hospitality kiosks
Humanless
Reception
Transforming the customer experience in the
hospitality industry. But is it the logical next step
for customer service or sheer lunacy?
By Stefan Stamenov, Clock Software – www.clocksoftware.co.uk
The technology boom is changing the
face of the hospitality industry. It’s
gradually becoming a must for hotels to
be able to connect to their increasingly
tech-savvy guests at all times. The
hospitality industry is prompted to offer
higher levels of personalised experience
like never before, while meeting the
growing expectations for value, quality,
flexibility and responsiveness.
Some hoteliers have even taken a
step further. Now there are unmanned
14 KIOSK solutions
hotels, or at least the only people there
are the guests. You may say it isn’t
possible, but it is – at the Henn-na Hotel
in Japan, guests are serviced by robots,
and at the Buddy Hotel in Munich,
guests are met by a hotel kiosk instead
of a receptionist to assist them with
check-in and getting a room key etc.
The future is now
Is this the future? Is it already here?
Arguably it may be, but the question
is ‘What is it?’ Can a hotel app replace
the human factor in the hospitality
industry? We can surely say that this
new type of hotels is an example of
extreme digitalisation in the search for
competitive differentiation or a low-cost
business model. But the fact remains
that use of various hotel apps and
hotel kiosks is on the rise across the
hospitality industry.
Similarly, with the launch of new
hotel self-service check-in kiosks it’s
clear that high demand already exists.
Recent surveys show the main driving
force behind this phenomenon is a
catalyst for boosting guest service and
satisfaction. With a hotel kiosk or a
mobile hotel app, the options for guest
engagement can now encompass every
aspect of their journey – from booking