IOT in hospitality is a strong measurement for every establishment in any place. It doesn’t care for the cost or the establishment’s size and this includes a global hotel, a medium size local mall or a local B&B to be exact. To be honest, by understanding customers and what they really crave in a good service, everything gets clearer and simply upgrades to enrich customer satisfaction. This is a huge goal to achieve but the good news is; IOT in hospitality is here to change everything.
IOT can help by reducing costs and optimizing the way in presenting services. Suppose a hotel owner has a guest staying at the highest floor of his hotel. By using IOT he can simply let the customer adjust the way lighting system works. If they want it dimmed, there is no one stopping them and they can do it with a single touch of a button. They can call for room service by simply dialing a number on the smart TV services or their own mobile phones. This way, there is no effort wasted and no one is to blame, if a service is not handled carefully.
Usage of IOT in Hotels
There are a lot of things you can set for custom adjustment and one of them is automated lighting system for each floor, room and even bathroom. This way, you can get to the next level in IOT in hospitality and smart LED systems are there to help. Every light system tracks the customer usage and automatically brightens the place if needed.
There are smart systems in place for grand hotels that alert hotel staff for maintenance, if a hazardous situation is going on in a room. This way they can handle problems before they get serious. Just imagine the amount of money and resources owners can save if they learn about an exploit soon enough. This even helps when air conditioning unit doesn’t work properly and you need to handle it ASAP. There will no longer be a need for somebody to notice all these problems going on in a floor. IOT in hospitality is a must plan for every hotel. Just measure the circumstances and you will be assured.
Benefits of IOT in hotels
IOT in hospitality has a lot of benefits through different aspects of handling a hotel room service. For instance, customers are now able to even lock their rooms from miles away just with their mobile phones. Now, just place yourself in the shoes of a customer who gets separated from their party in the middle of the city. One has to go back to hotel and reach for something the other forgot. Suppose a customer has lost his keys and he is in a hurry. This way he can reach in his pockets, take his phone out and simply unlock the door; management comes to check it later. This is the exact place where IOT in hospitality shines, reassuring customer with many options as they are staying at a hotel for which they are paying a lot of money. The owner will be giving customers the chance to adjust the heat of their room from far away; this way, they can return to a cool place to relax after a sunny day on the beach.
Which hotels use IOT in hospitality?
Hilton is the leading hotel chains to use the IOT in hospitality to its extended potential. They are trying to revolutionize the way customer service works as claimed by Christopher Nassetta, Head of the Global Hilton Hotels. Mr. Nassetta Says: “Imagine a world where the room knows you, and you know your room”. He then added: “Imagine a world where you walk in, the TV says, ‘How are you doing, John? Nice to see you“. This, in fact, is not a new thing and even video gaming gears such as Xbox Kinect have done the process before, but the state of their services are different. Right now Hilton hotel is the leading branch in IOT hospitality, saving millions each year whilst providing their services.
You might even get surprised to know that the main headquarters at Bethesda game studios uses such features to maximize their employee’s satisfaction in each building. Therefore, if you really think about it, IOT in hospitality can be done to any establishment and that makes it special.
Positive & negative effects of IOT in hospitality
As always, with every trend comes a drawback. You can’t just expect a trend not to have a backlash and IOT in hospitality is not an exception. The most reasonable thing that can happen to such hotels providing IOT in hospitality services is the possibility of room hack at any time of the day. For instance, there was an incident in hotel casino of London in which a hacker got access to thermostat of a fish tank in the lobby and nearly boiled all the fish inside. Then, they used the access they received from the thermostat and got hold of the maintenance database located in the hotel servers.
This exact thing can happen to every hotel in every location of the world and the results could be catastrophic. A heat sensor in the showers can cause malfunction and cause serious physical damage to a customer, these are things you need to tighten in the security of a hotel if anyone is willing to use IOT. These events might cause some hotels to be fearful of using IOT in Hospitality, but as an owner they really need to look on the bright side and every opportunity these services can offer.
Conclusion
Internet of things in hospitality is synonymous to the way our everyday lives are progressing. We never thought of a future in which you can just download anything to your phones on the go and now it’s time to up the game by at least ten levels. Why ten levels you ask? The reason is the ever changing process of cloud based services in just, everything. Now if you can set a password on your car, why not on your hotel room. This is far-fetched of course, but imaging the way your hotel will work if you use one such neat tech.
Even if you are not a hotel owner, you can set it on any establishment you own and that would be where IOT in hospitality really shines. It can be converted into anything and even if you are a customer, it will benefit you the same way. If the cost for a hotel gets low, the prices decrease and then you won’t be paying a lot of money for a room service you may never use. It’s a win-win for everybody. Business owners and customers pay less and get the most out of their products and services. What’s not there to like? You just need to approach and embrace the changes, changes that are inevitable.