Guest Post: The key to making your hotel ‘smart’

Guest Post: The key to making your hotel ‘smart’

Improve customer experience with NFC technology, says Infraspeak chief executive Felipe Ávila da Costa

Improve customer experience with NFC technology, says Infraspeak chief executive Felipe Ávila da Costa

Near Field Communication or NFC, is an increasingly popular technology solution. It allows for the secure and wireless exchange of information between two or more devices such as smartphones, which nowadays are nearly all manufactured to be NFC-compatible.

It has many different uses including in trade, transportation, or maintenance. Hotels, especially those with large infrastructures, big teams and a high influx of guests, can greatly improve both their customers’ experience and their operations with NFC technology. Here are a few different areas it can help with:

Replacing Room Keys:

With NFC technology, hotel room keys can be transmitted directly to the guest’ smartphones, replacing the widely used magnetic strip cards. This can even be done in advance of their arrival! Not only does this improve the guests’ experience by allowing check-ins to be automatic and therefore saving them time by skipping queues at the reception, but it also improves security since the tag cannot easily be lost, erased or forged like magnetic strip cards.

Automatic Access to Wi-Fi

NFC tags can be configured to give instant access to a Wi-Fi network without the need to type any password. By placing one or multiple tags in the rooms or common areas, any guest or staff member can access the network by simply moving their smartphone close to the tag. Guests won’t need to write a password whilst people from the outside will still not be able to access it.

Easy payments

Payments using NFC technology are already possible and frequent in many places, such as supermarkets. With an app connected to your credit or debit card, all it takes is for you to move your smartphone towards the contactless terminal at the checkout and your payment will be instantly processed. No card, no PIN, no hassle. Why not replicate this technology in hotels to allow guests to pay for food, services or leisure activities?

Maintenance Management

NFC technology is not just useful for guests. Maintenance teams at hotels can also greatly benefit from it by having all equipment properly identified with NFC tags. With a Maintenance Management system like Infraspeak for hotels, technicians can use their smartphones and the specially designed tags to instantly access all relevant information on equipment and the maintenance it needs.

All staff members and even customers can easily report equipment malfunctions with the help of Infraspeak Direct. This information is automatically registered in the system and immediately made accessible by managers or the technicians responsible for them.

Housekeeping

Much like maintenance teams, housekeeping staff can benefit from NFC tags and can instantly access to-do lists on the mobile app for each location. Managers are also able to use this system to check the status of operations in real-time and make sure everything is running according to plan and schedule.

Register Personnel Presence

NFC tags can also be used to monitor the presence of all members of staff, from maintenance technicians to security guards. Given that they must engage with the NFC for their daily tasks, it becomes an indirect way of ensuring that they are in the correct places and doing the correct tasks in real-time. It also provides indicators on each staff member’s daily performance.

It is clear that NFC technology represents an exciting opportunity to modernise the hospitality sector, as it has for many others. It is worth noting that while some of the aspects mentioned may seem to be directed at improving internal operations rather than the overall guest experience, all improvements to the running of the hotel will ultimately improve the service provided to your guests.

Find more at infraspeak.com