The Future of Hotel Technology

With the recent introduction of voice-activated hotel rooms, robot butlers and biometric access control systems, it’s no secret hotel chains are investing heavily in technology to improve the guest experience. The question remains, which hotel technologies do business travelers currently use and which do they wish to see offered in the future?

Earlier this year, a new study released by the GBTA Foundation, in partnership with Best Western Hotels & Resorts, explored both of these issues in addition to satisfaction levels when using current hotel technologies. GBTA recently held a webinar in which Festive Road Associate Lora Ellis and GBTA Foundation Director of Research Monica Sanchez walked through the results.

Sanchez shared that a majority of North America-based business travelers commonly use hotel apps, and three in five (61 percent) business travelers used in-room Wi-Fi or high speed Internet available to all guests during their last stay. She also discussed ways in which hotel apps and mobile technology are currently being used, noting business travelers most often use hotel apps to check the status of a reservation (43 percent), manage their rewards points or account (43 percent) and book a hotel stay (39 percent).

The study also takes a deeper dive into which non-standard technology amenities business travelers are interested in using. Business travelers reported interest in additional power and USB outlets, streaming services, in-room chargers, keyless entry and more.

The study and webinar are both available through the Hub. These sessions are just around the corner:

• How Safe Are Your Hotels? (Thursday, November 17 – 2:00 PM ET)
• Replay: Global Travel Price Outlook: Getting the Most from Your Travel Spend in 2017 (Tuesday, November 22 – 2:00 PM China Standard Time)
• Best Practices to Enable Your Travelers to Embrace Expense Management (Tuesday, November 22 – 2:00 PM ET)
• Sustainability – Bringing Value to Your Organization (Wednesday, November 30 – 2:00 PM ET)

The full schedule of webinars is available here.