Hospitality has long had the reputation to be late adopters when it comes to bringing technology into the hotel experience. Hoteliers often have a fear that they will lose the personal, hands-on touch if technology is involved.
In the latest Hotel Business Hot Topics session, “Empowering Guest Experience: How hotel tech shapes loyalty and human connections,” in partnership with DIRECTV HOSPITALITY, moderator Glenn Haussman, founder/host, No Vacancy Live Podcast, was joined by Kim Twiggs, associate VP, market development, DIRECTV HOSPITALITY; Matt Schwartz, chief technology officer, Sage Hospitality; Dina Belon, president, Staypineapple Hotels; and Dorothy Dowling, managing director, Horwath HTL, to find out how hoteliers can strike the right balance between technology that will elevate the guest experience, while still keeping that personal touch.
To open the session, Twiggs shared data that her company gathered from its guest media research survey.
“We are seeing that hotel guests are increasing their amount of time on the road,” she said. “In 2023, there was an average of 13.4 nights in hotels per year versus 9.8 nights on average in 2022. So we see that propensity to get back out and spend more nights in hotels.”
She also shared that business travel was up 30% from 2022, while leisure was up 40%. Following the “revenge travel” trend coming out of the pandemic, “now things seem to be taking on a more normal cadence, and we are seeing everyone back on the road just enjoying their time,” she added.
While in previous years, guests wanted a hotel experience that was different than what they had at home, that is no longer the case. Guests want the same technology that they are used to.
Schwartz said that Sage is making sure that the experiences the company offers are like home—or better.
“At home, you don’t worry about check-in, TV, WiFi, hot water or noise coming from your neighbor,” he said. “At Sage, we don’t want the bar to be as good as at home. We want it to be better. That’s the whole point of the experience, so we look at lots of different ways to enrich the guests’ stay while they’re there.”
For Belon, technology is “100% an employee-based methodology,” adding that her company will never have kiosks in its lobbies. She shared that one of her general managers offered the perfect reason why. “I was asking her about the idea, and she said to me, ‘Dina, that would be horrific if people can come in and check in at the kiosk. I’ll have no opportunity to engage with them and get to know them so I can figure out a curated experience for them.’”
In order to have that great interaction, both Belon and Schwartz said they hire front-desk employees based on their EQ, or emotional IQ, and their personality.
For Schwartz, the front-desk associate is more like a concierge or local guide.
“When someone is new to a city, they don’t want to know about the hotel; they want to learn about the area,” he said. “We want that experience not to feel transactional. We don’t want someone behind the front desk just clacking away at keys. We want them having a conversation.”
The EQ comes into play during that interaction, with a good associate being able to recognize the guest’s mood.
“If a person’s flight was delayed, they’re tired, they don’t need the 10-minute spiel,” he said. “They can give the guest their key and let them get to their room. That is the humanity we are talking about. Let the technology remove as much friction as possible but have that humanity to have that EQ about understanding where that guest is. Be in their shoes, if you will.”
StayPineapple screens for EQ during its hiring process, “We really focus on the person’s personalty, and if they are plugged in,” said Belon, “I can teach them how to use the PMS system, and if they have never worked in hospitality, that is better. I’d rather they not bring bad habits with them.”
With the number of things that can go wrong—from technology issues to everyday occurrences—team members need to be able to handle them.
“Sending a guest off to a 1-800 number that is being answered in Singapore is not a solution,” Belon said. “A guest needs to be able to go down to the front desk and talk to a human being who can help them.”
Haussman pointed out that many Gen Z employees have knowledge of technology but lack the social and interpersonal skills needed in the industry.
Dowling said that the industry must go beyond hiring for interpersonal skills, adding, “I think there’s got to be this leveling up in terms of these social-skill competencies. There has got to be some intentionality from an employer perspective in terms of understanding that gap and building out the right kind of development programs for employees. I don’t think it is an issue of willingness, but an issue of lack of development.”
Schwartz said that technology is oftentimes the first thing guests—especially those of younger generations—come in contact with when they walk in.
“They are often on their phones when they walk in,” he said. “What matters to them is, ‘Is there cellphone connectivity? Is there WiFi? Can I still game?’ One of the things we have been working on is making sure cell connectivity doesn’t drop off as soon as you walk in.”
He also sees the use of technology among guests being a choice, with some opting to not want to speak to a front-desk associate when checking in.
“There will be folks who want to check in and not talk,” he said. “They may have been to the hotel five times and want to get where they are going. Then, there are people who it may be their first time, and they don’t travel too often. They want to have that human connection. Maybe that’s generational; maybe it’s not.”
While it seems like all guests want strong WiFi to do their everyday tasks, Haussmann asked Twiggs about how technology is keeping up for guests who require a stronger bandwidth for things like gaming and live presentations.
“According to our survey results, we have bandwidth infrastructure at a point where it is sufficient for basic things like email,” she explained. “We are starting to see that the WiFi isn’t sufficient for things like gaming and even streaming entertainment in hotels across the U.S.”
A major responsibility of hotel technology providers is making sure they are keeping up with demand for all the services that guests need.
“The data that we collected this year said that 75% of guests surveyed reported that in-room WiFi was too weak to stream,” Twiggs pointed out. “That is a huge number, and 85% said that it is really frustrating.”
She said that while the industry has gotten the basics down, it is important that it is accommodating for things that the new generation of travelers want.
“For guests 21 to 49, 59% of them would choose a hotel if it offered cloud gaming or the capability to participate in their gaming habits,” Twiggs said. “It is 19% for ages 50 and over.”
The biggest challenge for hoteliers, according to the DIRECTV HOSPITALITY executive, is that they have to accommodate all of the different needs for Boomers, who make up 70% of buying population and the overwhelming majority of hotel stays, as well as for younger travelers.
“When you are trying to bring in these newer things, such as logging in to streaming, getting access to music accounts, cloud gaming and casting, that is a big requirement right now across all hotels.”
Schwartz mentioned that when he travels with his two teenage sons, the first thing they check out is the WiFi.
“When my two teenagers are in the same room, they want to stream different things,” he said. “They don’t want to watch one thing on the big TV. It is so critical that you have sufficient bandwidth to each individual guestroom and all the common areas of the hotel. So many hotels fall short on that experience.”
Dowling said it is extremely difficult for hotels to be all things for all people and execute well.
“It is about understanding where we can win, where the best customer fit we have is and then having a very strategic approach to marketing and customer acquisition and activation,” she said. “It is about understanding the hotel ecosystem and how you best fit into that in terms of how you get them in and keep them.”
Twiggs said that, while there may be differences by generations, all guests have something in common.
“They want convenience, choice and control,” she said. “When you think about that from a technology perspective, that lends a whole lot of context into where you are focusing as a hotelier because, regardless of the generation of your hotel guests, those are the things they are looking for. In a lot of ways, technology, if it is focused on convenience, choice and control, can be a really good way for hoteliers to wrap some context around where they should be focused.”
