Business is booming again for the hospitality industry, as the lifting of the pandemic restrictions means that many of us can finally get away for that long put-off yet highly anticipated vacation! When you arrive at your hotel, you’re likely to notice a few changes: new tech is increasingly being deployed to ensure your stay is a happy one and flows smoothly from check-in to saying a reluctant goodbye at the end of your trip.
And the innovations are still coming thick and fast. Here’s how tech is shaking up the hospitality industry and – if you’re in the business yourself – the trends you need to be aware of in 2023 that could significantly boost your guests’ experience and ramp up revenue.
Contactless Check-Ins
Throughout next year, contactless check-in for hotels is likely to become the standard across the industry. This offers loads of benefits for your guests and the hotel itself. Regarding the latter, contactless check-ins can cut the front desk line by half, meaning greater convenience for everyone.
Checking in guests manually takes, on average, around eight minutes. By cutting out this process, those staying with you can start their vacation stress-free straight away, and it frees up staff to get on with more important things. Such as doing everything possible to optimize the guest experience!
Embracing Health and Wellness
In 2023, the hospitality industry will reflect their guests’ increased focus on holistic health and wellness. What will this look like in practice? We’re already seeing a more comprehensive range of healthier choices in the average hotel’s mini bar and the proliferation of organic, vegan, and/or seasonal options on the establishment’s menu.
Spa facilities, or in-room treatments, will be incorporated into more hotels than ever next year, with luxe options, such as cliff-top hot tubs, hot stone massages, and guided meditation sessions, now the sort of services popping up for guests to enjoy.
Pillow and mattress menus are becoming more common, allowing guests to choose the options that’ll be the most comfortable for them before arrival, ensuring a great night’s sleep and a relaxed stay!
Focus on Sustainability
A business needs solid sustainability and eco-friendly credentials, regardless of its sector, as this concern has become crucial to consumers. Those in the hospitality industry are uniquely placed to embrace this trend, which will be key in 2023 and for the foreseeable future.
Smart hotel management systems can detect changes in rooms’ occupancy and adjust the temperature, air con, and lighting subsequently. This is great for both the environment and your establishment’s bottom line!
Choosing local suppliers, where possible, for everything from ingredients for your hotel restaurant to toiletries for the rooms both cuts down on transport costs and is likely to be a big plus point for your guests.
Cutting back on the use of plastic, choosing recycled materials where possible, and providing recycling facilities for staff and guests alike are all relatively easy ways to mitigate your carbon footprint further.
Hybrid Spaces
The hospitality industry will also increasingly react to new hybrid working methods, which blur the lines between guests’ homes and their jobs. Guests are now likely to want a relaxing space and a place to work effectively. Clinical boardrooms and function-over-style desks are now largely outdated, and hotels are reflecting this.
Expect hotel rooms to incorporate stylish, home-office furniture and decor to make spaces welcoming, warm, and perfect for work or play. Gorgeous, well-equipped co-working areas will also appear to support the ‘working nomad’ who makes their living remotely and combines their job with international travel.
Personalizing Every Stay
One of the biggest hospitality trends of 2023 will be the concern to personalize as many aspects of a guest’s experience as possible. This will primarily be facilitated through advanced tech solutions that can keep track of the details of a guest’s previous visit or details they completed at the time of booking to anticipate their needs.
This could take the form of, for example, the offer of a room upgrade, discounted spa experience, or connecting the guest with a local business offering a service they may be interested in: such as bicycle hire.
As well as helping to ensure that your guests have the very best stay possible, this offers an unrivaled opportunity for upselling, which could significantly increase the revenue coming into your establishment.
The Rise of Robotics
And finally, next year will likely see more hospitality establishments begin to use robots – really! – to undertake various tasks. Many hotels are already using robots to act as guest concierges, welcoming guests and providing helpful information as needed. Robot helpers are also being deployed to complete cleaning and even to assist in hotel kitchens!
Henn-na Hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, is the first hotel in the world to be entirely staffed by robots, while the Hilton Hotel group uses Connie, the AI-enabled concierge, to interact with guests and respond to questions.
While it’s unlikely that we’ll see fully robot-staffed hotels as standard anytime soon, it’s more than probable that robots will be increasingly used to automate services in the hospitality industry to create a more seamless guest experience and free up staff time.