REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., April 23,
2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A whopping 91 percent of hotel
executives surveyed said mobile technologies are critical to
improving guest experience and cultivating loyalty. But only 69
percent were confident in their organization's ability to adopt and
deliver those mobile experiences.
"It's clear that hotels need to provide mobile innovations to
meet the requirements of today's savvy consumers, yet some haven't
started their mobile journey. Customers want to be able to engage
with brands wherever they are – booking a room from their child's
soccer game or ordering drinks while sitting poolside at the hotel.
The properties that can't deliver these kinds of mobile experiences
will quickly lose to those that can make the engagement simple and
seamless for their customers," said Greg
Webb, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle
Hospitality.
The 2019 Hospitality Benchmark - Mobile Maturity Analysis study,
which was conducted by Oracle, focused on three key areas of
mobility:
- The ability to offer WIFI to guests throughout the
property
- Guest-facing apps to enhance the customer experience; and
- Staff-facing mobile to improve the hotel team's daily
operational workflow
Despite high self-ratings for mobile utilization prowess, 50
percent of respondents expressed fear that their organization would
be disrupted by more mobile-friendly competitors. So it was not
surprising that 90 percent of the hotel executives surveyed agreed
that mobile was critical to maintaining a competitive advantage.
Ninety percent also added that guest experience could be improved
by the ability to use smartphones to manage basic services such as
booking a room and managing the check-in and check-out processes.
And 91 percent said their guest-facing mobile app is the preferred
way they'd like guests to request service from hotel
staff.
In addition to enhancing guest experience, 66 percent of
respondents said reducing operational costs was another major
driver for embracing mobility.
Even with the high ratings for hotel mobile adoption, there is
room for improvement in elevating the guest experience and
providing personalized services via mobile – starting with
awareness. Twenty-three percent of respondents agreed that they
struggle to promote their guest-facing mobile app technology. The
survey underscores the importance of offering guests incentives –
such as free perks, drinks or discounted room service – to download
and use hotel apps. In the absence of such mobile initiatives, it
is essential for hoteliers to provide guests with other
communication channels, such as texting, to quickly respond to
their needs.
The majority of hotel executives believe that mobile
technologies are critical to guest experiences, and Oracle believes
that there are three areas they can focus on to improve the guest
experience including empowering guests to take advantage of
self-service tools, allowing guests to communicate with the hotel
through their preferred channel, and continuing to invest in mobile
technologies to reduce friction.
Methodology
199 executive leaders in the hospitality
industry were surveyed regarding the current use of mobile
technology within their organizations. Seventy seven percent of
respondents were director level or higher, with 53% from companies
whose annual revenue is greater than $500M.
Additional Resources
Oracle
Hospitality
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About Oracle Hospitality
Oracle Hospitality brings over 40 years of experience in providing
technology solutions to independent hoteliers, global and regional
chains, gaming, and cruise lines. We provide hardware, software,
and services that allow our customers to act on rich data insights
that deliver personalized guest experiences, maximize
profitability and encourage long-term loyalty. Our solutions
include platforms for property management, point-of-sale,
distribution, reporting and analytics all delivered from the cloud
to lower IT cost and maximize business agility. Oracle
Hospitality's OPERA is recognized globally as the leading property
management platform and continues to serve as a foundation for
industry innovation.
For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please
visit www.oracle.com/Hospitality
About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS
application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database
Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle
(NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.
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SOURCE Oracle