Q4) Discover the Recent Trends and Development about Operating Rooms Division in Hotels

          Room division is probably the most important department in a hotel, because it includes most of the essential services a customer will expect to have in a hotel.

         Although hotels have similar functions within room division, the way they operate it has changed though the development of hospitality. This article will discuss about some of the trends and development related to the operation in room division.

Self-service and mobile check-in

         Advance in technology always give inspirations to development of different industry, including hotel industry. Several hotels have integrated a new technology into their operation of front desk. For example, the introduction of  mobile check-in by Marriott and keyless entry with mobile by Starwood. Checking-in was a troublesome but essential procedure, not only requires the hotel to contribute manpower to do so, but also cost the customers time, especially in peak season. However, with this mobile check-in machine, customers are allowed to skip the check-in process in front desk, which saves the labor cost for the company and gives better image to customers.

Transformation of lobby

      Traditionally, lobby is just a waiting area between the front door and guest room. However, some hotels like Sheraton, Hampton Inn have spotted that their customers no longer see price as the only deciding factor when choosing hotels, instead, they are looking for enjoyable experience from hotels. Therefore, some hotels had changed their lobbies from single-use to multi-functional in order to allow their customers to create their desired experience. For example, customers can have a meeting, eat some food or read some magazine there.

Encouragement of direct booking through own website

      There are many hotel booking websites like Expedia and Hotels.com which help travelers compare the prices of hotels. Travelers can find and book hotels according to their preference much easier. However, from the hotels' point of view, those websites make them more difficult in completing with each others and harder to develop loyal customer. Therefore, some hotels like Accor encourage travelers to directly book hotel rooms from their own websites by providing special offers like discounts, free amenities and best price guarantees. This kind of branding strategy has changed the way hotels treat reservations.

Conclusion


     We can see that hotels are having some similar trends from the above examples.
     First, they are using more and more technology in their operations. By doing that, hotels are able to speed up the processes, increase productivity, save costs, and more importantly, give their customers a better image.
    Also, as customers are focusing more on the experience they gain from hotels, hotels tend to provide special environment and equipment for them to do so, instead of only upgrading services that they already have.

Reference:

http://hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/news/Top-5-Trends-in-Hotels-for-201597582

http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/8140/title/transforming-the-idea-of-the-hotel-lobby.aspx

 http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/home/index.shtml
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzFdZ_FVvrM
https://www.spgpromos.com/keyless/