Successful hotels meet and exceed guest expectations. Whether traveling for business or pleasure, guests want their needs to be met from the first time they have any interaction with the hotel until they leave the hotel. Easy contact with the hotel using an app is a great way to start meeting these expectations.
Hotels are increasingly using app developers to enhance the hotel’s guest experience by creating apps that bring the hotel’s service excellence into their guests’ mobiles.
With the technology available in 2018, consumers in general, and hotel guests, in particular, are becoming more used to apps making their lives easier. The majority of guests are now connected and are using their mobile devices for travel purposes. Increasingly mobile devices are used to make bookings and generally make travel smoother.
Guests are coming to expect a high-quality app as part of the service offering of a hotel. Hotel guests have very specific needs regarding hotels and previously, many of these needs, especially administrative needs such as bookings, have been badly met by hotels. This creates excellent business opportunities for app developers to set objectives for the successful implementation and use of hotel apps.
Setting objectives and strategies is key to app success in any business. This is also key to hotels and for success with any app development business. One of the key objectives of an app, for both the hotel and the app development agency, is for guests to have an easy, user-friendly way to access information and to use services made possible by the app.
When developing a hotel app, it is very important that the developer focuses on the app user’s experience. The app must be visually appealing, easy to use, and user-friendly.
The app must provide content and functionality that is useful to the app user, for example searching availability dates, ease of booking, and other practical functionality. The app must include simple and easy navigation, guiding the user through the booking process and other functions with minimal effort.
Payment processes must be clear and easy and include different options for the hotel guests. With modern technology and the use of a good localization strategy, it is easy to provide different payment options, including payment in different currencies. The hotel app developer must use this technology to ensure the app provides a good business service to both the hotel and the guest.
The hotel app user must be able to use it to interact with the hotel. Increasingly hotel guests are wanting to leave comments about their experiences at the hotel they are staying.
This is a way of helping other guests make informed decisions about the hotel, but it also gives hotel guests a way of expressing their feelings about the hotel, both good and bad. A guest rating system where guests can rate their experiences at hotels is also important, both for guests and potential guests who are considering the hotel.
This feedback allows the hotel to improve the service offering of the hotel, making it a better business. The hotel can also be responsive to its guests, helping it build a relationship with its guests, and also this will help you indirectly in your SEO game. Read more about how to set up SEO for apps.
AI is becoming increasingly important in all customer-focused businesses and is another way in which app developers are perfectly positioned to provide a service to both hotels and their guests.
Hotels will benefit from having guest information available and collated in ways that provide the hotel with the information it needs to give the best service to its guests.
The app must include information which the hotel can use to provide push notifications to guests who are arriving, such as check-in reminders, suggestions for nearby attractions, information about the area, and local weather. Information gathered can be used by the hotel to advise past guests of future specials or other push notifications which may be of interest to these guests. This will help the hotel build a relationship with its guest, leading to future business.
In turn, guests will benefit by being provided with information and other prompts that AI can structure for their individual needs. The app should use AI to provide an effective personalized and flexible search engine for the guest, helping the guest to easily get the information the guest is looking for. This includes ensuring the app has search filters that limit and prioritize the results for specific users according to their unique criteria. The search options must be clear and easily accessible for the guest.
Having a smooth, attractive app which uses technology effectively is a great business tool which any hotel should be looking at to improve its service and to get ahead of its competitors. App developers have a fantastic opportunity to provide this service to hotels and following a tailored strategy, meeting clear objectives will enable the app developer to provide hotels and guest with this service.