Latest
/
Best Practices

Hotel Handheld Technology: Insights for Revenue Managers

Between staffing shortages and low average occupancy rates, the hospitality industry faces challenges that hotel technology can solve.

Between staffing shortages and low Average Occupancy rates, the hospitality industry faces challenges that hotel technology can solve. Hotels have long been known for maintaining legacy software systems and operating fully on-premise in back-office operations. However, flexible, customizable tools on the market including hotel handheld technology and digital hotel payments, are now making a case to drive decision-making for hotel revenue managers. 

Revenue management is all about boosting revenue and capturing the right sale at the right time. Hotel rooms are perishable inventory, similar to airline seats, and therefore it is important for hotel revenue managers to use strategies that sell the right room, to the right guest, at the right time. Historical data including consumer behavior data is crucial to create a strong revenue management strategy. 

As the hotel industry continues to stabilize and rebound from pandemic-related travel restrictions and impacts, there is an opportunity for hotel operations to evolve their hotel technology and meet the changing expectations of guests. In addition, the overall shift to remote work in the United States has shifted consumer habits to a desire and expect seamless, digital options. 

Here are three insights to guide enterprise-level hotel revenue managers to optimize integrated, cloud-based handheld digital ordering & payments solutions.

Trusting Hotel Handheld & Digital Payment Technology

Online aggregators have disrupted hotel revenue managers. Adopting integrated technology solutions can help revenue managers form a business strategy to build revenue for guests once they are on the property. Revenue management is now extending beyond just the booking process. What can hotels do differently for their guests? Step one is choosing a technology that will make the ordering and payment process more seamless. 

When adopting a hotel technology platform to use handheld technology and digital payments, it is essential to have a unified plan internally. With trust and proof points, it will be easier to implement technology in your hotel. Whether hotel handheld technology and digital payments technology are being layered, integrated, or acting as a stand-alone, there will be direct operational impacts. 

All departments will need to understand how day-to-day tasks will change when adopting hotel handheld technology and digital payments. Therefore, revenue managers must explore hotel technology platforms that streamline deployment and provide 24/7 support as well as in-person and virtual training sessions.

Delivering Excellent Guest Experiences with Hotel Digital Payments & Hotel Handheld Technology

Hotels are known for creating a home away from home for their guests. However, in today’s environment, the ability to provide excellent customer service goes hand in hand with industry-leading hotel technology. Guest expectations have shifted, and hotel handheld technology and hotel digital payments can help deliver fast, seamless experiences to your guests while on property. 

Hotel Property Management systems have long used automation as part of hotel operations, and modern hotels offer guests keyless check-in, and automatic check-out. Guests are able to enjoy their experience without needing to wait in line. Now with hotel digital payments, this service can be extended poolside, to the spa, the golf course and beyond.

Hotel handheld technology helps to: 

  • Ease the drains of staffing shortages
  • Reduce guest frustration
  • Ensure your property can meet demand

Hotel handheld technology can be used by staff and guests alike. Your service team can bring service poolside or to a rooftop lounge. Guests can scan a QR code with their smartphones to access services such as: 

  • the menu
  • promotional offers
  • the hotel website

Handheld technology puts food, beverage, entertainment, and even spa packages directly in the palm of your guest's hand. Increasing the speed and efficiency of front-of-house services means guests are served faster and the hotel staff receives orders in real-time. 

Without digital, cloud-based tools, customer personalization is limited by staff memory. Through handheld technology, however, you can personalize the guest experience with dietary requirements, guest preferences, birthday specials, and many other factors that give your property an edge and improve the guest experience.

Leveraging Hotel Digital Payments for Enterprise & Corporate Guests

One long-standing pain point in the hospitality industry for guests has been the cumbersome expense process of corporate travelers. Many hotel corporate clients are required to manage their lodging, travel, and food and beverage receipts. There is endless staff and guest attention on recouping receipts and managing the complex reimbursement systems of companies.

Hotel digital payments make it easy to: 

  • connect with payment solutions that enable guests to pay how they want
  • Have instant access to their transaction history
  • Free up your staff’s time
  • Gain insight into guest habits and have better data for use for forecasting

Enabling hotel digital payments will ensure your revenue managers can create positive relationships with enterprise clients as well as ensure corporate guests have a seamless experience.

Revenue managers can team up with hotel handheld technology and digital payments to be a driving force in their properties. Revenue managers will continue to need to push the boundaries of their strategy and innovation. Hotel handheld technology can bring revenue managers real-time data and insights to ensure they have flexible, dynamic reporting for decision-making. At GoTab, we would love to talk to you about how to help your hotel flourish. If you’d like to speak with a GoTab representative about how you can drive revenue in your hotel, request a demo today.

Tap Room Playbook: Check Your Experience

Tap Room Playbook Episode 2: 

When you really think about it, with everything managers need to do in a tap room, the hospitality aspect is often overlooked.

Watch Now →
Tap Room Playbook: Kick A** Brands

Tap Room Playbook Episode 3: 

The best breweries pay attention to what their brand stands for. How do the best brewers bring their brand to life?

Watch Now →

Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.

The Situation

Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.

The Solution

Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience

Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.

“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group

According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group

Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.

The Benefits

Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.

Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.

Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.

  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
View All Latest Posts →

Request a Demo

Ready to experience GoTab for yourself? Sign up for a free demo and get qualified to receive a complimentary meal on us!
Request a Demo