Hotel technology is a constantly evolving project for any venue. The effort to continue dazzling your guests with cutting-edge luxury never ends, and we wouldn’t want it to! Every year, hotel stays become more automated and hotel rooms more luxurious. Welcome back to the second half of our in-depth look at the latest hotel technology trends. In Hotel Technology Part 1, we explored the leading upgrades in the hotel concierge experience and cutting-edge guest room design. Today, we’re diving into the technology trends of 2022 regarding hotel amenities designs, experience integration, and those essential upgrades to behind-the-scenes hotel operations.
Hotel Amenities Designs
Of course, technology is also woven into every hotel amenity designs. Guests want to be immersed in a world of cutting-edge luxury with technology used in ways they never would have imagined or implemented at home. Hotels did this first with architecture and now with both wired and wireless technology innovations.
Mobile Service Booking
Once again, mobile features take center stage as a major influencer in guest experiences. Allow your guests to book their hotel services and reservations directly through your concierge mobile app. Guests want to book a personal trainer, spa treatment, and dinner through a few phone taps, and this encourages full, luxurious utilization of all your hotel amenities designs.
Interactive & Flowing Feature Screens
What wonders we can do with screens, today. Hotels and large transportation hubs have done the most with interactive and flowing screen design. By interactive, we mean that technology behind the screens can detect guest phones and show them content that may be personally appealing for both aesthetic and advertising purposes. Flowing feature screens connect one screen to the next so that content creates an immersive visual environment throughout the hotel’s public spaces.
Tech Lounges
Tech lounges are more relaxed than a business center, but more computer-friendly than the hotel bar. A tech lounge has comfortable chairs and tables with strong wifi bandwidth and many available power & USB ports. You may find your tech lounge occupied at different times of day by digital nomads, gaming teens, and evening streamers as your highly tech-savvy guests find ways to unwind.
Contactless Restaurant Ordering
Many restaurants, in and out of hotels, have adopted contactless ordering. Guests can use the concierge app or scan a QR code to access a mobile menu, build an order, and smile at the wait staff only when the food arrives or leaves. They can digitally request drink refills, order dessert, and book a few barstools for after-dinner drinks. Then pay the bill, all through their phones.
Mesh Network Wifi
Traditional hotel wifi is no longer enough to handle the massive demand of any well-booked evening. Everyone checks their email, streams media, plays games, and – now – does their remote work using the hotel internet connection. Not only do you need some serious bandwidth to handle the demand (just as you have industrial-sized water heaters), you also need a strong network so every room gets clear signal.
Fortunately, technology just upgraded to meet this need. Invest in a Wifi Mesh Network, which has honed the wifi relay system to reliably spread and enhance signal throughout the hotel and grounds.
Phone-Friendly Design
We mentioned induction charging in the rooms but, really, you can embed these power pads everywhere. Space them evenly across the bar. Embed one into each business center desk station. Place one or two at the pool cabana snack bar. Your guests will greatly appreciate the ability to charge their phones all over the hotel without a cable or outlet.
Hybrid-Capable Conference Spaces
Business meetings have gone hybrid, and so should your conference spaces. Whether you have a few bookable conference rooms or an entire conference center in the hotel, you will need high-performing presentation equipment and the ability to integrate virtual members of the meeting. In fact, there are technology firms today that specialize only in conference room upgrades for hybrid meetings.
Business Center Pods
It’s no surprise that your guests also expect more from the modern business center. Streaming rigs and docking stations for a side-laptop are a great start. But the real trend in business center tech is office pods. “Pods” are modular, enclosed office spaces that provide privacy, soundproofing, viral isolation, and a number of convenient charge-ports. They come in single occupant and multiple-occupant sizes, are easy to install, and they are the latest thing in hospitality for the post-COVID digital nomad.
Behind the Curtain
Any hotelier knows that hotel technology isn’t just for the guests. The right upgrades can also transform staff experience and streamline excellent service. Here are the latest technology trends for hotels behind the curtain.
Big Data and Guest Care
Hotels are embracing big data to provide more accurate and holistic experiences for guests. As guests pour their data into mobile apps and online stay management, that data can be used to create a better hotel experience. You may learn a guests’ favorite foods and suggest them again at just the right moment.
Big data makes it easier to remember and track guests, greeting them by name and knowing their favorite table – even though your staff may deal with thousands of guests a year. Big data can also be used in the background to shape larger business strategies based on patterns, trends, and guest preferences that emerge.
Infrared DND Guest Detection
Guests don’t always put out the Do Not Disturb sign before they decide to sleep in. Infrared room checks make it possible for housekeeping to detect if there is a guest inside a room and avoid accidentally walking in on deep sleepers and those in the shower who missed the knock.
Digital White-Glove Partnerships
Lastly, as hotels introduce a vast increase in digital amenities like mobile apps, contactless restaurant menus, smart TV programming, and tourism packages, white-glove digital partnerships have become the norm.
A white-glove service brings in outsourced support under the umbrella of your brand. This way, your smart network or your mobile app may be managed by digital pros while your guests get the full hospitality experience.
Hospitality at the Cutting Edge
Hotel technology trends have never been more numerous – or more popular. While hotels have always explored the cutting edge of tech to dazzle guests and provide unforgettable experiences, today guests both expect more and are more capable of fully appreciating the vast selection of technology now available to hospitality design. Hotels, today, are challenged only with defining what kind of technological experience is on-brand and budgeting the time and resources to enact the latest upgrades.
If your hotel is preparing a technology upgrade strategy or you are still exploring the right technology for your hospitality experience, contact us today. NewGen Advisors can help you build the perfect technology strategy for your brand, budget, and ideal guest experience.