Mobile technology, powered by the internet and the presence of apps, is a game-changing development for various industries with regard to better consumer service and engagement.
But, what impact does mobile technology have on the hospitality industry? How are hotels or resorts leveraging mobile platforms for branding, guest loyalty, marketing, advertising, cross-selling, and so on?
Let us take a look at several ways in which the hospitality industry adopts mobile technology in the hospitality industry and apps to provide a superior service experience to customers.
Mobile Technology Statistics in the Hospitality Industry
Here are some of the facts that will let you how mobile technology is impacting the hospitality domain:
Source: Statista
- Approximately 85% of international tourists use a mobile device during their travel.
- Hoteliers in Asia, Europe, and North America were surveyed about their primary use of mobile technology, with 24% stating it improves guest experience, whereas 5% saving time.
- Around 74% of travelers say that they would prefer using a hotel application for booking and other details.
- Approximately 45% of travelers book their hotels and tours through mobile apps on their preferred mobile devices.
- Nearly 70% of last-minute bookings are done using a mobile device.
- Hotel mobile applications help approximately 70% of travelers in making booking decisions.
- 88% of hotel guests wish to have a mobile application that can deliver them a personalized experience.
Clearly, mobile technology in the hospitality industry, powered by the internet and the presence of apps, is a game-changing development for various industries with regard to better consumer service and engagement.
But, what impact does mobile technology have on the hospitality industry? How are hotels or resorts leveraging mobile platforms for branding, guest loyalty, marketing, advertising, cross-selling, and so on?
Let us take a look at several ways in which the hospitality industry adopts mobile technology and apps to provide a superior service experience to customers.
Mobile Technology Trends in the Hospitality Industry
Below are the latest mobile technology trends in the hospitality industry.
1. Mobile-Enabled Check-Ins
Mobile-enabled check-ins are the most common trend in the hospitality industry. According to New York University, approximately 75.4% of hotels have adopted mobile check-in technology in 2022.
Mobile check-ins allow travelers and guests to check in to hotels using mobile phones. The whole check-in process and the mandatory paperwork are done through the mobile device, saving time and cost for the hotel.
2. AI-powered Chatbots
Chatbots have always been essential in the hospitality industry. Hoteliers use these chatbots to provide information to their guests. As technology advances, these chatbots have upgraded using Artificial Intelligence technology.
Hoteliers have been implementing AI-powered chatbots to enhance the customer experience and provide accurate and personalized information requested by guests and travelers.
3. Voice Search and Voice Control
Many hotel and guest house owners have started using voice search and voice control technologies to offer convenience to their guests. They have installed voice-activated smart home devices in the rooms.
These devices help guests to control lights, thermostats, and blinds and even request hotel services like room service or housekeeping, thus providing a seamless and modern in-room experience.
4. Big Data
In the hospitality sector, Big Data is usually associated with customer behavior and interactions. Hoteliers use Big Data to predict and get in insights into key trends or patterns to make data-driven decisions.
Big Data helps hotel owners optimize room rates, plan target marketing, improve customer experience (by working on the guest feedback), make decisions regarding introducing new services and discontinuing obsolete ones, and for competitor analysis.
5. Blockchain
Since its launch in 2008, Blockchain has become an eminent technology in the hospitality industry rapidly. The key players in the hospitality industry always faced issues to store their guest’s data and secure them from cyber attacks.
Blockchain provides a secured ledger to store guests’ valuable data and is almost impossible to hack. Additionally, Blockchain also unlocks a new payment method and allows hotels to accept payments in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and more.
6. Internet of Things
In the Hospitality industry, the Internet of Things is used for various purposes. The Internet of Things connects various devices and appliances via the Internet, allowing them to send and receive data.
This enables guests to control most of the room’s features, such as air conditioners’ temperature, ventilation, and lights, with their mobile devices. Also, IoT has replaced physical keys or key cards. Now, guests can use their mobile devices as digital keys to lock and unlock doors, thanks to IoT.
7. Tech Lounges
Nowadays, Tech Lounges are rising as an emerging trend in the hospitality industry worldwide. Hotels have started providing guests with Technology Lounges, or Tech Lounges.
These lounges are equipped with extra amenities like presentation rooms, professional workstations, immersive golfing experiences, and meeting rooms. Tech Lounges have truly bridged the gap between personal and professional trips.
8. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are another technology used in tourism and hospitality industry. Hotels and resorts are using AR/VR-based solutions to provide potential guests with immersive virtual tours of their facilities, such as rooms, gyms, swimming pools, dining areas, and more.
Hoteliers have installed AR-based menu cards, which tell about dishes served with complete nutritional value. More to this, many popular hotels also provide VR gaming experiences in their entertainment lounge.
Features of Mobile Apps for the Hospitality Industry
The hospitality industry is meant to be a service industry. Mobile Technology in the hospitality industry is creating new parameters for Service industries by creating personalized seamless experiences for clients.
Now in this tech era hospitality company takes a different approach to drive growth. As the customer experience has to be top of the line hotel are taking the support of the mobile apps for hospitality industry. Therefore, having a strong mobile app for hospitality industry is a must for hotels and hospitality brands in general.
Strong features within the app can provide an entire customer experience. Thus creating a bridge between the user and the hotel. Apps with such features breed customer loyalty. Customer loyalty leads to referrals and reviews on the portal which leads to growth.
Now, let’s talk about the popular features of mobile apps in the hospitality industry.
1. Mobile-Friendly Websites and Apps
Many hotels have gone the mobile way. They realized that mobile websites and apps are ideal for encouraging potential customers to book rooms and check availability, browse through hotel services, read reviews, view hotel pictures, and more.
What is more, they can even do so while on the move! So, the use of mobile websites ensures that people can enjoy a seamless browsing experience from their smart devices and do not need to wait till they get hold of a desktop computer.
Similarly, mobile apps for hospitality industry are a great way to ensure a quick booking experience for the customers and keep them updated about any offers, events, and so on through regular app notifications.
Also, apps empower hotels to market their property as well as their amenities to a much wider audience in unique and engaging ways.
2. Live and Up-to-date Information Sharing
Hotels use online Content Management Systems (CMSs) to ensure real-time information access for the end consumers. They are able to control the information that is presented to the users and can easily insert, modify or delete any data within seconds.
The benefit of using a CMS is that all changes are instantly reflected on all the mobile devices of customers and, thus, hotels are able to save time that would otherwise have been spent in informing clients over the phone.
Once the information about services is modified, an automatic email is sent to guests to keep them updated. This content control ability enables the hotel management team to add any offers or events in real-time and get engagement from mobile users.
3. Better Trend Predictions Based on Customer Behavior
The way in which customers or guests behave once they are inside the hotel-related mobile app and their subsequent in-app interactions help hotels gain valuable insights into the consumers’ preferences.
Would a hotel not be in a better position to predict the trending services for its existing guests with a large chunk of customer behavioral data at its disposal? Of course, the app data does go a long way in helping with such trend predictions and contributes toward better decision-making.
Such customer data even helps the daily operational activities of the hotel by enabling them to know the peak time intervals during which particular services are more in demand by the guests. The management team can thus ensure the appropriate availability of the relevant hotel staff at such peak times.
4. Maintaining Long-term Relationships and Connecting with Customers
Apart from the traditional ways (telephone calls or messages) of staying connected with guests, hotels can now learn about the stay and food experiences of their customers via social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and so on) as well.
More importantly, they are able to respond immediately to any consumer comments, feedback, or queries directly from the social media apps on the hotel’s Facebook page or Twitter handle. Such prompt responses help to build a rapport with the guests and increase the customers’ trust in the business.
Also, hotels use social media pages strategically to offer more discounts and freebies to their followers during lull periods. In this way, they attract guests easily to use off-season times for cheaper accommodation, food, and drinks and thereby ensure better business.
5. Leveraging the Loyalty Program Feature
The ability to offer loyalty programs” in mobile apps for hospitality industry helps hotels bring about up-selling and repeat business through their customers who also become their indirect brand ambassadors.
For example, many hoteliers and resort owners adopt the use of push notifications to send context-based messages to their customers on the basis of their behavior, purchase history, location, profiles, and so on.
In fact, all the promotions and discounts, along with special events, are targeted through push notifications to encourage the app users to make the booking or purchase. More importantly, such loyalty programs are applicable before, after, and during the stay of the guests at the hotel.
6. Encouraging Self-service
While customers may prefer face-to-face interactions, there is always scope for them to take advantage of special services that can be obtained instantly on their smart devices.
The mobile apps for the hospitality industry can serve as a self-service option for hotel guests in terms of:-
- Check-ins and check-outs.
- Laundry and dry cleaning.
- Dinner reservations.
- Room service orders.
- Appointments for spa treatments or massages.
- Online payments.
Above are some of the popular ways in which the hospitality industry is undergoing a transformation in order to leverage the benefits of mobile apps and technology.
Mobile Technology in hospitality industry is focused on streamlining services, improving customer experiences, and offering clients more value for money. And, mobile apps are a great opportunity for hotel management teams to get more business as well as ensure ease of operations.
How to Integrate Top Mobile Technologies Into Your Existing Hotel Mobile Application?
For this purpose, speak to one of Quytech’s professionals with your specific requirements. The professional will provide you with all the required details and how the company can meet your requirements. You can also hire dedicated mobile app developers from the company to embed the latest technology into your existing application.
In case, if you want to build a new application, then reach out to Quytech with your particular app requirements. The company will provide you with a fast, scalable, and robust mobile app.
Here are the benefits of choosing Quytech as your mobile app development partner:
- Experienced and qualified developers developing your app
- On-time delivery
- Regular reports to update you on the ongoing success of your project
- Affordable plans with no compromise in the quality of the app
- Testing at every phase of development to ensure a flawless development
- Efficient project management
We hope the above information about the different ways in which hotels or resorts use mobile technology to connect with their consumers proves useful to you. Please feel free to share your feedback or queries in the comments section below.
Do you have any queries regarding Mobile app development? Or you want to know more!!! You reach out to our skilled Application development team at Quytech.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How mobile technology is changing the hospitality industry?
Mobile technology has enabled guests to book hotel rooms, order food, buy tickets, get directions, make reservations, and more, enhancing their experience.
Q2. How is IoT in hospitality industry used?
Internet of Things, or IoT, is used to control the majority of the rooms’ features, and used as digital keys, replacing old physical keys and key cards.
Q3. Which are the top hospitality app development companies?
The top hospitality app development companies are:
- Quytech
- Blue Label Labs
- Chop Dawg
- Arctouch
- Vention
- Zco Corporation
- Willow Tree
- Utility Agency
Q4. How much does it cost to develop a hospitality app?
The cost to develop a hospitality app may range from $ 35000 to $200000, or more.
Q5. What are the emerging technologies used in hospitality mobile app development?
The emerging technologies used in hospitality mobile application development are:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Big Data
- Blockchain
- IoT
- Augmented and Virtual Reality
- Voice Search and Voice Control
- Mobile Enabled Check-ins
- Tech Lounges
