Hospitality Tech Professional Reveals Why Prioritising Individuality Over Tech Drives Lodge Success

Within the final 5 years, there was an unprecedented rush to new applied sciences in hospitality reminiscent of AI integration and absolutely automated customer support however typically this overlooks if that’s what visitors need.

With many of those tendencies solely specializing in the enterprise and operational wants of the hotelier, their implementation will not be the perfect factor for customers. 

In our survey of greater than 1,000 BWH loyalty members, we discovered {that a} third (32%) admitted that the presence of expertise didn’t improve their expertise when staying at a resort. 

We’ve realized that for leisure travellers, it’s clear that their precedence is a extra private, welcoming expertise with useful entrance desk employees over faceless apps. Many members (12.45%) chosen high-speed Wi-Fi because the expertise that mattered probably the most to them, adopted by contactless cost methods (9%) and in-room leisure like good TVs (7.3%)*. 

By specializing in these necessities and thoroughly selecting new tech, hoteliers can present a service that’s easy, dependable and seamless, whereas nonetheless enhancing the visitor expertise and never shedding that non-public contact.

This emphasis on expertise over tech tendencies is central to the BWH enterprise mannequin and is the place a well-designed Property Administration System (PMS) can actually make a distinction. A PMS ought to goal to maximise effectivity with out complicating operations, streamlining duties so every part runs easily and reliably.

As soon as absolutely built-in right into a resort’s methods, the PMS simplifies time-consuming duties, like price administration, liberating up worthwhile assets. By automating these features, resorts can focus extra on creating memorable experiences for his or her visitors.

Moreover, connecting toglobal loyalty programmes, like BWH Rewards, could be performed seamlessly via a PMS. This implies visitors can get personalised and easy advantages as rewards for his or her loyalty, with out including to employees workload. 

It’s clear {that a} renewed give attention to easy, efficient expertise is the important thing to success, and this can be a precedence we’re championing at BWH. By investing in the fitting folks and abilities, we’ve expanded our group, enabling our core builders to shift their focus to what matters-creating options that genuinely improve the expertise for each hoteliers and visitors.

This method ensures we strike the proper stability, giving our group the time and assets to develop tech that’s environment friendly and dependable, whereas additionally supporting the private, human contact that visitors worth.

For impartial hoteliers, choosing the fitting instruments is essential to staying future-ready. The actual problem lies to find expertise that enhances effectivity whereas additionally supporting the distinctive identification of every property. At BWH, our focus is on making certain that important expertise works seamlessly, so hoteliers can keep aggressive with out compromising what makes their properties stand out.

Digital foundations like a powerful, user-friendly web site, a seamless reserving journey and stable search engine optimisation are very important in driving visibility and conversions, ensuring resorts stand out and appeal to the fitting visitors. 

However discovering the stability is essential, as knowledge from our members reveals that automated customer support instruments like chatbots and voice assistants are typically the least favoured (9%), with many visitors preferring human interplay. Equally, a lot of our members (10%) discovered digital cashless tipping pointless, with many nonetheless gravitating in direction of conventional tipping strategies.

For Finest Western, our web site stays a key distribution channel, with 2024 bringing a ten% improve in net visitors and an 11% year-over-year rise in bookings through bestwestern.co.uk. Throughout our latest early Black Friday sale, we even noticed our largest single day of bookings, up over 12% from the earlier report. 

As we enter 2025, we’re rebuilding our web site in-house to make sure we’re ready for the following wave of expertise and continued progress for our members.

General, as soon as a hotelier has efficiently constructed a powerful digital basis, there’s no restrict to how far they’ll scale up or what new improvements they’ll discover to remain forward of the curve whereas staying true to their core values and what makes their resort distinctive.

For extra data on BWH Resorts go to www.joinbwhhotels.co.uk