How Virtual Reality is Transforming the Hospitality Industry?

Must Read - IOT in Hospitality Industry

What does virtual reality mean for the hospitality industry?

Virtual reality enables hoteliers to WOW their guests by immersing them in a completely virtual environment that seems like real hotel surroundings. Guests can get the exact feel of being present in stunning hotel rooms and love enjoying the scenic beauty of that place.

With the help of VR technology, guests can leverage the “try before you buy” experience before booking a stay at accommodation.

Hoteliers can enhance the guest experience by offering virtual tours that allow guests to preview their rooms in 360-degree form. This provides an interactive booking experience for them.

Additionally, virtual reality tours have become one of the latest technological trends that hotels use to display their properties in a way that guests can easily navigate through irrespective of geographical boundaries.

Often, VR acts as a powerful marketing tool for hotels to lure potential guests to book a stay at their place. Unlike static images, AR/VR makes the experience more interactive and makes the hotel stand out.

What are the applications of using VR in the hospitality industry?

As per the Statista,

This becomes an important decision for hoteliers looking to enhance guest experience and make their services stand out. Integrating AR/VR into their marketing strategy can achieve these goals.

Here's how hospitality businesses can use this technology in exciting ways-

1. 360-degree virtual travel tours

One of the popular use cases of virtual reality in hotels is providing a virtual travel experience allowing guests to explore nearby attractions, restaurants, other landmarks, and popular sites near your hotel. 

Hotels can lure guests by offering immersive experiences and drawing their attention to a particular place. This way they can even upsell or cross-sell their services and increase their revenue potential. 

Mariott International, for example, offers a Vroom experience for their guests where they can travel to different places in the world without being physically present. 

They even tried the VR postcards feature – a new way to tell stories to travelers by taking them on a virtual journey. Such content blends technology with storytelling and changes the way travelers book a place. 

2. Virtual hotel tours

Unlike traditional images, virtual reality tours are an exciting way of providing a 360-degree tour experience to guests. These immersive experiences enhance guest engagement as guests can virtually walk through the hotel or dip their toes in the swimming pool.

This gives guests a unique experience to see how their room or hotel interior looks during their stay. It's like a marketing gimmick that hotel owners use to customize things in real-time.

A recent study conducted by Omni Hotels found that guests who’ve been offered virtual reality tours are 67% more likely to book online.That’s because they get a sense of how the property looks like.

3. Staff training for employees

VR in hospitality is no longer a marketing tactic; it has been used as a tool for training hotel staff. This cutting-edge technology is way beyond traditional role-playing exercises or old-school textbook approaches.  

One study found that 70% of hospitality operators surveyed state that VR technology will become MAINSTREAM 5 years down the line. 

By putting on a VR headset, hotel staff can feel the pain of tired travelers who stand in a queue to check in. This way they can become more empathetic towards their guests and learn how to deal with guests during challenging scenarios.

On top of that, hotel managers can get first-hand experience of seeing how hotel staff face pressure during busy hours. It's a kind of experiential training where hotel staff can emulate complex scenarios such as handling guest complaints without affecting anyone. 

Take the Hilton hotel for instance, which uses VR for training their employees, eliminating the need for costly on-site workshops. They trained their hospitality employees through an Oculus VR headset, to help them learn a skill of empathy. 

Staff can take different roles such as front desk worker, housekeeping staff, or room service attendant. 

Through these interactive training sessions, they created real-time scenarios for corporate staff as to how they would service their guests,clean their hotel rooms or set up a room tray.  

4. Virtual Marketing

Hoteliers can integrate virtual reality into their marketing strategy. They can give a virtual tour of their properties and showcase the best things their properties offer in virtual settings. They can do so by adding VR videos on their hotel’s website. 

Through virtual marketing, they can provide a taste of how guests would feel when they do a 3D walkthrough in the hotel.

They will increase conversion rates when guests get a chance to explore their property in the comfort of their homes. Such immersive and interactive experiences increase guests’ engagement as they can zoom in, out, and move where they want to be.

5. Enhance the booking experience

An exciting application of this emerging technology (VR) in hospitality is providing immersive booking experiences to guests. 

Though booking processes went through significant improvements where many hoteliers have integrated AI chatbots to ease the reservation process. But adding VR just changed the booking process.

Guests now can browse rooms virtually, make a price comparison of different hotels, choose the room that suits their preferences, and make payments virtually. 

How does Virtual reality technology enhance the guest experience?

Virtual reality enhances the pre- or post-stay experience guiding guests at every stage of their journey.

Unlike static images and videos, Virtual reality is a game changer for hoteliers to provide immersive 3D-like experiences. As a result, guests’ confidence increases and they’re likely to book more with the virtual experience.

Here’s how hotels can use this emerging technology (AR and VR) to enhance guest experience - 

• A perfect blend of technology with entertainment increases guest engagement. Through VR headsets, guests can participate in virtual events, play games virtually, and enjoy immersive experiences. Such an in-room entertainment experience can be a guided tour of a place or any entertainment-related activity.
• It's also used for providing destination previews virtually such as sightseeing of local attractions, suites, and events. After all, guests crave experiences over things. 
• Virtual reality enables hotels to provide spa treatment and wellness sessions. This provides a comforting experience for guests to meditate in natural settings even when stuck indoors. 
• Even this technology allows guests to customize room settings during the stay such as from choosing the layout to selecting the decor. How much storage space is available for them if they wish to stay for a longer duration?

Wrapping up

By leveraging virtual reality technology in the hospitality industry, you take the customer journey to the next level. The above blog gives you insights that virtual reality isn’t a gimmick or cool tool, rather it WOWs guests before they step foot in the lobby.

Virtual reality isn’t a hidden hero anymore because luxury suites including Mariott and Hilton created innovative experiences for their guests right from offering destination previews to building an emotional connection to marketing their accommodation.