Penned by Dr. Ameet Patil, Founder & CEO of Ecobillz Private Limited

Technology has revolutionized every sector of the Indian economy; this trend has taken a steep uptick post covid. Consumer expectations are also growing because of technology. The immense power of the Internet of Things (IoT) automation can convert inefficient, independent, disconnected processes into integrated, automated, and simplified workflows. Automation increases efficiency by streamlining tasks and improving overall quality and reliability. It also ensures a seamless and efficient end-to-end stay experience for the customer. The benefits of automation for hotels are many:

● increased productivity

● lower costs

● a better experience for both staff and guests

● more accurate forecasts

● more precise pricing decisions

The key areas wherein the Hospitality industry is witnessing a great deal of automation are:

● Revenue management: This arena is today much more democratized than previously, when only the big brands could afford full-time revenue managers to optimize strategy. Today, independent hotels don’t need full-time revenue managers, as they could leverage the data-driven decision-making of revenue management software, such as Infor EzRMS, that automates many of the laborious and administrative pieces of revenue management while also working 24/7 to translate the latest property and market data into optimal rates and availability.

● Reconciliation: Hotels have multiple sources of income. Booking and payments coming in from Online Travel Agents (OTA), payments made by customers via different kinds of credit cards/UPI, etc. need to be reconciled on a daily basis. Automatic reconciliation of such transactions is huge value add and save a lot of manual effort and time.

● Housekeeping: Traditionally, housekeepers have relied on clipboards and paper to manage room assignments and prioritize work. This meant the department wasn’t as responsive to real-time changes in guest flows. With new-age housekeeping, the software adjusts work assignments according to the latest business needs. It’s seamless and requires no intervention, which allows the business to optimize itself as each shift unfolds. The average hotel room clean costs are relatively higher; automation can dramatically improve efficiency and thus profitability.

● Guest messaging: Hotels that want to communicate easily and quickly with guests must consider how to engage on mobile. One way to meet guests on their preferred channels is to automate communications via business texting. These texts put not only critical information in guests’ hands (and boost satisfaction) but also provide upselling and other revenue-generating opportunities. For instance, guest messaging platforms

can be customized to respond to specific triggers, such as personalizing a check-out survey or sending a mid-stay message. Your property (and its guest) benefit significantly from communication consistently applied.

● Upselling: Training the front desk to “make the ask” is a great way to build a sales culture that gets more upsells. Another tactic is to deploy automated upselling that drives more revenue opportunities throughout the guest journey. Automation eliminates the fail point of forgetting to send a campaign or neglecting to manually upload the latest guest data from the PMS into the email marketing software. It’s all about consistency and efficiency, so you’ll capture more revenue and grow your property’s total revenue per available room. Personalization is also at play here, as upselling software uses your data to dynamically create segments and match them with the most relevant offers. That means higher conversions and more revenue.

With technology gaining momentum, hospitality, one of the fastest growing sectors, is also witnessing rapid transformation in terms of automation. Technology and all its manifestations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and interactive devices enter quickly into mundane tasks in hotels. The daily analysis increases their productivity through mobile receipts instead of printouts while saving paper. Hotel managers can gauge the overall operation status in real-time if the entire database is online and digitized correctly. In conclusion, it is safe to say that automation will drive the future of the hospitality industry not only in India but also across the globe.