Technological advances have been instrumental in driving change in human lives and in steering the digital transformation journey of several industries. The hospitality industry is one such industry that has been reaping rich dividends by the application of technology. Right from enhancing the customer experience to streamlining front-end and back-end operations, technology is helping hospitality service providers conduct efficient resource utilization, optimize costs and improve customer experience. Nowadays, providing a hyper-personalized customer experience is the top priority for most of the hospitality players.
The largest hotel chain in the world with 30+ brands, 7000+ properties and operating in more than 130 countries, Marriott International leads the way when it comes to the application of technology to amplify the guest experience. In June 2018, guests staying at select Marriott properties got complimentary access to HBO GO which is HBO’s authenticated streaming service. While complimentary access to HBO has been around for quite some time now, HBO GO is all set to go further by delivering on-demand streaming access to HBO licensed movies and original series. Hospitality service providers want to personalize the guest room TV so that customers can tune in to their favorite shows anytime, anywhere and on any device. This becomes a win-win situation for both entertainment and hospitality service providers as they expand entertainment options while enhancing the digital guest experience at the same time.
The introduction of over-the-top content has transformed the hospitality television landscape. Guests prefer the interactive and content-based OTT services to the linear content that was once the norm. Guestroom TVs have evolved from mere devices that help watch movies and shows to comprehensive interactive systems that entertain, inform and control guests thereby elevating the customer experience. Here are some of the trends envisaged by experts in the entertainment service provider industry:
Low switching costs and stiff competition compel hospitality enterprises to consider providing exceptional customer experience as their most important KPI. Increasingly, hotel guests are looking for an at-home experience in their rooms. When they switch on their guestroom TV they expect it to seamlessly start where they left it at their home.
With the OTT evolution, guests are comfortable with different OTT service providers. To make the guests feel at home, hotels are providing a setup with pre-installed applications so that guest can use their own subscription to view their preferred OTT service. In addition, hotels can utilize the same setup to provide their own content via OTT service. Having an OTT service to provide their own content, helps hoteliers provide a unified experience to their guests irrespective of whether they choose to view the hotel provided content or through their own subscription. Additionally, Hotels can integrate their Property Management System along with their OTT application to provide an integrated service to the guest for entertainment as well as other guest services (such as ordering food to the room) who can use the guestroom TV to communicate with the hotel staff.
With Hotspot 2.0, hotels can also go the extra mile to provide a seamless and secure Hotel Wifi service to their guests. For frequent travelers, it would facilitate a seamless way to connect to Wi-Fi services every time they check-in. Guests can access their preferred OTT service in the hotel premises by using the secure Hotel Wi-Fi Service and hotels would, in turn, have an additional channel of engagement with their guests for location-based ads
It is therefore without doubt that HSC’s Hotspot 2.0 solution combined with the OTT Delivery solution and application development experiences can enable hotels to enhance their guest services. It would also help the hoteliers monetize their offerings by means of suitably up-selling/cross-selling additional services via proximity marketing, contextual advertisements, dynamic ad insertions etc.
So, interested to implement a potent combination of OTT and Next Generation Hotspot Solution in your properties and give your customers a holistic guest experience? Send us your query using the form below.