ORLANDO, FL—The mobile revolution is here and, in terms of hospitality, it’s being driven by a desire for convenience and efficiency for guests and hoteliers alike.
Rather than checking in at the front desk or picking up the phone to order food, hotel guests can simply unlock their guestroom door or text a room service order. On the operations side, mobile solutions can free up associates to deliver greater service or help facilitate communications between departments and between the guest and staff. With all the positives of these sophisticated mobile solutions, the adoption rate for hotels is low but it’s rising.
“While a 24% [adoption rate]seems low, when you look at how it’s grown in past years, it continues to escalate. I project it will reach the 45-50% mark in next few years,” said David Adelson, founder, president and CEO of Intelity, a provider of a guest service platform connecting hotel staff to guests. “The mobile revolution comes in different parts. Some travelers want to do chat, some want a webpage or to download a mobile native solution, and that’s OK, but there needs to be a platform to manage all the communication. As Intelity grows, we enable all of the different travelers, ranging from business to leisure, to experience it on one platform.”
In this digital push for ease, convenience and efficiency, Adelson sought to develop the tools to enable a communication platform to give employees a way to manage all of the content, learn about the habits of their guests and have it integrate into all of the systems of the hotel.
“We wanted to bring all those systems together and have it sit as the hub, connecting all systems. For example, if there’s a service request from any of their guest-facing technology it would streamline it into the employees’ hands,” he said.
Intelity serves all hotel types, ranging from independent to major chains, in different ways. The platform is modular, explained Adelson, so it can enable a luxury resort and a limited-service hotel on the same platform. They pick and choose which services meet the guest demands and environment for that location.
“We have brands that white label our platform. It has the brand’s identification, look and feel, but they are using our platform,” he said. “While the guest is interacting with it and what you see on the device is 30% of the solution, and the rest is how does it integrate, how are you delivering check-in and checkout and in-room dining. We have a platform where we can enable brands to have their entire collection, hundred of hotels in one solution, or appeal to independent properties.”
Intelity was named Forbes Travel Guide’s official mobile and in-room technology provider for 2017 and 2018, and there’s a lot more coming in the future, Adelson said.
“The MiKEY module of the Intelity Guest Service Platform offers in-room technology for the TV, tablet and mobile,” he said. “We took a good look at the travel experience and as we roll into 2018, we’re not just look at the chat functionality or web or native—it’s all of the channels guests want to talk to using social or other things and how we bring it under one platform. New channels will be discussed in 2018, as well as new international partnerships. We’re always doing new integrations.”