PMS technology has been a part of standard hotel operations for over 30 years and has made hotels operations efficient and scalable.
NB: This is an article from Roomdex, one of our Expert Partners
However, as powerful as it is, there is still plenty of manual management of guest data and transactions. The truth is that hotel managers and front of house staff spend a lot of their time staring at a computer screen. Every time your face is looking down, possibly wrangling with your PMS or POS, the less meaningful time you have with your guests.
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At ROOMDEX, we look for opportunities to break down those barriers to guest service. We believe that it is a mistake to be satisfied with the ways things have always been done. The truth is that many hotel operations are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and unproductive. ROOMDEX technology uses automation to remove those repetitive tasks that are a waste of hotelier’s valuable time.
And soon we will be releasing the newest innovation: Guest Services Automation.
What is Guest Service Automation?
Beyond the rooms and bed, the hotel stay is layered with an array of optional guest services that personalizes each guest experience. Breakfast, parking, rooms service, exclusive access areas, etc., are all “add-ons” to the normal hotel stay. While these can be critical requirements for your guest, the challenge for the hotelier is that these services tend to be lower margin and require extra effort from your staff.
When it comes to delivering guest services, automation can play a strategic role in reducing administrative tasks. Why? Because anytime a human must interact with the POS or sell something or take an order – there is an opportunity for automation. With back-office task automation, hotels could be more efficient and focused on interacting face-to-face with guests. Automation helps hotels return to their roots as a people-first industry; it complements the human touch and open doors to meaningful conversations between guests and hotels.
Guest Service Automation: Be present in your hotel
With ROOMDEX’s guest services solution, we automate the entire process of upselling guest service items. There is no transaction management required. Only the “last mile” may need to be completed manually – the actual delivery of service to the guest (for some upsells, such as access to exclusive areas or parking, there is no fulfillment by the hotelier required).
Traditionally if a hotel wants to presell and upsell to the guest, there are a number of manual steps that need to occur:
- Step 1: Marketing – Promotion of services (back office)
- Step 2: Selling –Front desk agent sales efforts (front desk)
- Step 3: Admin – Recording the transaction in the PMS or POS (front desk)
- Step 4: Admin – Once recorded, if required, fulfillment scheduling (back office)
- Step 5: Admin – Service delivery assignment to staff (back office)
- Step 6: The actual physical delivery of the service (on-site)
With ROOMDEX’s guest services automation solution in place, steps 1-5 are fully automated. We make the entire guest service upsell journey more efficient and convenient for both the guest and hotel. The front desk staff are no longer burdened with the task of upselling guest services and the admin requirements that go along with fulfilling them. By eliminating the low-value-adding processes and activities, front-of-house no longer has to worry about long lines and frustrated guests. Similarly, guests do not need to pick up the phone or contact the hotel if they want to book or reserve services – they can easily and efficiently do this from the comfort of their own device.
Not only does self-service and automation of guest services deliver both convenience and cost savings but at the same time it improves customer service and increases conversion and sales.
Even pre-COVID, there was a growing trend in the self-service personalization, probably because of everyone’s constant exposure to the interaction experience of e-commerce. Consumers like the power of choice and control and businesses found that digital sales drives more revenue. In a self-service environment, guests are willing to spend more. Even airlines have found that a menu approach to the flight experience has driven drive more profit.
Perhaps most importantly, managing a hotel in a post-pandemic world means to do more with less staff, all while meeting the high expectations of hotel guests who haven’t traveled in 18 months.
In the next few months, ROOMDEX will reveal more details to our newest automation innovation. Now is a good time to start and try out ROOMDEX. Start making immediate high margin revenue and ROI with automated room upgrades and stay extensions. Than add guest services upselling at the right time! Just as with our room upgrades, and stay extensions, we think guests and hotelier alike will love ROOMDEX Guest Service Automation.
