Digitalization in the hotel industry: Individual guest care for any accommodation

According to the definition of the German Tourism Association, a hotel is an accommodation facility with at least 20 rooms, a reception, various services, daily room cleaning and at least one restaurant. Many hotels also offer even more services, such as wellness treatments, sports classes, guided excursions, events, conferences or similar. Due to these numerous services, solutions such as the Digital Guest Directory are essential in a hotel. They facilitate the daily work and enable hygienic and simple communication with the guests.

In addition to the advantages mentioned, the Digital Guest Directory also shortens the check-in process by already answering frequently asked questions. Furthermore, guests fill out the legally required registration form digitally in advance. This means that guests now arrive less stressed and do not have to wait too long. At the same time the hotel staff gains time to deal with more complex requests. With this digital service, guests can find all information, offers and news at any time during their stay. They book a wellness appointment, reserve a table at the restaurant or order room service via their own smartphones, regardless of where they are. They can even read the latest daily newspapers, magazines or the hotel’s own newspaper online via the Digital Guest Directory.

Hosts at a guesthouse or Bed & Breakfast attach great importance to personal contact with their guests. After all, the intimate atmosphere and friendly conversations with the hosts are the main reasons for many guests to choose a smaller place to stay. Especially in times of Corona, however, distance regulations and face masks greatly reduce personal encounters.

The Digital Guest Directory complements personal care and supports hosts around the clock: Caringly designed and individually tailored to the guesthouse, it provides guests with all important information, excursion tips and offers digitally. Guests feel well looked after and find the right answer at any time. If they still have questions, they can quickly contact their hosts via chat message. B&Bs or guesthouses with such a digital service clearly stand out from other establishments due to their professionalism and offer guests decisive reasons to return on their next holiday.

Holiday home operators are regularly faced with a challenge: they often cannot be there in person, but still want to look after their guests in the best possible way. For this reason, many hosts resort to digital support: Visitor information, operating instructions, excursion tips and more are available to guests around the clock on their own smartphones. Guests also book the daily bread roll service or an extra cleaning of the holiday flat contact- and paperless in the Digital Guest Directory. This enables hygienic yet personal contact between the host and the guests.

Example: The success story of the “Appartements Ennemoser” shows the potential of a Digital Guest Directory for holiday homes: The owner saves 1.5 hours of working time every day and delights her guests with an outstanding service.

Tip:
For holiday flats where the handover of keys or the arrival of guests also takes place without the owners being present, the Digital Guest Directory must be particularly easy to access. The quickest way for guests to access it is via a WiFi-Landing Page, which automatically refers to the digital service when logging into the flat’s Wi-Fi.

Those who spend their holidays at a campsite like to be independent and often plan their day spontaneously. To do this, campers use their smartphones, tablets or laptops. For this reason, they nowadays also prefer modern campsites with area-wide Wi-Fi and digital services that support them in their planning of leisure activities.

With a Digital Guest Directory, campsite operators provide their guests with a map of the campsite, useful information and a digital travel guide for the region anytime and anywhere. To highlight important news or offers, hosts simply send push messages to the campers’ smartphones. This way, they can reach their guests easily, even on a sprawling area.

Example: At “Waldcamping Feldkirch” in Austria, the Digital Guest Directory has long been part of the basic equipment. Since then, the hosts have found it easier to make contact with campers and increase guest loyalty. Read our case study now!

Hotel groups or chains attach great importance to branding and a consistent appearance of the individual hotels. After all, the regular guests of a hotel chain expect similar standards in every hotel that bears the brand name. Of course, this also applies to the service and workflows on site.

The best solution: a uniform Digital Guest Directory. With comprehensive guest information and booking options for offers, it keeps the service standard high throughout the entire group. At the same time, it also highlights the special features of each individual hotel and increases turnover with additional sales such as wellness treatments or meals in the restaurant.

Ideally, hotel chains or hotel groups even bundle the Digital Guest Directories of the different hotels in an independent app. This way, guests always use the same Hotel App at any location, select their hotel and find everything they need for their stay. With the logo and corporate design colours of the umbrella brand, the Hotel App shines with maximum professionalism!

In a city hotel often very different types of guests come together: business guests, city travellers, international tourists, etc. In the Digital Guest Directory, each of them will find the appropriate information and services – possibly even in their own language.

Business travellers and short-break holidaymakers in particular use smartphones, laptops and the like every day, have little time and appreciate the flexibility of a hotel. It is therefore best for hosts to make all services available on mobile devices. Convenient features such as the online booking of late/early check-out or business lunch, the collection of data or push messages improve internal processes and promote the hotel’s offers 24/7, no matter where the guests are.

Example: Read in our case study how “Hotel Central Luzern” improves the guest experience and relieves the staff thanks to the Digital Guest Directory.