Hotels and guesthouses like other companies in the travel industry must look for ways to stand out in the market and there are a myriad of methods to do so. Hospitality technology can improve efficiency, increase revenue and cut waste. Below is a summary of five hospitality technology solutions that you might not have heard of.

Sweeply

Sweeply was designed to simplify housekeeping and task management, automating everyday tasks for deskless hospitality staff. Hospitality managers can use Sweeply to organize the various divisions of the hotel: housekeeping, engineering, guest services, maintenance etc. Their goal is to minimize workload, waste and carbon footprint. 

How does it work in practice? 

Íslandshótel is a hotel chain in Iceland running 18 properties. They managed to save 6,400 hours of labor in four months by using Sweeply. 70% of guests opted to skip housekeeping where they were given the flexibility to choose when they needed it. That led to a more manageable workload for housekeeping staff, improving job satisfaction and efficiency. Last but not least, it led to cost savings through reduced inventory usage and a more sustainable hotel. Full case study.

Lighthouse

Formerly known as OTA Insight, Lighthouse provides market insights, business intelligence and pricing tools to maximize revenue growth. 

How does it work in practice? 

The Capital Hotels yielded higher rates and saved time while increasing their revenue with Lighthouse. With 12 properties, manual rate shopping to determine rates was time-consuming but Rate Insight from Lighthouse cut back on that time to leave more time for strategic tasks. Full case study.

TourDesk

TourDesk is a tour booking service for hotels and guesthouses, enabling them to open up a new source of revenue by earning a commission on every tour or activity sold to their guests via the platform.

How does it work in practice? 

Exeter Hotel in Reykjavík has 106 rooms and 20 employees. They wanted to simplify the tasks of their frontline staff and having one platform to give information about and sell tours was a crucial factor in the success of using TourDesk’s platform at the hotel. Since setting up TourDesk, efficiency of the front desk has improved. Now they can get instant confirmations on all activity bookings, instead of wasting valuable time chasing up confirmations and prices through inefficient methods. The guests are surprised with the service level and often mention the TourDesk service in their review of the hotel. Full case study.

Hilton Reykjavík Nordica is another TourDesk partner and here is what their general manager, Birgir Guðmundsson, has to say about the experience:

Obvlo

Obvlo is an AI powered platform that started out by matching consumers and restaurants based on their interests. This evolved into AI tools to build curated personalized guides for any destination. That was a result of finding out that people were looking to connect with local communities in more authentic ways rather than being driven to the same spots as everyone else. 

How does it work in practice?

Courtyard by Marriott in Edinburgh is a hotel with 240 rooms in the city center with the majority of international guests and a constantly busy reception. Their challenge has been to provide guests with sufficient local information. Obvlo’s Digital Concierge helped them to resolve that challenge. The hotel adopted Obvlo as a local platform combined with pre-arrival e-mails and on-site QR-codes to provide local recommendations inside and outside the hotel to drive awareness of F&B and increase overall guest satisfaction. This allowed them to save over 80 hours at the front desk monthly and expose 18% of hotel guests to the in-house F&B. Full case study.

UpsellGuru

UpsellGuru is a platform to increase revenue while offering guests ways to customize their stay with room upgrades and ancillary services. Their upselling options apply throughout the guest journey, starting pre-arrival, followed by on-arrival and in-stay. It offers dynamic pricing, customized branding and personalized offers among other features. 

How does it work in practice?

Travel Charme Hotels & Resorts used UpsellGuru to get incremental revenue and increase hotel employee satisfaction. They were looking for a solution that could address the multiple touch points of the guest journey with pre-arrival, on-arrival and in-stay upselling. Before implementing the platform, they had been manually sending emails to guests but UpsellGuru opened the option for guests to bid on room upsells through their “bidding” functionality. Revenue picked up from day 1 and increased employee satisfaction and retention followed. Full case study.