DO’S

1. Make internet access as simple as possible to log on to. Not everyone wants to surrender their email address for 1-hours’ worth of free Wi-Fi and then be bombarded by spam.
2. Use digital signage instead of printed posters.
3. If you provide a mini-bar fridge, put some free bottles of drinking water inside so that they are nice and cool for the guest.
4. Check all the peepholes on guest room doors to make sure they are secure and the right way around.
5. Mount irons on wall brackets in closets instead of placing them on the floor or shelves – tidier and easier for Guest access.
6. Consider PTT (Push to Talk) alternate services/apps that can run on Smartphones i.e. Zello.
7. Clearly display any broadband charges and have a disclaimer sign-on page especially if your government requires it and show which types of websites may not be available in order to avoid any confusion by the guest.
8. Make it easy to switch off all lights in the guestroom from either side of the bed – especially the bathroom and Vestibule lights. Likewise, if you just need a single light on in the middle of the night, make that easy to accomplish and without the need to light up the entire guestroom.
9. Simplify the process of plugging in a hairdryer, shaver, or electric toothbrush in the bathroom.
10. Make the lighting in the bathroom bright enough for doing makeup/grooming – ask a Woman to help check it.
11. Have an illuminated make-up/shaving mirror in the bathroom.
12. Have a de-fogging mirror in the bathroom. You probably hate rubbing the mirror with a towel after taking a shower just to see your own image.
13. Have universal power sockets with USB power sockets beside the bed, at the desk, and easily available for guest use in public areas, especially Lobby Lounges, Dining areas, Club Lounges, and Poolside – also have international power adaptors handy – just in case.
14. Position all Guest use power sockets at a reasonable height. Be mindful of the AFFL.
15. Have an emergency torch/flashlight readily available in the guest room and test it frequently.
16. Offer free boarding pass printing in Business centers or via the Front Desk.
17. Have a selection of gadget power cables available for guests to borrow. These are easily forgotten at home or misplaced.
18. Use wireless mice at the Front Desk – avoid unsightly cables.
19. Work with your system providers so that they produce eForms and not printed reports – especially Registration cards and Folios.
20. On checkout – show the guest a review copy of their folio on a tablet – do not print unnecessarily.
21. Email the Folio receipt and provide a PoS type [3”] receipt at the Desk – not everyone needs to walk away with an A4 receipt printed onto letterhead and then tri-folded into an envelope.
22. Encourage MBM – Management By Mobility. Issue your Team with the right tools to help accomplish this.
23. Take note when reviewing write-ups about your comp set on TripAdvisor what is said about their tech, and how you can leverage off those comments.
24. Make sure excess power and data and power cables are neatly tied or cut to the right length. If that is not possible – cover them somehow. Aesthetics matter. Ask an Interior Designer.
25. Have a simple but easy-to-read digital clock in the bathroom.
26. Encourage staff to bring laptops or Tablets to meetings and use them for note taking – steer away from using paper pads. This helps them multi-task and at the same time, be paperless.
27. Have easily accessible universal power sockets with USB power sockets in Meeting rooms since more and more people bring tech with them and need power – as well as Wi-Fi.
28. Have your Concierge know where the closest Apple Service Center/Apple Store is and also other popular brands like Samsung.
29. Have a person or system constantly monitor social media sites for mentions about your hotel. Then respond appropriately and in a timely manner – make responses sound like they are from humans, and not just scripted by bots.
30. Check Guest satisfaction scores and carefully monitor how tech deployments impact these positively and negatively.
31. Have competent front-line staff on-property who can deal with Guest tech queries – make sure they have the requisite troubleshooting skills, as well as social and interpersonal skills. If they don’t have it – know how to get it, and quickly.
32. Realize that when you buy technology – you need a support agreement as well – and this often doubles the Tech cost over 4-5 years. Always work out a 5-year TCO before purchasing.
33. Check your TV channel reception from time to time and make sure they are nice and clear and that the sound is in sync with the picture. Also, check that the right channel is reflected on the channel line-up menu – sometimes these get out of sync.
34. Have a simple and easy-to-use remote for the TV – having one with 20 buttons is often confusing for the guest, especially when not all the buttons are operational, or needed.
35. Try and stream/cast from your Netflix account onto the TV in the guestroom and see how easy, or complex it is. Especially note the process to add and then delete login info.
36. Make sure the electronic door lock on the guest room door closes quickly when the door shuts.
37. Check the speed, noise, and effectiveness of the air-con fan unit in the guest room. You may be surprised at its level of functioning efficiency, and cleanliness.
38. Note that pictures sell – the ones on your website, on your social posts, and in your app should be awesome! They must conjure up a feeling of “I want” to be able to sell – that’s what helps turn a looker into a booker.
39. Check with your Room Management System [RMS] provider to see if a fast-cooling mode can be activated when a guest checks in – i.e., via the PMS interface. That way the room is pre-cooled by the time they arrive inside – a cool feature.
40. Print IM addresses onto your business card – may be using QR codes.
41. Think of your social media presence as more than just your owned accounts, but your total surface area on the web, spanning across platforms.
42. Put an internet browsing station in the Staff Canteen for Staff to check email and fill up forms or various requests during breaks.
43. Encourage your Guests to also perform a virtual Check-in to such sites as Facebook and Instagram when they physically Check-in to your establishment. Free promo for the property.
44. Understand that Guests are likely to post photos of their food on Facebook, and Instagram – so consider printing your name and hashtag on the chinaware or placing a small [creative] flag so it’s captured in the photo – free advertising.
45. Get your technology vendors to update you twice a year on their roadmap – maybe under a NDA.
46. Add CCTV cameras inside your Data Center – have them directed to the server racks [front and back] and another, to the entrance door.
47. Use electronic locks with audit trails on your Computer Server racks – do not use metal keys.
48. Remember that guests trust their mobile phones to wake them up more than they do your wake-up call service or an alarm clock next to the bed.
49. Perform regular and complete system and data backups and store them off-site or in the cloud. Your vendors should guide you on this.
50. If you offer in-room check-in, have the staffer offer to help guests connect their computer to the Wi-Fi as well as make them an Espresso should you have such a machine in the room.
51. Allow guests to tailor-make their fruit basket if you plan to give them one – not everyone likes green apples and pears – same goes for turndown amenities – not everyone wants or can eat chocolates or sweet items. Do use local fruits where available.
52. Offer ePostcards from your website and have them link to Instagram and Facebook.
53. Understand the various touchpoints of the customer journey and how it is impacted by tech as its moves across those siloed systems.
54. Have a shelf inside the toilet cubicle where guest’s can place their mobile phone/Tablet and maybe a book – an adjacent power supply is always welcome. Know that this location is supremely important for good Wi-Fi coverage…
55. Work in your own guestrooms from time to time and see how [un]comfortable and [in]practical it is – especially the height of the chair in relation to the desk – or location and size of the TV, quality of lighting, location of power sockets, and speed of the internet.
56. Use a biometric reader or PIN pad for staff entrance/egress that is linked to the Time and Attendance/Payroll System.
57. Make sure that any light inside the wardrobe does switch off when the door is closed.
58. Make sure your room safe is bolted down to the floor or wall and cannot be easily removed.
59. Monitor the TV volume in the guest room so that it can go down very low and also not too high. Some guests like to leave the TV on all night but at a very low background volume.
60. Have the TV sound mute when the in-room phone rings.
61. Have a very low nightlight in the bathroom/toilet – preferably a pinpoint over the WC.
62. Deploy the very best cabling backbone you can – especially fiber to the room (GPON).
63. Avoid fluctuations in the shower temperature. Have a proper electronic regulator fitted.
64. Give thought to using Robots in the operation to replace those tasks which are repetitive or menial and usually performed by people. This could be especially helpful during these recovery times when recruitment is both difficult and expensive and valuable resources can be assigned for other purposes.
65. Have an SLA and process for responding to customer feedback and complaints coming in from social media.
66. Allow Guests of Residential Conferences to use the same LOGIN ID and Password that they use in the Guestroom for access to the WI-FI in the Meeting Room – don’t make them pay or Log-in twice.
67. Give your IT Manager a seat at the Management Table and have them openly discuss IT matters, and how they impact the guest journey and employee efficiency. BUT, know the responsibility of system efficiency, is not 100% theirs – Operational System Owners need also to accept responsibility.
68. Note Voltage and Hz [cycles] on your power sockets to be used by guests.
69. Encourage Guests to communicate with your hotel through popular Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and/or chatbots. Consideration should also be given to using popular chat platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat.
70. Create “social media ready” photo spots that inspire guests to capture moments on their own.
71. Label all essential power sockets “DO NOT UNPLUG” and preferably use colored plugs.
72. Have air-conditioning auto cut-off in the Guest room if balcony doors are left open after a set period of time e.g., 5 seconds
73. Make USB power sockets available at tables in all-day-dining facilities. Wireless charging is also a nice feature.
74. Install Room Management Systems Units (RMS) in guest rooms interfaced to the PMS to help reduce expensive energy costs.
75. Consider using Motion/Presence [PIR] detectors rather than placing key cards into a wall reader to control energy usage in-room.
76. Check from time to time in-the-floor power sockets – the metal type which are supposed to lift when the clip is flicked – most often they stick after a while having been covered with floor polish and dust.
77. Consider issuing Panic Buttons to Housekeeping Room Attendants.
78. Consider having a secure place where Guests can deposit their valuables and gadgets at the poolside or beach should they want to take a dip in the pool or use the sauna – perhaps making Ziploc bags available for storage.
79. Always sanitize the TV remote control and place a label to say “sterilized”.
80. Have [great] Wi-Fi at the poolside and Beach. Encourage remote ordering via a QR code-based menu.
81. Encourage Guest contact staff to attach a VCF [virtual contact file] into their emails.
82. Install a 2^nd internet line to your property for backup/redundancy just in case your main line goes down and also load balancing. When investigating this, make sure the cable feed to the property comes in via a different route than the main one to add to the redundancy. If they share the same route/pathway, then you have not achieved the objective. Satellite-delivered internet [such as Starlink] is an option to consider.
83. Consider using PDF files accessed by QR codes to replace your printed materials. However, don’t overdo the use of these and turn your property into a maze of QR codes. Also, note that fake QR codes could be [easily] planted into your property potentially taking your customers to nefarious sites.
84. Recycle used laser toner cartridges.
85. Think about installing a mobile hotspot in the Airport Limo so the Guest can use the service to/from the airport.
86. Have your IT team join such organizations as HFTP and HTNG so that they keep up to date with Hotel Technology – you should also sponsor them as well as have them attend various Conferences and Exhibitions like HITEC.
87. Consider carefully all the implications of Cloud Computing to include loss of connection, data security, data privacy, and the cross-border movement of data.
88. Look into using an MDM system – Mobile Device Management if such devices are connected to your network and/or supplied by you.
89. Regularly check and install Service Packs and software upgrades to all software and firmware patches. Don’t forget anti-virus.
90. Perform stress tests on your systems as well as a threat analysis – from both inside and outside of your property.
91. Imagine every step of the guest journey and how it’s impacted by your tech systems – endeavor to make it as frictionless as possible.
92. Hold regular cybersecurity briefings to all staff especially advising them NOT to open any suspicious emails or click on unverified links – malware is real.
93. Consider installing at least one EV charging station – or knowing where the closest ones are located.
94. Have your PMS regularly (e.g., three times per day) produce these Emergency reports and email them to a Gmail account that is only accessible by authorized personnel [such as GM, FC, FOM, Sales Manager, and head of Security] – these can be easily accessed from anywhere and is a good off-site backup should a catastrophic incident occur:
    • 7-14 days arrival list
    • 7-14 days departure list
    • A/R Report
    • Inhouse Guest list with Balance
    • Forecast for next 30-60 days
    • Room Status Reports showing – Occupied, Due out, Vacant, and Vacant ready
95. Inhouse Guest List both by Room Number and Alphabetical
96. Consider adopting a similar business continuity strategy for other critical systems such as HR, Accounting and Sales & Marketing – to name a few.
97. If you use mobile keys versus a traditional key card, be sure you have staff on-site [or easily available] 7×24 to handle any problem a guest may encounter with the system.
98. Consider carefully when looking to install a Voice Assistant on your property. Guests may have fears over security and data exposure. Carefully vet the vendor and their offering to ensure safety, security, and a smooth pain-free experience for the guest.
99. Process payments at tableside to avoid delay in processing time, and overhandling of the credit card.
100. Understand that tech is just a support tool to help staff better perform their jobs.

DONT’S

1. Use Walkie Talkies in public areas without issuing staff with discreet earpieces. Not everyone needs to hear the chatter.
2. Put a bedside clock that makes a ticking sound.

Courtesy of HospitalityNet – read full article here.