Almost the entire hoteling business can be automated, and apparently, people at GetShop have made it happen!

How the system works:

It works like this: The guest books a hotel room online. On the day of arrival, the guest receives a code on SMS or email that grants him/her access to the entrance door, the room door and any other predefined door the guest should have access to during the stay. When the check out time comes, the code is rendered useless, and will no longer work on any of the doors. When the cleaning personnel have marked the room as clean, a new code will be sent out to the next guest that is waiting to check in (if the guest has already paid or has been cleared for an invoice after check out).

Basically, with GetShop’s system, only housekeepers or an external cleaning company are needed in order to run a hotel. This means that a hotel can both decrease prices and increase revenue at the same time.

Perks of the system:

Labour costs can be held to an absolute minimum.

Non-existent queues for check-in and check out.

Never any missing keys or key cards, which is both a hassle and a cost for hotels.

The reception area can be transformed into something more revenue generating than a reception.

The system is much more suitable for small/medium sized hotels, as the relative labor cost per room is much higher than in larger hotels, and will have a more substantial effect on the results.

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Drawbacks of the system:

One disadvantage of the system is that it is not designed for dealing with cash transactions, which is still very much in use in many places around the world. Of course, one way to deal with it is to hire a receptionist, but that kind of defeats the purpose of an automated hotel.

Another element that can be considered negative by some is that the check-in can feel ghostly at times, especially when checking in at night and nobody else is to be seen in the reception area, and some people feels the personal touch is lost when it comes to the guests.

The system is removing jobs, as that is the cost of the automation process.

But several studies have concluded that price is the most critical factor when choosing a hotel only after location. And as long as the price will be the driving factor for why people choose hotels, then the automation trend will only continue.

You cannot fight automation; you can just delay it.

About GetShop:

GetShop is a small IT-company based out of Norway that has specialized in next-generation hotel automation, and the company has recently started to gain traction on the International market because of their work on integrating their hotel PMS with APAC (Automated Property Access Control).

GetShop automates everything for hotels: from bookings, payments, cancellations, integration with OTA’s, check-in, check out, to accounting and any other automated need hotels may have. GetShop is also producing their own locks to make sure the system is running smoothly.

GetShop’s philosophy is that everything that can get automated should be automated. We are aiming for the smartest hotel system out there.