At the core of innovation and technology is an understanding of the challenges and pain points that need to be solved. Now, when it comes to understanding the pain points of hotel operations, there are many to choose from. The need to constantly meet guest demands and manage changovers inevitably puts strain on staff and creates a highly pressured environment. Subsequently, these barriers to operational efficiency must be identified before the right technology can be brought in to promote cohesiveness and productivity.
In this blog, we want to highlight how the industry can benefit from utilizing the latest hotel operations management technology by focusing on the common pain points felt in hotel teams today. We believe that by reflecting on and working to improve their operational strategy, hotel teams will be better positioned to deliver great experiences for their guests. After all, if hotel staff aren’t reaching their potential, how can they provide guests with the best possible stay?
Changing Guest Demands
After years of pandemic hangover, pent up demand has led to changing guest expectations and higher valuation of experiences. This, in combination with rising room rates, makes it more important than ever for hotels to make sure guest’s needs are prioritized to help with guest loyalty and brand reputation.
A major pain point for teams trying to meet increasing guest demands is the inability to access information quickly and easily. If front desk managers are unable to log requests or see which rooms are available, guests will not get the first class customer service they expect. Technology rectifies these issues by empowering front desk managers with easy access to a wealth of information, allowing them to meet demands quickly. By centralizing their operations, hotel managers can access all the information and data they need instantly. Maintenance issues can also be flagged to the maintenance team straight away, which helps to get them solved and prevents guest experiences being significantly affected.
Tracking Housekeeping
One of the big obstacles to greater functionality in hotels is an over-reliance on manual processes that has left operations teams managing the day to day with pen and paper, which is ineffective and prone to error. Especially when it comes to housekeeping, visibility becomes a major issue. Without technology, it is difficult to track progress, and therefore managers are unable to accurately analyze performance. With Optii Housekeeping, however, supervisors are able to see where time can be saved by identifying how much time is being spent between rooms and floors. In addition, predictive AI automatically optimizes cleaning routes, which drives efficiency up and keeps cleaning teams on schedule.
When it comes to the guest experience, the visibility of the housekeeping team is vital to ensure rooms are ready as soon as possible and can accommodate early check-ins and late check-outs. Optii addresses this by providing a platform with clear communication channels and 360 visibility of the operation, which ensures the front desk can effectively oversee both housekeepers and room status, all while keeping team members in the loop. It allows for adaptability, meaning that managers can assign rooms to be cleaned based on priority, which then enables rooms to be turned around quickly.
Nurturing Staff Development in Fluctuating Labor Market
Hospitality has always had high staff turnover, but with the added challenges brought about by the pandemic and subsequent labor shortages, nurturing the individual development of staff is more critical than ever for hoteliers. Having an effective onboarding process is essential. With Optii, trainee room attendants can use the ‘cleaning jobs’ list, which explains all the expectations of a completed room by providing a checklist complete with photos and videos to give precise guidance. By making progress visible, housekeepers can also be rewarded for good work.
Insight from Optii’s comprehensive at-a-glance dashboards and more granular reports allows management to identify team strengths, weaknesses and areas for development. If a team member is struggling with speed of cleaning or perhaps always having rejected linen shown up in bedrooms, Optii can assist management in nurturing and retraining as effectively as possible. The ability to identify and fix common faults is crucial in ever lean team operations.
By orienting our approach around the daily struggles of hotel staff, Optii has developed the efficiency-driven technology necessary to push the industry forward. We take pride in our ability to strengthen team cohesion, maximize productivity, and ultimately to help hotels deliver exceptional experiences. Implementing operational technology has greatly augmented many hotels’ ability to deliver quality experiences, and this is something which we hope to see extended across the entire industry in the future.