Between now and when travel fully resumes to pre-pandemic levels, hospitality businesses have a great opportunity to prepare for the post-COVID world. This will enable them to enhance guest experiences and improve efficiencies in their own business that will in turn drive revenue.
With the pandemic, many hotels and resorts implemented touchless experiences for their guests. These ranged from accepting contactless payments to using robots to deliver room service to practice effective social distancing. These technologies were not only effective in making sure guests feel safe but added additional efficiencies for staff. In a post-COVID world, a lot of these technologies will carry on and become a norm. Hospitality and travel businesses should look to continue to offer these conveniences in case guests still want to use them. Skift’s Megatrends 2025 predictions talk about the future of automation in hospitality with robots and they predict that it will be more widespread because of the benefits they offer.
Remote work is more popular than ever, and more people will look to travel even if previously their job didn’t require it. According to Skift’s Megatrends 2025 predictions, by 2025 volume of these work trips by all employees will rival the highs of 2019 numbers of business travelers. Hospitality businesses need to prepare for this influx of new business travelers who might need additional facilities to be able to work remotely – from better Internet services to in-room office space, etc.
Electronic payment methods have evolved over the years, and the US has also caught up to the emergence of EMV and contactless payments. The pandemic encouraged hospitality businesses to accept payment methods that would allow for effective social distancing. However, as they prepare for the post-COVID world, hotels and resorts need to go a step beyond and accept alternative payment methods across multiple platforms and use cases. While Skift’s Megatrends 2025 predicts that 15-20% of customers will leave a booking experience online if their preferred payment method is not accepted. This can easily translate into the in-person experience and that’s why hoteliers must be prepared to provide their guests the payment method they are most comfortable using. These could range from mobile wallets to QR codes, etc. This will not only help them improve guest experience but also enable them to stay ahead of the competition.
With the trends that are brewing, hotels and travel will bounce back bigger than before once travel opens at pre-pandemic levels. In the meantime, smaller adjustments must be made to cater to guests that are traveling during this time. Hospitality businesses should look to keep incorporating touchless technologies to help guests feel safe. They should also look to expand their view of the typical “business traveler” and work on providing the facilities that will help them with their stay. And finally, they should also look to adopt alternative payment methods to help expand their reach to all types of travelers in the future.
If you are looking to understand how your hospitality business can get ahead of the technology curve and would like to speak with an expert, get in touch with us.
Ryan Ahern is Head of Retail Solutions & Support at Ingenico