Why Self-Service is Hospitality’s New Normal

The hospitality industry has gone through a transformational phase over the past three years. During this phase caused by a global pandemic, hoteliers have had to navigate their businesses with more uncertainty than usual and adapt their approach to everything from operations and hiring to technology and marketing. One of the biggest issues facing hoteliers today is the current labor shortage and its impact on customer experiences. 97% of hotels report staffing shortages is a top concern. While customer experience is important to most businesses, it is a critical part of the success formula in the hospitality industry. The decrease in available employees means that customers are having diminished experiences which could impact a hotel’s reputation, return visits and more.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Thankfully, the hospitality industry has become increasingly digital and data-driven over the past three years to help support remaining employees and provide a quality guest experience despite current obstacles. As guests plan “revenge travel”, rushing to hotels and resorts, let’s explore the ways the self-service tech can drive a successful and profitable summer surge with limited staff.

Common applications of self-service

For hoteliers to succeed with limited staffing, empowering guests with ways to customize their experience will be more important than ever. While the adoption of self-service technology has increased in the hospitality industry, some hoteliers still aren’t sold on this approach. A top misconception driving this perspective is that the technology will completely replace human interactions with a robotic service experience. Yes, guests will directly engage with technology more, but your hotel or resort won’t be run by robots and your staff will still play an important role in driving customer satisfaction.

The key to finding proper balance in this approach is to ensure that your staff is well trained on how to use the technology and how they can use it to create seamless guest experiences. Self-service tech actually helps to make your staff more effective by offloading mundane or time consuming tasks so they can focus on tasks that humans do better than computers – i.e. "surprising and delighting" guests, building relationships, event management, and more. In fact, 73% of travelers are more likely to choose hotels that offer self-service tech and 38% want a fully self-service model, with staff only available upon request according to a recent Oracle report.

In short, self-service technology can streamline day-to-day operations and allow more time for personal and effective interaction between customers and staff – a critical component to success as customers still value personal touches of great service. Common deployments of this technology include:

• Mobile apps – This is a very popular and common first choice as 67% of hotel managers reported using some sort of application in which guests can use their phones to open doors, operate room climate control, check-in or out, request services, communicate with concierges or schedule housekeeping services.
• Check-in kiosks – Alternatively to checking-in on an app, kiosks have been placed to provide guests with a convenient option for beginning their stay. Not only does this streamline the check-in process for both staff and guests, it’s also a great way for hotels to lengthen the time the front desk can remain open without needing as many employees.
• Chatbots – Hotels have turned to chatbot technology to improve customer service by providing instant answers to common questions, freeing up employees to handle more complex tasks. Chatbots can operate 24/7 and provide customers answers to questions at any time, in any language. As a bonus, chatbots can help reduce customer service costs.
• Frictionless payments – Customers prefer to pay for their stay, room services, spa sessions or any other service without having to physically go to a service desk. 49% of guests report looking for hotels with contactless payments options via a mobile site, app or in-room devices. Through geolocation-enabled ordering, guests can also order from their mobile device to receive food or drinks anywhere on the property.

How self-service tools improves the guest experience

Savvy hotel owners and managers that enhanced their digital capabilities when travel was scarce will be well equipped to succeed during this summer’s travel surge as hotel bookings are nearing pre-pandemic levels. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, travel and tourism revenue could reach $8.6 trillion this year, just 6.4% behind pre-pandemic levels.

As hotels continue to operate with limited staffing, hospitality tech that promotes customer self-service options can help hotel managers provide a modern and convenient experience that guests have come to expect. This approach can positively affect revenues as 70% of consumers would pay more for convenient experiences. When evaluating a strategic move to self-service tech, hotel managers should always consider these main themes that today’s guests value most:

• Convenience – Common inconveniences can be quickly solved by providing guests the tools to help themselves which in turn frees your staff to better manage issues that only employees can solve.
• Personal touches – Once guests are aware that they have the power to customize their stay at the tap of a button, your staff will then have more bandwidth to properly anticipate guest needs and offer highly-personalized services based on each customer’s needs and preference.
• Consistency – By utilizing self-service technology, hotel managers can guarantee that all guests will receive the same service for common and standard activities such as checking in or out at kiosks or extending their stay via an app.

Overall, hotels have to give guests the ability to control their own environments and provide a smooth transition from their everyday lives without adding to your staff’s current workload. A self-service model and the convenience it enables allows guests to have complete control of their stay just as if they were at home, everything from room temperature and lighting to bathroom amenity settings and streaming services can be customized to their preference. Furthermore, a self-service approach also makes for a happier, less stressed staff that can deliver better service and drive return visits.

Finally, a self-service approach unveils an increased opportunity to gather guest data for even more personalization. Through guests’ use of these tools, hotel staff can leverage a glut of first party customer data that can then be used to further personalize experiences while also enhancing marketing and loyalty program campaigns. Feeding this data into digital platforms can also help to deliver a superior guest experience while taking the strain off of employees. The effective analysis and deployment of this data will significantly help hoteliers “future-proof” their business and better manage and deploy hotel staff.