Smart Hotel Rooms: Effective Tech Solutions for Hoteliers

Although these tangible benefits play a significant role in every hotelier’s life, it's an undeniable truth that a hotel’s revenue is increased by enhancing the guest experience.

That brings more revenue and more revenue = more profits.

Smart rooms in hotels are not ordinary rooms that are packed with televisions and high-speed internet.

From unlocking their phones using Fingerprint sensors to enhancing guest experience through IoT and internet-enabled devices, Smart hotel room takes the front seat.

These rooms do heavy lifting for your guests such as adjusting the brightness of light bulbs, controlling room temperature using a mobile phone, and streaming their popular shows using a voice-activated virtual assistant.

Smart hotel rooms are a BOON for hoteliers and guests not because they provide convenience to guests, but rather because they help in optimal utilization of resources.

Turning off the room lights when guests are not present in the hotel room or remote check-in and check-out where your guests don’t need any more traditional keys to lock/unlock the door.

All these fall under smart room technology.

How do smart hotel rooms benefit both guests and hoteliers?

1. Personalized Experiences for Guests

A research study was conducted by Skift and Sabre which indicates that nearly 81% of guests are ready to switch their loyalty because they crave personalized guest experiences.

With smart hotel rooms, hoteliers enhance guests' experience by making them feel that every part of their journey is a memorable experience for them.

When entering a connected room, guests feel as if the room is specifically designed for them ranging from temperature to lighting to TV.

They’ll get a room-like feel by adjusting the room conditions (lighting level, setting the room temperature) or watching series from their favorite playlists when they wish using a tablet, a smart hub, a smart TV, or any hotel application on their smart device.

Their whole room experience changes when you cater to different guest needs by giving them a choice of changing the window settings or eliminating black light settings.

This takes their staying experience to the next level and they’re more likely to visit your hotel next time.

2. Improves sustainability

Implementing smart hotel rooms leads you towards eco-friendly initiatives because it helps in energy conservation through various ways such as automatic lights, light intensity control, temperature management, occupancy sensors, energy-efficient appliances, etc.

These devices provide more sustainable options for hoteliers as they adjust heating, cooling, and lighting conditions by evaluating whether someone is present in the room or not.

Leading luxury hotel chains such as Radisson and Hyatt become self-sustainable by employing motion sensors to decrease AC temperature, regulate lighting conditions, and monitor water usage in real-time.

This not only helps them to save their operating expenses (because of low energy usage) but also provides an eco-friendly experience for their guests.

3. Enhances customer experience

Another significant benefit of smart rooms in hotels is that they enhance the guest's experience.

With the help of voice-activated virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, guests can exercise greater control over the room, request various services, experiment with smart home features, and get the comforting experience they deserve.

You can turn hotels into SMART ROOMS by integrating various features such as -

• personalized lighting to regulate lighting conditions
• entertainment systems (smart TV) for streaming
• adjustable climate control system for adjusting the room temperature

All these experiences enable guests to manage every aspect of their room or request services using voice commands or smartphone devices.

For Instance - Inter-continental Hotel Group, a leading hotel chain in China introduces AI smart hotel rooms to elevate customer experience. These connected rooms use voice control technology to talk to guests and provide a personalized response for work and leisure settings.

4. Remote room control

Through smart room technology, hotel staff get remote-controlled access to manage various aspects of the room sitting remotely.

When hotel staff gets informed that guests will arrive soon, they prepare the room in advance and turn off the room lights after checkout.

Also Read - Hotel Staff Apprerication Ideas

It saves the hours of staff because when a guest arrives in the room, the room temperature is set optimally without requiring staff to enter the room and manually adjust the temperature settings.

Moreover, this feature proves to be a game changer for guests as they can control their rooms remotely.

Smart room technology changes the guest experience to a whole new level as they can lock/unlock hotel doors, turn on/off the lights, and regulate the lighting system as per their preferences. They can do everything remotely.

5. Faster and reliable repairs

Leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) technology can make hotels smarter as it keeps an eye on all the things that a hotel staff can miss sometimes.

Hotel workers can get real-time information about devices that need maintenance without affecting customer experience.

By spotting the loopholes in equipment beforehand, hotel staff can repair the devices that need immediate attention. This way, they can cut down their cost of purchasing equipment.

Future of Smart Hotel Rooms

With the ever-changing guest expectations, smart hotel rooms are no longer a trend, it has become a necessity.

Combining smart rooms with technologies such as AI and IoT enhances guest experience, provides them with more comfort, and even helps hoteliers to become environmentally sustainable.

When entering a smart hotel, guests feel like it’s their home. They enter the smart room in the hotel, and they can control the room. That’s where the magic happens.

From the moment they enter, everything is planned as per their taste ranging from lighting to adjusting room temperature to in-room entertainment options.

Not only do guests feel more personalized this time, but hotels are becoming more profitable than ever.

Hotels are using smart thermostats to monitor the movement of people who go in and out.

These smart thermostats use ML algorithms to automatically adjust the heating and cooling in a room which saves loads of energy.

Then, the integration of voice-controlled technology in a hotel room allows guests to turn on the television, listen to their favorite upbeats from Spotify or Apple Music, order pay-per-view films, and request room service using their voice commands.

Now, robots are added to smart rooms to reduce the staff workload, greet guests when they check in, show them a way to reach the room and perform housekeeping activities. This way, hoteliers can cut their extra expenses on labor.

Thus, it increases guest satisfaction, and higher guest satisfaction equates to more loyal guests.

In the future, smart hotels will be integrating VR technology to serve their guests in a better fashion. AR/VR technologies transport the guests to a virtual environment where they can go on a virtual tour to see and feel what nearby attractions look like.

Final Notes

In the new era of digitalization, staying ahead of competitors is super important for you. One such technology that helps redefine customer experience and position you as a tech-savvy hotelier is smart hotel rooms.

But a smart room in a hotel isn’t about creating a fancy space or giving a stylish look and feel to your hotel. It's about creating personalized experiences that provide comfort and convenience to your guests.

Just like Hilton uses smart room technology to delight their guests and give them control to regulate lighting conditions and set the room temperature using the HHonors app.

So, if you want to stand out from other hotels, invest in smart technology to personalize your guest’s stay, streamline your hotel operations, and become more sustainable.

How BOTSHOT can help you?

Our front desk solution makes your hotel digitally smarter through our contactless check-in and check-out. It's a win-win for both hoteliers and guests. Firstly, front desk staff can free themselves up and focus on serving their guests better.

Secondly, your guests need not stand in a long queue and wait for hours and hours to check in.

Try our efrontdesk solution today to elevate your guest experience and increase your hotel revenue.

Moreover, we truly believe that a hotel becomes more profitable when it can become more effective in improving its routine operations.

So, we came up with a cloud-based solution called the hotel multi-property management system (PMS).

We provide a single dashboard to you to automate your unlimited hotel operations at one place such as managing reservations to housekeeping activities.

Moreover, to earn more ancillary revenue for your hotel business, you can do cross-sells and upsells using our cloud-based PMS.