New Report Reveals What Tech Consumers Want from Hotels & Restaurants
Hospitality Technology has released its 7th annual Customer Engagement Technology Study: Plugging Into the Digital-Minded Consumer. Since 2012, Hospitality Technology has studied customer engagement technologies (CETs), chronicling adoption and impact while forecasting future trends and opportunities to help hospitality leaders navigate an ever-changing landscape.
CHICAGO, Sept. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- New Report Reveals What Tech Consumers Want from Hotels & Restaurants
Hospitality Technology's 7th annual Customer Engagement Technology Study finds that mobile, social and consumerization of technology continues to dominate technological change and the CET landscape within the hospitality industry.
Hospitality Technology has released its 7th annual Customer Engagement Technology Study: Plugging Into the Digital-Minded Consumer. Since 2012, Hospitality Technology has studied customer engagement technologies (CETs), chronicling adoption and impact while forecasting future trends and opportunities to help hospitality leaders navigate an ever-changing landscape.
The 2018 Customer Engagement Technology Study surveyed hotel and restaurant executives in addition to consumers to determine how tech deployments stack up against what guests really want and will influence decisions.
Key findings for restaurants:
- The top six restaurant mobile features currently available to consumers are related to commerce and include: restaurant search with location-based integration (74%), mobile payments (63%), receive and redeem coupons and deals (61%), mobile ordering (56%), loyalty program management (56%), and gift card purchases and redemption (54%).
- With the rise of voice controlled devices (such as Amazon's Alexa and Google's Home), HT expects to see significant growth next year among restaurants offering the capability to order food through these devices. Currently only 7% of restaurants offer this capability, however, 28% of guests say they want it.
Key findings for hotels:
-Mobile app use is also becoming ubiquitous. For those that offer a mobile app to guests, the most common features include room reservations (80%), loyalty program management (57%) and a calendar of events (50%) for on property activities, and check-in and -out capabilities (48%).
-Gaps exist between what consumers want from a hotel's mobile app and what is currently offered. Top functionalities and features guests want on a mobile app include: room reservations (68%), ability to change/manage reservations (65%), ability to receive and redeem coupons or other promotions (63%), ability to book award travel (54%), and the ability to control guestroom atmospherics such as lighting and temperature (55%) as top priorities.
- The average gap between top customer demands and hotels' offered capabilities is between 35 to 40%. It will be important for hoteliers to address such key gap areas to empower their guests, create friction-free service, and provide the ultimate in guest convenience.
Technology is disrupting the hospitality industry and redefining how services are delivered and the very essence of the guest experience. While the technology capabilities today are impressive, they will be even more so in the future. Customers want service delivery choices, speed, convenience, empowerment, and value in addition to technology. Brands that master this will create outstanding, memorable guest experiences, generate loyalty, and win competitive advantage.
To download the 2018 Customer Engagement Technology Study, please click here.
SOURCE Hospitality Technology
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