The future of hospitality tech: keyless entries, welcome robots, and more
If you love technology and spend time traveling, you're likely curious what's on the horizon for the hospitality industry. Today we're taking a closer look at some of the tech trends, from robots to virtual tours. Read on to find out more!
Tourism is an industry that merges markets with the power of defining entire locales. Synonymous with tourism is hospitality. With the amazing advances in technology we see these days, it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that tech affects these industries as well.
If you travel frequently, you’ll particularly appreciate the tech that’ll affect the places you visit and stay. So what exactly is the future of hospitality tech? Let’s dive into a few kinds of upgrades you might see come to a hotel near you.
Virtual tours before booking
One trend is especially welcome. If you’ve ever looked at a hotel online where the pictures were misleading or barely showed the rooms and facilities, you know it can be hard to click that reserve button. After all, you’re looking to spend your limited vacation time and hard-earned money—the experience should be worth it!
Well, hopefully here to alleviate some of that stress and inspire confident booking, are virtual tours. These tours would provide you with clearer walkthroughs of hotels before they book them. This way, you’ll have an opportunity to get a deeper preview of where you’ll be staying.
Greetings from welcome bots
Whether you fly, sail, walk, or drive to your intended destination, there’s no doubt that you’re likely tired from your journey. All of these types of travel have their own ways of wearing you out. So a pleasant greeting upon reaching your destination is always appreciated.
Some hotels are already seeking out opportunities to bring in welcome bots: literally robots that welcome you as you enter the establishment. They’re there to greet you kindly and provide information—even drinks and snacks! It’s a nice touch that’s sure to enhance your guest experience.
Keyless entries and smart rooms
These days, plenty of people have smart devices in their homes, from auto-adjusting smart thermostats to voice-controlled smart lighting. While we’re all perfectly capable of adapting to places lacking our sweet, super-cool smart home setups, it doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate having that technology elsewhere.
So it’s nice to see that some hotels are looking to adopt smart home features to create advanced and comfortable environments for their guests. For example, having the ability to adjust the temperature or lighting by voice—is it necessary? Of course not. We’d still love to see it in the future of hospitality, however.
Additionally, keyless entry is also trending. This reduces the need for keycards that get lost or misplaced, making it easier for you to get into your room without having to pick up and manage keys and so forth. The possibility of using your phone as your keycard is closer than you may think.
Digital service and ordering
There are a few ways the hospitality industry seeks to change how you order and receive various services. For example, some use digital methods for ordering food and service to be delivered to your room. This can make the process much easier and more efficient.
In a time of COVID-19, it makes sense, too, that some might want to limit contact, so the ability to place an order electronically and receive food or items is a nice option to have. Plus, a digital menu and ordering system lets you see what’s available to you while tracking your order status. Pretty convenient, if you ask us!
Service and delivery robots
I’m sorry, did I already mention robots? Because they don’t just stop at welcome bots. Various kinds of other robots are finding their way into the hospitality industry. Companies are already beginning to experiment in areas robots can be applied.
For example, robots can provide simple types of room service or delivering things to guests’ rooms. It really shouldn’t come as a shock, either. There’s certainly a robotics revolution happening right now, so it’s not all that surprising that at some point in the near future, that knock on your hotel room door could be from a friendly service bot dropping off those extra towels you ordered.
An exciting time for hospitality
Given the above examples, it really is quite exciting to see how the hospitality industry is evolving. It’s only natural for establishments to embrace technology as it becomes more commonplace, and many hotels can feel a little behind in doing so.
It’s great to see that a new future is on the horizon for hospitality. From interactive robots to smart rooms and virtual tours, there’s plenty of cool things to keep watch for. We can’t wait to see our first welcome bot in action.
What kind of technology would you most like to see in the future of hospitality? Let us know in the comments below!
