An overview of hotel information from Monscierge.
What is PPE You have probably heard the term PPE and may not have a good grasp of what PPE even means. PPE is an acronym for Personal Protective Equipment. COVID-19 has accelerated the need and expanded the use of PPE in the typical work environment. PPE covers make items, but the most common items are: Gloves Medical Masks Respirators Face Shields or Eye Protection Aprons Goggles Boots Shortages of PPE and workflow alterations have complicated many industries and have allowed companies to start thinking of options to use technology to help during this crisis. The “New Norm” The changes in the world have affected the way people travel and interact with each other. Social Distancing is expected behavior, and in many places, you are expected or required to wear face masks. The guest or customer experience is now needing to be altered. Many restaurants are offering contactless delivery or pick up options where an associate will extend a tray with your order and take the items from the tray. In the hospitality industry, there are also new challenges. A guest may not be comfortable having a close conversation or receiving their door key; you just touched to encode to …
As an increasing number of countries around the world, as well as the United States, begin relaxing quarantine regulations, the Hospitality industry is also beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The COVID-19 pandemic is dramatically redefining the social fabric: social distancing restrictions and regulations change the way we interact with the world around us in almost every aspect of life outside the home. For the Hospitality industry, in particular, this means that whole new guest experiences are taking shape. As hotels around the world focus on new strategies and approaches to ensure a strong reopening of their property, a multitude of areas must be considered to redesign the guest experience in a way that meets the demands of an increasingly contactless world, while still delivering the highest standards of customer service that your guests are used to. Critical considerations to prepare the hotel for operations in the post-COVID-19 world range from operational changes to stricter sanitation protocols: for example, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Wyndham, and many other hotel brands all recently announced enhanced cleaning procedures across their portfolio. Proactive hotels worldwide are also taking advantage of this low occupancy period to pursue technology solutions that will …
We have been talking a lot about the various enhancements Apple TV can bring to the guest experience over the last few months. One of the major hurdles we dealt with to bring this solution to an enterprise scale was data security. More specifically, what happens when a guest logs into their own accounts on a hotel room device, then checks out of the room? That’s how we ended up meeting our friends at Jamf. Jamf offers multiple solutions across industries for data security. The Jamf Nation User Conference held this week highlighted the ways they support various industries including health care, hospitality, and retail. If you’d like to find out more about their 2018 Conference, check out their YouTube channel. Utilizing the technology from Jamf, Monscierge has been able to provide access to our range of guest technology via Apple TV while keeping guest data secure. For more information, this article by Bradley Chambers at 9to5Mac is a step by step look at this as it is currently in action at some Red Lion Hotels properties.
Over the last nine years, we have worked to connect hotels and guests using various means of technology. When I first started this job seven years ago, we were building software for lobby screens and just starting to branch into mobile apps. I remember conversations with the marketing team that felt like delving into the future while we tried to navigate new territory and guess what would come next. More recently we’ve delved into the realm of smart TV. Our hotel clients are finding that guests more and more want access to their own entertainment while they travel. This means that guests can utilize the same means of relaxation away as they do at home, with the same personalized features and the same recommendations that companies like Netflix and Amazon bring to them daily. Those words – personalization and recommendation – go right back to day one at Monscierge. That is where we started and it’s where we are still working today. New screens are involved, new means of delivery, more features and better access, but the core remains the same. We are making it easy to bring personalized recommendations to guests on the devices they are already using via …
The J.D. Power’s North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index study showed scores improving across the board, but not as much in the areas of check in and check out. While up overall, guests aren’t quite as happy with the process as they are with the rest of the stay. It makes sense. One of the top annoyances in any experience is standing in line, and a busy front desk often means guests are doing just that. In an early Monscierge survey, we found that 49% of travelers feel that 1-5 minutes is too long to stand in line while visiting a hotel. Moreover, 66% prefer to use mobile check-out over visiting the front desk, and 79% prefer mobile for check-out. Billing accuracy and speed were found to be the biggest factors in guest satisfaction during check-out. Another point touched on by the J.D. Power study is direct booking. Jennifer Corwin, Associate Practice Lead for the Global Travel and Hospitality Practice at J.D. Power, had this to say, “Years of capital investment in offerings such as higher-end televisions and in-room tablets have left their mark. Now, as hotels look to push customer satisfaction levels higher, their focus should turn to service …