Farhan Hamidani

Director of Sales and Marketing, Novotel Mumbai Juhu Beach

The tourism and hospitality sectors have always excelled in stimulating travellers’ imaginations. Experimenting with technology integration to improve guest interactions has immensely grown in the past few years.

The pandemic has been a driving factor for the rapid adoption of digital transformation initiatives across the hospitality sector. As travel recovers post the pandemic, digital transformation is even more crucial. In order to enhance and maximize guest experiences, businesses have adopted advanced digital technologies into their business operations, procedures, and workforce.

Guest expectations, attitudes, and behaviours have changed as a result of the development of networked technology. The contemporary, tech-savvy tourist is more aware, more in control, and seeks to be appreciated. Gen Z, millennials make up an ever-greater proportion of travelers – they have grown up with modern technology. The elder generations are also increasingly making use of the internet and technologies to plan their vacation.

More and more travelers are expecting digitalized, flexible service options throughout their entire guest journey. Mobile devices and apps allow guests to get what they want almost exactly at the moment they need it. When planning a trip, everyone wants their questions answered quickly – direct communication through social media helps. Digitalisation has changed the functioning of room reservations. Individual can book a room online, anywhere and anytime, so long as there is an electronic device with internet access.

Implementing online check-in and check-out is a new want. Almost all hotels now use the smart room key system, which is a part of the progressive digitalisation technology. A hotel app can be shared with guests enabling them with the latest, up-to-the-minute information about hotel offers in quick and easy methods making their stay perfectly tailored to suit their own preferences and needs.

Now a days, the menu of any restaurant in the city is readily available on a customer’s mobile phone and the convenient food aggregator services have paved a way for the guests to satisfy their wants at a click of a button.

Digitalisation has also facilitated the combination of associated services used by the hotel guests. Services, such as city tours, car rentals and airport transfers, that were being routed through the CRM systems of hotels, are now digitally integrated, making them seamless and easy to manage.

The technical evolution has become an inevitable part of our everyday lives in several ways while providing services to the guests keeping in mind their changing preferences and wants. In today’s scenario, the more digitalization ushers in, the faster the industry adapts to it, the more guest satisfaction it achieves.