In most industries, businesses are looking to sell the best-refined services and offer cutting-edge products which meet the latest standards. However, with the hospitality industry, things are not so “simple”. In this industry, organizations don’t offer products or services, they offer the whole experience which is a subjective thing to each and every guest.

This means that satisfying their needs can be tricky as the expectations of customers constantly change. At the same time, this is a must if you want to achieve success in this industry. At the same time, business has always been driven by technology and this opens up many opportunities in this industry as well.

The hospitality industry in the digital age

The digital age has made many changes and introduced a lot of new concepts that people have easily incorporated into their lives. All the new technology offers a uniquely convenient experience and it has become one of the essential needs of any guest.

Given the fact that technology has a huge impact on a business and its customers, the organizations that didn’t keep up with the times suffered a considerable loss.

Customer expectations

As we mentioned earlier, the expectations of customers from the hospitality industry have always changed, and with such a huge explosion of new tech solutions that consumers use on regular basis, the customer expectations have risen more than ever. A simple example is Wi-Fi – people use it every day with their phones and they expect to have it when they rent a room.

Simply put, customers or guests want to feel at home. No matter if we are talking about Wi-Fi, voice activation technologies, or in-room tablets. Customers want a smooth experience when booking a stay, no matter where in the world they are going and which language they are speaking.

IoT and their role

To help improve the experience of their guests, the hotel industry is trying to implement more and more internet of things technologies within the rooms they provide. With IoT, hoteliers have the ability to provide interactions based on location and proactive maintenance to make the experience much better. With IoT, hospitality providers can also rely on data that can give insights about negative trends to improve the experience.

At the same time, they can notify the maintenance personnel about certain issues and allow their staff to fix these issues before they escalate. IoT also has the power to send personalized recommendations to the guest based on their interests, actions, or previous visits and offer them places or events they might be interested in.

Artificial intelligence in hospitality

Chatbots with the best AI has been a lethal weapon for the hospitality industry. The best AI chatbots are active at any given moment and can always offer quick and accurate help to customers. At the same time, they are very cost-effective while being very convenient for customers.

Some of the best AI chatbots rely on historical conversations and through training become live support centers that can answer questions, offer room availability information, provide invoices, and so on.

With AI, guests can also check out or in much faster and not have to waste their time. Additionally, they have a much lower chance of making mistakes during this process. AI and machine learning are also used to offer suggestions before bookings, analyze customer trends, and provide the best experience.

Implementation

What is really amazing about these technologies is that they are inexpensive investments and that they can be implemented very easily. Any hotel based on its organization can implement this kind of system seamlessly into their workflow and use them to their fullest potential.

Both IoT and AI solutions are now available and affordable to individuals, meaning that business organizations can also invest in them and see valuable returns in no time. There are also many flexible options out there specifically designed for the hospitality industry to help employees quickly make the most of these technologies.

IoT and AI have made a huge impact on customer experience in various industries and especially in hospitality. Now when their benefits are clear, different business organizations are competing to see who can make the best use of this tech and leave the rest behind.