FRANKLIN, TN—Hoteliers are designing a new blueprint for a new paradigm. It’s a time where the industry is experiencing unparalleled change in terms of global growth and technology. To take advantage of these advances, the hospitality industry must be willing to evolve its business strategies and embrace new models to speak to the needs of hyper-connected travelers.
Fresh off deals to streamline hotel operations at IHG and Choice, Quore Systems’ Founder and CEO Scott Schaedle is taking asset-management solution one step further by leveraging mobile technology to manage the guest experience.
“It’s been a fun road, so far. We spent 18 months to win the IHG deal and it’s a huge win for us. In January 2015, we were averaging 10 to 15 hotels and, now we’re doing 120 this month and close to that last month. The growth in business has been phenomenal,” said Schaedle. “It’s setting the course here. If you look at the major players, they’ve been around for 15 years and these deals solidify us as a major player in the industry. To compete so hard to get some of these big companies; we know we have the best product available and it’s been proven. The whole team is very excited.”
Quore is meeting hyper-connected travelers where they are—on their mobile devices. The company brought mobility to hospitality staff, so when guests requested items, the messages could be sent to a staff member to handle and they would know it’s a customer request.
“It allows the method of communication to be accurate and fast. The most important thing is that the guest doesn’t know it’s happening and the staff is accountable for meeting guests’ needs,” said Schaedle. “It’s about improving guest satisfaction without the guest knowing there’s a whole other level.”
Allowing the guest to communicate with the hotel through a mobile device has taken over our lives, noted Schaedle, and it’s an expectation to be able to do these things. It’s very empowering for the guests as well.
“We allow them to use the app to request things and text staff, and it’s becoming status quo for how guests want to communicate. Text messaging is a natural way to express what they want without feeling like they’re being intrusive, and it’s effortless,” said Schaedle. “I see a lot of hotels scrambling to keep up and this is a better, simpler and more accurate way to communicate—whether it’s through text messaging or mobile apps.”
An emerging trend coming into the marketplace is mobile technology that enables hotels to do pre-arrival preparations. Hotel-branded apps are allowing travelers to do an early check-in and, in turn, hotels are able to mobilize housekeeping to set up the room the right way and improve guest satisfaction.
“We offer text-messaging solutions to allow guests to text with the hotel. We have a back-of-house operations tool where the text message turns into a request to the staff,” he said. “We have a mobile app and working with brands like IHG, we provide the API or back-end engine so those apps can use our system to push the request to our back-of-house solution. We’re hidden in the background.”
For Schaedle, he wants to continue to build on the momentum generated by past successes. In December, Quore will release a Beta version of a housekeeping tool and plans to have it available to everyone for purchase in Q1 2017. Its purpose is twofold: enable staff to breakout the rooms digitally instead of on paper and allow ownership to control labor and where the labor dollars are going.
“One thing that Quore is striving to do is to have the best back-of-house operations out there. We’re connecting the guest to the back-of-house and the housekeeping app to the housekeeper,” he said. “We want it to be very natural to make for a better, more efficient property without adding extra labor to it. We want it to fit in their normal routines to make their days simpler and faster. We take the line-level employees seriously.”
—Corris Little