time.
Better Use of Staff Time
Your workforce is your most powerful means of improving your retention rates; they’re on the front line of delivering the exceptional guest experience that’s vital for getting your visitors to want to stay at your hotel again as soon as possible!
As well as ensuring that all your staff members are adequately trained, are proactive in seeking ways to delight guests, and are consistently professional and attentive in their approach, there are also digital tools that can be deployed to ensure that your staff cover is adequate at all times. An overburdened front desk, for example, is unlikely to be able to deliver the great guest experience that you’d like.
Why not try an automation platform designed to interrogate big data and historical patterns of bookings – as well as a range of other ‘live’ factors and trends – to automatically produce staff rotas? This will ensure that your busiest periods are taken into account well in advance so that you can have peace of mind that your hotel’s level of staff cover will always be up to the task of delivering great experiences for your guests. The sophisticated, intuitive element of these tools means that they can even detect an upcoming ‘rush’ from minuscule changes in expected booking patterns, so you’ll never be caught out.
Catching the Automation Wave
With so many hoteliers already using a range of automation tools and platforms to enhance their guest experience and beef up retention rates, it makes sense to get on board with this type of software, too. Why not try out one or more of the solutions discussed above to help ensure your guests are keen to make a repeat reservation with you the minute they check out? You may be surprised at just how affordable these tools are and the difference they can make: as well as happier guests, you can also expect a happier workforce and bottom line!
