Anna Ransom
Improve daily operations with a hospitality technology solution that can automate processes for greater time savings
We all know the old saying “Time is money.” It’s especially true in hospitality, one of the most fast-paced industries out there today. Hotel employees are constantly required to multi-task and jump from system to system to answer guest requests. Depending on the type of hotel they’re working at, this is easier said than done. Full Service hotels may be properly equipped with the technology and headcount needed to satisfy guests and run an efficient business. But for Select Service or Independent properties, this becomes a much more complicated discussion. The lack of budget alone can put the brakes on any conversation related to upgrading or implementing new technology. So how can these properties find a realistic solution to reduce the amount of manual effort it takes to run their business without sacrificing the guest experience?
Counting the Cost (and Time)
Now that budget season has arrived, it’s time to assess every area of your business – What’s working? What’s not? What are the priorities? Hard costs are easy to calculate, but it’s not enough to settle for using outdated software or manual processes. It won’t help your property stand out from the competition or impress guests. While time utilization is challenging to measure, it has a direct impact on the growth of your business. Data from market research firm IDC shows companies lose 20%-30% in revenue each year due to inefficiencies.
Addressing Hospitality Operational Challenges
We recently asked 300 hospitality professionals to share their top operational priorities. Not surprisingly, our respondents are most focused on improving the guest experience, with proactive incident resolution and addressing guest requests listed as the top 2 operational challenges they hope to address.
In order to increase staff productivity, it’s important to equip them with the appropriate tools to ensure their success. While many solutions may be available, the most direct path to increasing efficiency is by providing solutions that don’t require extra actions, steps, or time to achieve business objectives. Automating tasks is a major time saver and will ensure consistent delivery of service, improve personalization, and free up your staff to spend more time with your guests.
Building the Human Connection
Let’s consider some other areas where automation and time savings will benefit your business and keep the focus on customers:
Improved Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Overall, improving CRM ranked as the #1 technology priority of 2018 with our survey respondents. Now more than ever, properties are looking to personalize their offerings, build guest loyalty, and inspire repeat business.
Research from Bain & Company supports this strategy, indicating that companies excelling in customer service grow revenues at 4%-8% above their market. This trend is driven by higher guest expectations and demand for personalization. Happy guests equal a higher bottom line. And it all starts by arming your team with resources to effectively track important customer details. The more information you’re able to capture about your guests and demonstrate it in thoughtful ways, the more likely they’ll book repeat trips well into the future.
Increasing Group Business Revenues and Profitability
Cited as the top two challenges related to Group business in our survey, increasing the profitability of group and event business is essential to growth.
This is where automation can really shine, especially if you have a small team that is not dedicated to sales and catering. Instead of it taking days for a staff member to follow up on a planner’s request, innovations in the request for proposal (RFP) process now allow business rules to take over. A property can expose their inventory online, allowing space to be booked directly through the website. The faster your hotel can respond to planners, the more likely it is you’ll win the business without lifting a finger.
Budgeting for Success
These are just a few key considerations to make as you build your budget strategy for the upcoming year. Leveraging automation to gain more time savings and increase operational efficiencies are key to growing your business. There are no “one size fits all” solutions when it comes to budgeting, but the more you can rely on technology to remove friction from day to day tasks, it will not only lead to happier guests, but happier employees.
At Amadeus, we’ve spent more than 30 years collaborating with hospitality organizations to better understand their needs and challenges. With these insights, we’ve built industry leading solutions for hospitality operations and sales and catering.
Set up a meeting with us and let us help you reach your goals in 2019.
