by
Terence Ronson,
ISHC
June 6, 2011
Since we are firmly into the season of Hotel Technology Conferences and
Exhibitions, I believe it's the perfect opportunity to update and
re-issue our ever popular Do's and Don'ts of Hotel Technology.
Due to various advances in technology, and general adoption of certain
platforms and practices, the list now includes over 100 reference items
- almost double since V1.
Not all may apply to your particular business, but they should prove a
good reminder as to how important this area is, and just how much it
can negatively impact the customer experience and of course your bottom
line, if implemented incorrectly.
DO...
- Use digital signage instead of printed posters
- Put some free bottles of water in the mini bar so that they
are nice and cool
- Check all the peep holes on guest room doors to make sure
they are secure and the right way round
- Mount irons on wall brackets in closets instead of placing
them on the floor or shelves
- Clearly display broadband charges, if your hotel has any
- Make it easy to switch off all lights in the guestroom from
the bed - especially the bathroom lights
- Make it easy to plug in a hairdryer, shaver, or electric
toothbrush in the bathroom
- Make the lighting in the bathroom bright enough for doing
makeup
- Have an illuminated make-up mirror in the bathroom
- Have power sockets easily available for guest-use in public
areas, especially Lounges, Dining areas and Poolside - also have
adaptors handy
- Have an emergency torch/flashlight in the guest room
- Offer free boarding pass printing in Business centers
- Provide Apple computers in the business center, and not
just Window's PC's
- Have an Apple Notebook power adaptor available for a guest
to borrow in case they accidentally forget theirs at home. Same applies
to iPhone/iPod and Blackberries
- Use wireless mice at the Front Desk
- Have a smartphone compliant version of your hotel datafile
available for download on your website
- Work with your system providers so that they produce eForms
and not printed reports - especially Registration cards and Folios
- Make sure excess power and data cables are neatly tied, or
cut to the right length. If that is not possible - cover them somehow
- Have a simple but easy to read digital clock in the bathroom
- Encourage staff to bring laptops or Tablets to meetings and
use them for note taking and not use paper pads
- Have easily accessible power sockets in Meeting rooms as
more and more people bring tech with them and need power
- Have plenty of power sockets by the guestroom desk, or if
not possible, place a small power bar in the desk drawer complete with
adaptor
- Have a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray lending library if you have such a
player in the guestroom
- Have your Concierge know where is the Apple Service Center
and also other popular brands like IBM, DELL, Lenovo, Asus, Samsung and
Blackberry
- Have a person or system to monitor social networking sites
for mentions about your hotel
- Have competent front line staff on-property who can deal
with Guest TECH queries - make sure they have the requisite social and
interpersonal skills as well
- Monitor what is written about your Hotel on Social
networking sites like Trip Advisor
- Have easily accessible empty power sockets at the LEFT and
RIGHT side of the bed - for Guest use only - a USB power socket is a
good addition
- Realize that when you buy technology - you need a support
agreement as well - and this often doubles the Tech cost over 5 years
- Put a notice on your HSIA sign-up screen that your
government may block access to certain websites and internet services
if they apply to you. Have your IT People know how to workaround this
if the Guest asks
- Check your TV channel reception from time to time and make
sure it's nice and clear
- Make sure the electronic door lock on the guest room door
closes quickly when the door shuts
- Check the speed, noise and effectiveness of the aircon fan
coil in the guest room
- Print your IM address on your Business card like a Skype ID
- Put an internet browsing station in the Staff Canteen for
Staff to check email during breaks
- Encourage your Guests to also perform a virtual Check-in to
such sites as Facebook and Foursquare when they physically Check-in to
your establishment
- Get your technology vendors to update you twice a year on
their roadmap
- Add CCTV cameras inside your Data Center - one that is
directed to the server racks and the other, to the entrance door
- Remember that guest's trust their mobile phones to wake
them up - more than they do your wake-up call service
- Perform regular complete system backups and store them
off-site
- Consider placing a 'dock extender' cable into the cable
pack that you may be placing in your rooms so that a Guest can connect
an iPad to the iPod/iPhone dock you are providing
- Have staff who do in-room check-in, offer to help guests
connect their computer to the HSIA/Wi-Fi as well as make them an
Espresso if you have such a machine in the room
- Allow guest's to tailor make their fruit basket if you plan
to give them one - not everyone likes green apples and pears - same
goes for turndown amenity - not everyone wants or can eat chocolates
- Offer ePostcards from your website
- Have a shelf in the toilet cubicle where guest's can place
their mobile phone/PDA and maybe a book
- Work in your own guestroom from time to time and see how
comfortable and practical it is - especially the height of the chair in
relation to the desk
- Use a bio-metric reader or PIN pad for staff
entrance/egress that is linked to the Time and Attendance/Payroll System
- Make sure the light inside the wardrobe does switch off
when the door is closed
- Consider [carefully] about moving some of your IT Services
to the Cloud - make sure you fully understand the small print on the
SLA (Service level Agreement) about 'uptime', 'data ownership' and
'migration' from property based systems
- Make sure your room safe is bolted down to a floor or wall
and cannot be easily removed
- Monitor the TV volume in the guest room so that it can go
down very low and not too high. Some guests like to leave the TV on all
night but at a very low background volume
- Have a very low nightlight in the bathroom/toilet
- Deploy the very best cabling backbone you can
- Allow Guests of Residential Conferences to use the same
LOGIN ID and Password that they use in the Guestroom for access to the
WI-FI in the Meeting Room - don't make them pay twice
- Encourage Guests to communicate with your Hotel through
popular Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter
- Have air-conditioning auto cut-off in the Guest room if
balcony doors are left open
- Consider using Motion/Presence detectors rather than key
cards to control energy in-room
- Check from time to time in-the-floor power sockets - the
metal type which are supposed to lift up when the clip if flicked -
most often they stick after a while having been covered with floor
polish and dust
- Talk to your HSIA/Wi-Fi provider about 'roaming agreements'
and having pass-thru services to such membership services as Boingo and
iPass
- Consider having a secure place where Guests can deposit
their valuables and gadgets at the poolside or beach if they want to
take a dip
- Have Wi-Fi at the poolside and Beach
- Test your magnetic key cards to see if they de-magnetize
when placed next to a mobile phone
- Encourage Guest contact staff to attach VCF files in emails
- Consider using QR codes on your printed materials
- Put your Hotel onto Skype and encourage that as a method of
communication with Guests
- Recycle used laser toner cartridges
- Think about installing a 3G mobile hotspot in the Airport
Limo so the Guest can use the service to/from the airport
- Have your IT team join such organizations as HFTP and HTNG
so that they keep up to date with Hotel Technology - you should also
sponsr them as well as have them attend various Conferences and
Exhibitions
DO NOT...
- Use Walkie Talkies in public areas without issuing staff
with discreet ear pieces
- Deploy connectivity aux or connectivity panels without
having in-room cable kits
- Put a bedside clock that makes a ticking sound
- Charge for local phone calls unless you really have to
- Make it difficult to use a mouse on the Guest Room desk by
using one with a glass surface - put a mouse mat in the drawer
- Automatically do dynamic currency conversion on credit card
transactions - have the customer approve in advance
- Charge exorbitant rates for printing in the business center
- Issue replacement room keys without first seeing a valid
photo ID
- Allow staff to use thumb drives in work computers
- Print reports - circulate PDF versions only
- Send faxes when you can send PDFs with emails
- Use worn out ribbons on printers - especially Point of Sale
printers in F&B outlets
- Assume your backup power generator will auto-start if there
is a mains power failure. Test it
- Print folios - email them
- Use paper registration cards - use electronic ones
- Install both wired and wireless internet in your Guest
Rooms when doing a new installation. Just having Wi-Fi is acceptable by
most people and will save you money
- Assume all guests use an iPod, iPhone or iPad - believe it
or not, there are other successful products in the marketplace
- Put "last updated..." on your website if you don't do it
frequently
- Put the number of visitors to your website - no one really
cares
- Put a chair at the desk which is difficult to pull out or
is uncomfortable to sit in - even if it looks nice
- Just limit guests to connect two items to the Wi-Fi in the
guestroom - often guests carry many more devices, especially if a
couple are staying and with kids
- Clutter the desk with collaterals and printed materials -
make them digital and multi-lingual - e.g. in Chinese
- Just believe that by putting loads of technology into your
hotel that the guest experience will be enhanced or that the guest will
appreciate it
- Place a loudspeaker in the bathroom unless it has a volume
control and the sound quality is good
- Just rely on the technology to operate your business
- it will fail and at the worst possible time. Make sure you have a
contingency plan in place for ALL systems and test it periodically
- Change any configuration on a guest's computer unless they
ABSOLUTELY agree and you have a written record of the changes made
- Have multiple phones in the Guest room unless your really
need to
- Allow iPods, MP3 players or similar devices in the
workplace to be connected to your computers
- Print anything - only have electronic versions of all your
collaterals
- Make it complicated for guests to use your technology -
they may only stay one night and have no time to learn how to use all
the gadgets
- Overcharge for IDD calls - see if you can connect your PBX
to a VOIN (Voice over Internet) service to reduce the calling costs
- Lend guest's headsets in the gym unless they have been
pre-sterilized
- Allow social networking connections on workplace computers
unless it's for work
- Have water pipes inside your computer room or data center
- Just have a single cooling source for your Data Center -
have a backup
- Have so many TV channels that it's difficult for the guest
to quickly access what they really want to watch and make sure when
it's re-switched on, it goes back to the last channel watched and only
re-sets upon check-out
- Put a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray player in the Guest room unless there
is already a disc inside for the guest to quickly listen to or watch
- Operate a 1-button Call Center unless the staff who take
the call are full trained to handle ALL queries
- Put a 4-in-1 copier/scanner/printer/fax machine in the
guestroom with just 2 or 3 sheets of paper inside for the guest to
print on - include at least 20 sheets
- Use a cloud printing service to the in-room printer you are
providing - some guests are bound by company confidentiality policies
not to send data outside of their network and so cannot use such
services, even if they are hosted by a reputable company - just add a
USB cable
- Have electronic curtains/drapes unless they can be
opened/closed from the bed as well as via a wall switch
- Put a hairdryer in the bathroom that is underpowered - and
don't hide it
- Put a reading lamp at the bed which is so powerful and
direct that it can burn your Guest's forehead
- Adjust the temperature in the Guestroom if the guest sets
it at a certain level. Only reset it upon check-out.
- Use Flash on your website unless you really have to - not
all popular Smartphones or Tablets can handle Flash
- Only put a keycard reader on one side of the elevator car
if you have floor call buttons on both sides. And from time to time,
check they both work
- Install an LCD TV in such a away that the Guest cannot
access the connectivity ports and by doing so, they can directly
connect their own devices for playback
- Create an app for your Hotel just for the sake of it - and
all it does is make reservations. Let it be informative about your
property and a guide to all the various services and amenities you
provide. It will after all be be your Shop window in the palm of
someone's hand and directly reflect your brand values.
©Terence Ronson ISHC
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