A hotel chain these days needs to have technology at its fingertips. So how can an individual hotel stay ahead of the trends?
When once a tv and access to videos was enough of a treat for guests to be happy to stay in a hotel, times have changed. Trent Fraser, CEO of Choice Hotels, points out we used to be excited by the things hotels provided that we didn’t have at home. But now we are keeping up with the latest developments in home entertainment and expect them to be standard in our hotel rooms.
“Now we’ve all got these gadgets [at home] so hotels have to keep up and even more so. It’s about keeping ahead of the curve,” he says.
Hotels need to adopt technology that gives them an edge in hotel management and customer service, he suggests, and this is more easily achieved as part of a franchise group which has the power and inclination to invest in supporting back office.
“From a franchisor perspective, we provide all the support and service to make a franchisee successful. We encourage guest-facing elements, wireless etc.”
Here are the four ways that the Choice chain is providing points of difference:
1. Cloud management
The cloud based property management system that Choice Hotels work with is one example of how absent franchisees can oversee their business. “A lot of owners are not on site. This can allow them to log in and check on hotel’s performance, they can effectively manage rates, inventory and yield remotely. If they want to discuss with a manager, and make adjustments to rates, they can do that. If there is someone less experienced at the helm, the owner can manage remotely.”
The cloud based property management system Choice Advantage is priced from $320 monthly; “it’s fairly competitive” says Fraser.
“Integrated with reservations; we used to have 50 plus management systems. Now with Choice Advantage there’s a two way interface, booked rooms are automatically taken off the inventory. There are cost savings with less human interaction and less human error.”
Close to 50 percent of the business is committed to the new management system, with 30 percent so far deployed in Australia and New Zealand.
“It was rolled out in the US three to four years ago in 5,000 hotels. We’ve had it for two years now.
“We’ve signed a partnership with Wotif which means properties don’t have to handle these bookings separately. This is a huge chunk of most hotels’ business, so it helps operations.”
Fraser says the business is close to announcing further third party providers partnerships.
2. Customer service
Fraser says a call forwarding system has been improving guest service. “We’ve all been in hotel receptions when someone is on the phone, and there is a guest on the line. Waiting in the queue can be very frustrating.
“We introduced a call forwarding system a couple of years ago and hotels can have their booking calls diverted to a domestic call centre – it’s very important to us that it is not offshore. Through our technology we can answer the phone as if it was a member of the hotel staff, access information and take a booking. Some hotels have this 24/7, others use it for busy periods.”\
Fraser is confident franchisees benefit from this, despite being charged for the functionality. “We think it improves the service. We have a professional call centre environment which is measured, and our rates sell on 10 percent premium.”
The phone calls can be transferred from the hotel manually or from an automated system that indicates the specific hotel.
4. Social media
At Choice the brand presence on social media is controlled centrally, though franchisees manage their own local Facebook pages.
“Social media has been really big for the last 12 months,” says Foster. “We launched Facebook sites for all our brands, and in a promotion for Quality, we gained 18,000 Likes over the period. We have 10 Facebook pages in Australia and New Zealand. Each brand has its own page and there are corporate sites too.
“With social media we can react pretty quickly to market as we have a local specialist in our marketing team here in Melbourne and we are supported by our US parent company based in Washington DC.”
All franchisees are exposed to a tool box of resources and can choose which to use, says Fraser.
5. Going paperless?
There are two new Clarion Collection properties in the Choice group set to open by the end of 2013 in Brisbane, with the franchisees setting themselves the goal of being paperless for guests. When guests book in they will be given a tablet and use an electronic signature to accept the terms and conditions, and can then manage their stay from the tablet: change air conditioning settings, control the tv and internet, place orders, access a compendium of useful information, and when it comes to check out, send themselves a tax invoice.
“Consumables and stationary costs add up – $5 or $6 a day a guest. So this is pretty exciting,” says Fraser. “Once the technology is deployed, people will look to replicate it, it will provide a significant point of difference.”