5 Ways Restaurants Can Reduce Payroll Costs
After a challenging year, many restaurants are looking for ways to reduce costs. The typical answer to this challenge is cutting hours or cutting employees altogether, both of which create yet another issue as your restaurant becomes short-staffed and you struggle to provide that exceptional customer experience your patrons know and love.
After a challenging year, many restaurants are looking for ways to reduce costs. The typical answer to this challenge is cutting hours or cutting employees altogether, both of which create yet another issue as your restaurant becomes short-staffed and you struggle to provide that exceptional customer experience your patrons know and love.
Surely there is a better way — a way to save money without sacrificing your restaurant’s high standard of service. You need effective strategies to manage your operating expenses, and we can help. To get started, here are five actionable ideas to reduce payroll costs.
1. Calculate Your Current Labor Costs
You can’t know where you’re going without first knowing where you are. As such, the first step in reducing your payroll costs is taking a good hard look at your current spending. Math may not be your idea of fun, but you need it to get the most accurate picture of your finances and determine where you can reasonably cut costs.
Calculating your current labor costs enables you to make better-informed decisions regarding your restaurant staffing. You can do this manually or using specialized software. Either way, we believe it’s important for you to know how these equations reflect the reality of your business. So let’s break down a few particularly significant metrics.
-Labor cost: Salaried wages + hourly wages + bonuses + overtime + payroll taxes + healthcare + sick and vacation days + any other labor-related costs.
-Labor cost per hour: Hours worked by FOH, BOH, line cooks, etc. * total employees / weeks per year.
-Restaurant payroll percentage: (Labor costs related to sales) = total payroll costs / total revenue.
-Prime cost: (Food + labor related to sales) = prime cost / total sales.
2. Close the Revolving Door
You may not realize it, but it can cause a significant drain on your finances to have a revolving door of employees. Unfortunately, the restaurant industry has a longstanding history of high turnover rates. According to the National Restaurant Association, the turnover rate in the restaurant industry was at 74.9% in 2018 and continues to tick upward. Reasons include other opportunities with better pay, difficulty with management, and even the need for more flexibility with scheduling. The lockdown increased this turnover even more, as many restaurant workers have had to find jobs in industries that offered more stability during the pandemic.
Constantly hiring and training new staff members eats up payroll and contributes to staff inefficiency. So when trying to grow your business, your primary focus shouldn’t be bringing on new people; it should be maintaining a loyal staff that sticks around. Incentivizing your current employees and keeping them happy means better stability and can reduce your payroll costs.
This begs the question: how do you keep staff happy? That’s a whole topic unto itself, but you can start by bearing in mind that people love to feel like their hard work and dedication are seen and appreciated. Rewarding your employees not only motivates them to keep working hard but also reduces the chance that your staff will jump ship and saves you the headache of uploading that Indeed job posting for the umpteenth time.
3. Automate Where You Can
Another way you can reduce payroll costs in 2021 is to automate some of your daily operational tasks. Contrary to popular belief, technology isn’t the enemy, snatching up jobs and depersonalizing your relationship with customers.
In actuality, introducing tech into your process — such as an omnichannel management platform like Deliverect — can reduce costs and help managers and staff alike breathe a sigh of relief. Deliverect saves you time and labor hours by providing full integration with your online ordering channels, existing POS system, menu, and stock management, all with an intuitive reporting dashboard. And together, these features produce one extra-attractive benefit: more revenue.
4. Cross-Train Your Team
Finding the right people can be challenging, but once you’ve struck gold, the next step is to provide them with cross-training. Ensuring that your team is well-rounded equips them to handle multiple tasks and roles, helps cover staff shortages, and leads to growth in their professional capabilities. It can also reduce payroll costs.
Glassdoor reports that when you provide excellent onboarding and cross-training opportunities, it can improve employee retention by 82%. And with cross-training, your team members can easily rotate into whatever role you need them to if someone leaves you high and dry. There’s also the potential to develop empathy between different teams, help your staff become more efficient, and improve peer training for new hires.
5. Watch the Clock
Accountability and punctuality are pain points in the restaurant industry, and it can add up if your employees are consistently clocking in too early or staying too late. To cut down on this occurrence, we recommend keeping one eye on the clock-in records.
No one wants to hound employees about their timecard. However, monitoring the clock can significantly reduce payroll costs. The trick is to set expectations for what is considered acceptable behavior. Have clear, polite conversations with staff outlining what you consider to be reasonable hours and prohibiting costly timecard issues like “buddy punching.”
The easiest way to get things on track is to schedule smarter. Coordinate your employees’ schedules with dinner rushes and keep upcoming holidays or events in mind. You can also invest in a GPS time clock tool, which allows you to see who’s clocked in at which location, block overly early timecard punches, and even get a real-time view of who missed a punch or is close to overtime.
Deliverect: Helping You Cut Costs
Recouping your lost revenue can be challenging in the recovering post-COVID restaurant industry. However, you can employ our tips for reducing payroll costs to save money while still keeping your employees happy. Deliverect is here to help as you bring your restaurant to new heights of success. Our omnichannel management tool can reduce human error, streamline your FOH and BOH processes, and assist you in providing an excellent customer experience.
Are you interested in learning more about our software and how it can boost your revenue? Contact our team today!
SIHOT expands portuguese development team
SIHOT, a leading modular hotel management software system, has expanded its product development and data centre team, increasing headcount in its Portuguese delivery service centre by 30%.
SIHOT, a leading modular hotel management software system, has expanded its product development and data centre team, increasing headcount in its Portuguese delivery service centre by 30%.
Parent company GUBSE AG has invested in its international offices including Lisbon, Valencia, and Gold Coast to access the right talent and skills required to develop new tools and solutions for the SIHOT portfolio.
As part of the investment, the SIHOT platform benefits from an additional six employees working on the SaaS offering and managing GUBSE AGs data centres, with plans to further extend the team by the end of the year. The appointments include two senior technical support specialists with vast hospitality experience having served with Tivoli Hotels. With SaaS and Cloud becoming the focus of delivery, SIHOT invested in its data centre team to deliver the hotel, hospitality and events market a one-stop solution.
GUBSE AG saw the opportunity to invest in Portugal due to the available talent pool of well-educated and skilled multilingual staff to develop the integrated hotel management platform. Portugal is also supporting global customer service alongside the Gold Coast office in Australia as part of a “follow the sun” approach to 24/7 technical and customer support.
“We originally set up Portugal to support the local and Portuguese-speaking markets, but we soon found that it offered much more to the business, particularly access to a wider and more skilled talent pool. Many technology companies have struggled to recruit in Germany, even pre-pandemic, and now with the greater need to support a wider customer base worldwide, Portugal offers us the flexibility to deliver these services and will help fulfil our global ambitions,” said Carsten Wernet, Executive Board Member, GUBSE AG.
The company also recently opened its 135m2 wholly-owned office in Australia, one of SIHOT’s core markets - space enough to more than double the size of the current team. The new office is situated in the central CBD of Surfers Paradise, the popular Australian holiday destination.
“We are perfectly located to tap into Australia’s tourism market - all of us within the SIHOT support team are from hotel backgrounds and as such, we understand the needs of hoteliers. We’re looking forward to adding more desks and welcoming more faces to the office in due course,” said Kylie Keane, Director of Operations heading up the office alongside Brett Eslick, Director of IT.
SIHOT will be recruiting further positions across its office locations over the coming 12 months as it invests in its wider market strategy for the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking markets, as well as expanding its presence in the Australian, DACH and UK markets.
Over 3,500 properties utilise SIHOT products worldwide which includes a comprehensive Property Management System (PMS), hotel booking engine, Point of Sale (POS) system, and event management platform. SIHOT is a modular suite which can be fully integrated or managed as standalone systems in the Cloud as a SaaS with complementary mobile management apps.
For more information, visit sihot.com
Hotel 360 Expo
Welcoming 4 - 5,000 hotel professionals this year, Hotel360 is ready to reconnect with the industry in-person. Taking place on the 28th & 29th of September at the ExCeL, London, this free to attend event will provide a 360 degree viewpoint of the hospitality industry encompassing 5 topical areas; business growth (finance & marketing), technology, operations, sustainability & design.
Welcoming 4 - 5,000 hotel professionals this year, Hotel360 is ready to reconnect with the industry in-person. Taking place on the 28th & 29th of September at the ExCeL, London, this free to attend event will provide a 360 degree viewpoint of the hospitality industry encompassing 5 topical areas; business growth (finance & marketing), technology, operations, sustainability & design.
With a transformed hotel sector, there was a shift in guests’ expectations. The new norm of the essential, ‘standard offering’ changed. Besides new sanitary measures, the reduction of human touch points accelerated a new age of hotel technological innovation, automation and digitisation of services. Furthermore, the heightened demand for hospitality staff, to the increasing need to reduce hotel emissions by 90% by 2050 according to the Paris Climate Agreement (Natacha Reymond, 2021), has created an array of new challenges for hoteliers.
Although, if responded to correctly, these challenges could be the push to refresh one’s hotel offering and act as an opportunity to differentiate oneself from the competition. Keeping this in mind, Hotel360 has carefully curated this year’s content by providing the information, solutions & tools necessary to stay ahead of the new playing field of 2022. With Panel debates such as:
Mastering the Art of Health & Safety - Protecting your Staff and Customers
Workforce Management: How to Empower and Engage Your Employees
Everyday Sustainability - Using Our Resources Responsibly
The Technologies Shaping the Hotel of Tomorrow
Delivering the 5 Star Experience
Marketing from A-Z - Everything you need to know
Keeping Sustainability at the Heart of your Hotel
These interactive panel debates act as an open stage for hoteliers to voice their opinion and to ask those pressing questions posing their hotel business. There will also be 150 inspirational seminars & industry influencing keynote speakers. Hotel360 has already announced three exciting keynote lineups, namely:
Andrew Robb - Chief Financial Officer of RBH - Discussing ‘Planning for expansion: when and how to invest'
Max Fenlon - Director of Commercial Finance from PPHE Hotel Group - Discussing 'Financial Partnerships for Business Growth'
Gonzalo Carpintero Navarro - VP Operations EMEA and Head of Meetings and Events Transformation from Radisson Hotel Group - Discussing 'Making your customer experience consistent’
Chains and independents will receive a chance to get free training, a place to meet and teambuild!
Visit hotel360expo.co.uk to secure your free ticket to both shows today!
Switch and Save with Clarity Hospitality Software
In reaction to an incredibly challenging period for the hospitality industry, you may be one of hundreds of owners and managers looking at every facet of your hospitality business, and finding ways to operate in a leaner and more efficient way.
In reaction to an incredibly challenging period for the hospitality industry, you may be one of hundreds of owners and managers looking at every facet of your hospitality business, and finding ways to operate in a leaner and more efficient way. A big part of that is looking at your key suppliers, including suppliers of your hospitality software systems. While changing software system may initially seem like pulling teeth, if the end result is ending up with more features and better support, without the changeover costs, you might just end up smiling.
Now might be the perfect time to make a change, at zero cost
Clarity want to take the fear, and cost, out of switching systems. Offering onsite, one-to-one dedicated training for your staff, 24/7 local support as standard as well as unlimited user and room licensing. All for ZERO upfront charges. This means you can effect positive change without spending a thing.
Feature-laden software you can afford, and trust
Because of the decades we’ve been developing software for the Hospitality industry, Clarity provides one of the most full-featured Property Management Systems of any supplier. This is backed up by outstanding local support and training.
One of the best hotel PMS systems available
All the licenses you want
Enterprise module for Groups at no cost
All the 3rd party interfaces and modules you need, including Sales and Catering and POS
Cloud hosting
24/7 support
Free remote demo
If you are looking for a positive change in your hotel software, why not book a free remote demonstration by contacting Craig, our UK Sales Manager. We would love to show you just how Clarity Hospitality Software can help your business bounce back with a strong, proven software provider at your side.
You can contact Craig by visiting our website’s contact page:
clarityhospitality.co.uk/contact
Or email craig@clarityhospitality.co.uk
Or call +44 (0) 330 043 0719
New UK Food Labelling Requirements – Is Your Company Ready?
From the 1st October 2021, the UK Food information amendment or Natasha’s Law will require businesses to label pre-packed food for direct sale (PPDS) made on their premises with its product name and its full list of ingredients, including highlighted allergens.
From the 1st October 2021, the UK Food information amendment or Natasha’s Law will require businesses to label pre-packed food for direct sale (PPDS) made on their premises with its product name and its full list of ingredients, including highlighted allergens. The new law will come into play in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with similar standards being introduced in Scotland by its local Food Standards agency.
The new law is aimed to protect allergy suffers and give them the confidence when buying food. These types of foods are packaged onsite and are usually on sale in display units, behind counters or sold in mobile/temporary outlets.
What are the options?
The new law effects everyone from small bistros to larger hospitality chains who in turn require new technology to fulfil these new documentation requirements. There are a number of labelling options which businesses can consider, including handwriting sticky labels or batch buying pre-printed labels which can often be costly and very time consuming. An additional negative point of purchasing large quantities of pre-printed labels is that they will instantly become redundant when recipe ingredients are updated, causing additional costs to reproduce.
An alternative option is to look into self-label printing, this allows for the production of smaller quantities of labels as-and-when required. The most popular media options on the market today are either traditional silicon linered pre-cut re-stick labels or linerless labels which both allow the user flexibility on the label content they produce.
Why go linerless?
Linerless labels are characterised as pressure-sensitive labelling with a special release coating applied on the face of the label. Going linerless provides up to 40% more labels per roll than traditional label media by simply removing the requirement of silicon backing paper. This special feature allows label printing of variable lengths, making it ideal for ingredient and allergen labelling which can often vary in size.
Typically, linerless labelling requires specialised printers for efficient use. BIXOLON offers a portfolio of linerless labelling solutions from traditional desktop printers to compact mobile printers. Its SRP-S300 linerless label or receipt printer, is ideal for high humidity kitchen environments. Providing concise, accurate linerless printing over five different print widths onto both re-stick and permanent linerless label media. The XL5-40 is the world’s first exclusively dedicated linerless desktop label printer with unmatched features compared to existing desktop printers, supporting linerless labelling as an option. Alternatively BIXOLON’s comprehensive range of compact mobile printers available in two, three and four-inch media widths providing consistent, flexible printing from your chosen smart device.
To find out more about the BIXOLON’s Linerless Label printing range and why it is quickly becoming a favoured labelling technology of choice for major hospitality brands across the UK, visit www.BixolonEU.com or call +49-211-68-78-84-0.
BIXOLON Europe GmbH
Tel: +49-211-68-78-54-0
Email: Sales@Bixolon.de
Website: www.BixolonEU.com
LollyMove gets hospitality moving
Perfect for the new hospitality landscape; LollyMove combines payments and PoS in one device
The LollyMove is an exciting new all-in-one PoS and payments tool from the digital EPoS and commerce specialist, It’s Lolly. Payments and orders are all done via one sleek unit – supporting a rapid and seamless service.
LollyMove combines a payment terminal with a full feature Android tablet, allowing orders to be taken by staff at the table or customer location and sent directly through to the kitchen management system. Customers are able to securely pay via the terminal, using contactless or chip and pin, ensuring little physical interaction. 4G and WiFi connectivity means that all activity is linked to the fully integrated Lolly system and back-office software.
Waiting staff can have their own unit, supporting Covid safety protocols and keeping things streamlined. The Moves’ high-capacity rechargeable battery lasts throughout a continuous busy day of service. Delivery costs are also lowered due to the fact that service and payments can be handled via a single device, as opposed to multiple PoS and payment units.
Peter Moore, CEO, It’s Lolly comments: “Pin on glass is a technology I’ve been keen to introduce to the Lolly portfolio for a while now, and this has now become a reality with LollyMove - enabling PoS and payments on a single device.
“The fact that a number of the banks are currently increasing the contactless limit to £100 means that the device has real potential for a large number of hospitality environments.
“LollyMove will help make life simpler for waiting staff and keep service speedy in outdoor and busy locations. Staff will no longer need to move clumsily between payment and order devices, leaving customers waiting to order their food or pay the bill.”
Ideal for outside events, pub or restaurant gardens, the LollyMove has been introduced into several expansive catering sites already. Available through outright purchase, or on an affordable rental model, the LollyMove is also an accessible offering.
Peter adds: “I believe this versatile product will help all kinds of hospitality businesses ensure fast, exceptional and safe hospitality service.”
Technology that can help your business thrive
For any business, choosing the right POS application is an important decision. While this depends largely on individual business requirements, the solution has to offer the flexibility and reliability to ensure a business runs smoothly now and in the future.
For any business, choosing the right POS application is an important decision. While this depends largely on individual business requirements, the solution has to offer the flexibility and reliability to ensure a business runs smoothly now and in the future. The current pandemic has simply brought these issues to the fore and has forced many hospitality businesses to review not only how they operate, but also how to pivot in such a way that the business can thrive in a challenging and at times unpredictable environment.
The wealth of options available in terms of POS technology is extensive. All too often the role of the printer is seen to simply print a receipt but, when used with intuitive software, it can provide a business with a variety of powerful tools. The right hardware can effectively reduce costs with future-proof solutions that enable a business to plan ahead, avoiding unnecessary expense by reducing the need for additional hardware investment as the business develops, not to mention having the technology readily available when required. Furthermore, the right hardware can add value to a business with unique feature-rich solutions included free of charge with the printer.
One area which has undoubtedly highlighted the role of the printer during the current pandemic is online ordering. While it has certainly enabled many establishments to continue operating during lockdown, online ordering apps / web software can also provide the path to an additional future revenue stream thanks to an enhanced customer database. This offers the potential to attract repeat business via coupons and promotions alongside in-house dining post lockdown.
One of the most important considerations that any hospitality business has to ensure is accurate customer orders, especially given stricter requirements for food labelling, allergies and customer order exceptions. With the added increase in orders from multiple channels including restaurant, kiosk / self-service, drive through as well as online collection and delivery, an efficient and accurate ordering process becomes essential.
Printed orders vastly improve order accuracy. With a growing number of custom orders and order modifications, a printed order that can be sent directly from the POS system or online app to the kitchen, allows all staff members to see the customer’s requirements and effectively cuts down on errors.
Technology such as Star’s CloudPRNT™, available on a range of Star printers, facilitates online ordering by eliminating the need for an additional tablet to send a received online order to the printer. Instead, the ordering service can communicate directly with the printer for online takeaway or collection orders from the restaurant web site. Aware that a large number of hospitality web sites are based on the WordPress platform, Star has developed a free of charge WooCommerce plug-in for simple integration.
Alternatively, if a tablet app is used for online ordering then a Bluetooth, WiFi or LAN printer can be connected to print the order in the kitchen as well as the receipt for pick up. Web and cloud enabled kitchen printers, capable of reliably accepting and queuing orders from multiple devices, become essential in this environment. As venues begin to open again, social distancing will no doubt remain key with order and pay at table apps or web sites taking on greater importance. These can also communicate directly with the printer for table orders, including those placed via a kiosk or self-ordering terminal.
As well as paper orders, the same connectivity is available for food orders printed on repositionable labels, which can then be removed and easily re-applied during the food preparation process before being attached to the final packaging as a receipt for the customer. The Star TSP654IISK using MAXStick linerless media can accept orders from traditional POS systems, tablets, phones and also directly from local or remote online ordering platforms. This streamlines the entire process and reduces paper waste, saving valuable time and cost. For takeaway and food vans where a mobile printer is perhaps more suitable, the Star SM-L200 offers the same solution but provides on-the-go receipt printing with Bluetooth Low Energy for simple connectivity to tablets, mobile phones and payment devices.
With hospitality businesses increasingly receiving orders from multiple channels and the consequent higher number of tablets and printers required for different online ordering systems, the need to create a cable free minimalist clutter free environment is essential. The ideal scenario would be a tablet on a countertop providing a clean, sleek vision but all too often this is not practical given the POS setup has to not only look good but also be usable.
Star’s mC-Print™ receipt printer lends itself perfectly to a secure tablet solution where the device and peripherals can be reliably connected to the network while offering the clutter free appearance of a cable-free all-in-one POS system or self-service terminal. With its compact design, front opening, simple paper loading and outstanding functionality, the mC-Print3 features multiple interfaces as well as Cloud connectivity to provide a future-proof, seamless transition from traditional to tablet POS.
In any hospitality business ensuring reliable network connectivity can be challenging, especially in a kitchen environment. Benefitting from Star’s unique SteadyLAN™ technology, the mC-Print3 delivers data, tablet charging and network tethering for iPads as well as USB-C models of Windows and Android devices via a direct Lightning or USB-C cable between the tablet and printer without the need for WiFi. The mC-Print also includes hub functionality with the ability to connect a USB customer display, scanner, RFID device, keypad or other supported HID enabled peripherals directly to the printer for a single integrated system.
In terms of payments, the pandemic has made the transition from cash to card payment even more pronounced. As contactless payments increasingly become the norm, other options such as online payment or even QR code payment are useful additions with customers scanning a digital QR code or a printed QR code on the bottom of the bill and paying directly via their phone.
With fewer customers now paying in cash, a compact solution that offers a smaller cash drawer is a viable alternative. A combined Bluetooth printer and cash drawer solution such as mPOP™ is particularly easy to set up and affordable for small businesses. For larger businesses looking to potentially set up a temporary pop up venue to enable social distancing, it is the ideal solution.
These are just some of the solutions available to reduce costs, remain flexible and offer contactless experiences so that businesses can thrive in what is certainly an unpredictable and challenging operating environment for many.
To find out how Star can help your business, visit: www.Star-EMEA.com or call 01494 471111
LollyMove gets hospitality moving
The LollyMove is an exciting new all-in-one PoS and payments tool from the digital EPoS and commerce specialist, It’s Lolly. Payments and orders are all done via one sleek unit – supporting a rapid and seamless service.
-Perfect for the new hospitality landscape; LollyMove combines payments and PoS in one device-
The LollyMove is an exciting new all-in-one PoS and payments tool from the digital EPoS and commerce specialist, It’s Lolly. Payments and orders are all done via one sleek unit – supporting a rapid and seamless service.
LollyMove combines a payment terminal with a full feature Android tablet, allowing orders to be taken by staff at the table or customer location and sent directly through to the kitchen management system. Customers are able to securely pay via the terminal, using contactless or chip and pin, ensuring little physical interaction. 4G and WiFi connectivity means that all activity is linked to the fully integrated Lolly system and back-office software.
Waiting staff can have their own unit, supporting Covid safety protocols and keeping things streamlined. The Moves’ high-capacity rechargeable battery lasts throughout a continuous busy day of service. Delivery costs are also lowered due to the fact that service and payments can be handled via a single device, as opposed to multiple PoS and payment units.
Peter Moore, CEO, It’s Lolly comments: “Pin on glass is a technology I’ve been keen to introduce to the Lolly portfolio for a while now, and this has now become a reality with LollyMove - enabling PoS and payments on a single device.
“The fact that a number of the banks are currently increasing the contactless limit to £100 means that the device has real potential for a large number of hospitality environments.
“LollyMove will help make life simpler for waiting staff and keep service speedy in outdoor and busy locations. Staff will no longer need to move clumsily between payment and order devices, leaving customers waiting to order their food or pay the bill.”
Ideal for outside events, pub or restaurant gardens, the LollyMove has been introduced into several expansive catering sites already. Available through outright purchase, or on an affordable rental model, the LollyMove is also an accessible offering.
Peter adds: “I believe this versatile product will help all kinds of hospitality businesses ensure fast, exceptional and safe hospitality service.”
How Is Mobile Technology Changing the Hotel Industry?
In the last few years, digital transformation and the use of mobile apps to deliver on-demand guest services have been widely discussed in the hospitality industry but adoption of mobile-first solutions has been generally slow.
Coronavirus and The Mobile Revolution
In the last few years, digital transformation and the use of mobile apps to deliver on-demand guest services have been widely discussed in the hospitality industry but adoption of mobile-first solutions has been generally slow.
While it has been clear for years that we now live in a mobile-first world, where we all use our mobile devices to do whatever we need whenever we need it, hoteliers have been mostly concerned that offering mobile services would have taken something away from offering a great experience. This concern didn’t really change even when research into hotel guest expectations showed that travellers would welcome mobile solutions that would ultimately give them more choice and control over their experience.
COVID-19 has not only entirely changed this perception but it has accelerated the digital transformation process that had already started and exponentially increased the type of services that hoteliers now want to offer via mobile apps – from mobile check-in to digital key, F&B ordering, payment, personalisation and more. To welcome back guests hoteliers have put a lot of work and effort in implementing new social distancing and safety measures. Mobile apps have played a key role in helping hoteliers reduce touchpoints and giving guests a safe tool to request services and easily access all the information they need in one single place.
After the Coronavirus outbreak, big hotel chains, that have been offering their mobile apps for years, quickly realised that mobile services were the only way to safely bounce back. In May, Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta said in an interview with Skift that "comeback depends on how quickly contactless tech features roll out" and it appeared clear at the point that the mobile revolution had started. In June, CitizenM - which over the years has gained a reputation for being very tech-friendly, offering kiosks at check-in and in-room tablets to control TV, curtains and lighting – launched its own brand new mobile app, clearly prioritising a contactless guest experience.
At Criton, we felt we had to support hoteliers recover and we ran a special offer to enable them to create their mobile apps and digitise all their guest services. The response has been overwhelming. In three months, we partnered with 200+ luxury properties and we’re working tirelessly to help them launch their own guest app to safely reopen.
Hospitality in a Contactless World
In the new contactless world we live in, hoteliers had to rethink the guest experience and change procedures to offer a seamless experience. The first step has been to remove all possible touchpoints in common areas. Menus, brochures, in-room guestbooks which were reused and touched frequently have become something to eliminate and hotel apps offer an easy solution to digitise all the guest information.
Many hoteliers have adopted an app to replace all printed materials and offer a one-stop-shop solution with Wi-Fi information, links to book facilities and services on-site, forms to request early check-in or late check-out, maps to easily find local attractions and much more. Often I have heard people asking ‘why an app when I have a website?’ and the answer is very simple: the website is for gaining new business while an app offers a perfect mobile experience during stay.
The most interesting aspect of mobile apps is also that, integrating with other guest-facing technology platforms, they can easily become an interactive and essential tool to enhance the guest experience. For example, many of our clients have added a food ordering system that guests now have to use to order and pay for F&B whether they are at the restaurant or in their room. Other hoteliers have added to their app a loyalty system to increase repeat business or a guest messaging platform to enable guests to message concierge with any request anytime and from anywhere. The ease of use and flexibility that the mobile platform offers have shown to increase guest satisfaction and engagement.
Contactless Arrival: Mobile Check-in and Digital Door Key
Five years ago, the Hilton hotel group started to trial mobile check-in and digital key. The trial was certainly successful as today the keyless mobile entry technology is available through the Hilton app in more than 1,700 hotels in the US and Canada, with more than 11 million uses (source).
Mobile apps, which are now accessible to independent hotels, can enable a seamless pre-arrival and arrival experience for guests. Through integration with the hotel’s property management system, check-in can be done pre-arrival on the app to avoid face-to-face interaction or queues at the front desk. By connecting the app with door lock systems such as Assa Abloy and Salto Systems, a hotel app provides guests also with keyless room entry, so that customers can enter the hotel and go straight to their room.
This makes guests’ arrival easy and stress free, enhancing their experience from the offset. From the hotel’s point of view, a hotel app frees up front-of-house teams who can then concentrate on providing hospitality and guest service, instead of performing repetitive admin tasks. It also provides enhanced data and analytics on how guests are engaging with the hotel.
Overall, mobile apps allow independent properties to achieve the same customer-facing technology prowess that big branded hotels provide, without expensive in-room technologies.
Mobile Guest Engagement and Communication
The way hotels engage with their guests is changing and will continue to do so over the coming years. Location-based push notifications are an increasingly popular way to communicate with guests, offering a direct channel with a more personalised touch, especially as they can be triggered by a customer’s location and sent straight to the recipient’s phone. Push notifications are also read 800% more than emails, proving a very high level of engagement around a particular promoted message.
To support social distancing and giving guests more choice on how to communicate with hotel staff, many hoteliers are also adding a guest messaging platform to their app. Guests can then communicate directly with staff using their preferred channel of communication, whether this is SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger a number of other platforms, with all messages landing in one single inbox that can easily be managed and tracked by hotel staff. This makes it easy for hoteliers to deal with enquiries coming from many different channels, while enabling guests to choose the communication channel they feel most comfortable with.
In-app messages can be used to request a late check-out or room clean. They can act as a digital concierge to book a taxi or table at a local restaurant as well as in-hotel services, such as spa and restaurant bookings and in-room food and beverage orders. Messages can be forwarded immediately to the team or staff member who is best able to help and they provide a great means of upselling services and facilities by direct engagement with the customer’s immediate needs.
Mobile Apps to Increase Revenue
As well as enabling better engagement, push notifications, which hotels can use to target specific guests with last-minute offers, and in-app messaging are also effective at increasing upsell. They are much more effective at catching their attention and engaging with them during their stay, because they can target guests through their preferred communication channels.
To respect social distancing restrictions and keep guests safe and comfortable, many hoteliers have added an F&B ordering and pay platform to their app, as previously mentioned, which also generates additional revenue from orders that can be taken from the restaurant or from the hotel room.
By adding a direct link to the booking system within the app, hoteliers have encouraged guests to re-book through this direct channel, saving on OTA commissions. By linking the hotel’s booking platform to the app, an average 100-bedroom hotel with a £300 ADR could generate £73,000 per annum through OTA savings and an increase of in-stay spend.
Conclusion
Mobile app technologies are changing the game in hospitality by enhancing guest communication, increasing revenue, easing traditional broken points of the guest experience like check-in.
However, this doesn’t mean that simply having an app is a magic solution. Hotels need to make careful choices about how they implement new mobile technology in order to provide a solution that works not only for the present but long into the future.
When developing a mobile app, hoteliers should consider:
Its integration and connectivity, i.e. can the app easily integrate with other systems or it works as a closed box?
Its usability, i.e. is it easy for guests to use?
Its implementation and support, i.e. is it constantly bring developed and improved?
If the technology meets these requirements, then the choice to go ahead with implementation is a simple one – it has to be done. There must a good reason why all the top hotel chains have a mobile app – they are the future of hotel guest engagement and indispensable to future-proof a business for the new digitally-friendly generation of travellers.
How Criton can help you
Criton is an award-winning technology provider which enables hotels and serviced apartment operators to take the guest experience to the next level with a sophisticated mobile app. Criton helps hotels to streamline the entire guest journey and maximise in-stay revenue. Get in touch today to find out how we can help your business.
Kempinski Hotels chooses Technogym as its global partner for its Fit Rooms
Berlin, Munich, Dubai, Shanghai: these are the first Kempinski Hotels destinations offering the new room category, the Kempinski Fit Room, which the international luxury hotel group is gradually introducing globally together with Technogym.
Berlin, Munich, Dubai, Shanghai: these are the first Kempinski Hotels destinations offering the new room category, the Kempinski Fit Room, which the international luxury hotel group is gradually introducing globally together with Technogym. The two leading brands are strengthening their long-standing partnership to offer a brand new wellness solution for travellers around the world. Guests may book a Fit Room powered by Technogym directly through the hotels' website to enjoy innovative inroom workout solutions and on-demand fitness services for an exclusive wellness experience alongside the hotel's wellness centre.
More than ever, hotel guests are interested in carrying out their usual workout and fitness routines while travelling and doing so in the comfort and privacy of their hotel room. Kempinski Hotels, Europe's oldest luxury hotel group, and Technogym, a global leader in fitness and wellness and also Kempinski's reference brand in this field, are strengthening Seite 2 of 3 their partnership to offer hotel guests an all-round wellness experience that includes innovative in-room training solutions and on-demand fitness services for an exclusive wellness experience, in addition to the hotel's wellness centre.
Each Kempinski Fit Room - equipped with a Technogym Bike and Technogym Case – offers access to a selection of the best training equipment and digital contents such as the new Technogym Bike – the revolutionary training experience thanks to indoor cycling classes run by trainers from different cities around the world. Music, lights and trainers lead engaging indoor cycling classes available anytime, round the clock, directly from the console of the bike. The fit-room solution allows guests to train according to their individual preferences in the comfort of their room, whether they are travelling for business or leisure. Supported by over 35 years of experience and research, Technogym provides training solutions of the highest quality and comfort: combining design, functionality and immersive digital content with an HD display, the Technogym Bike offers cycling courses and full-body workouts. Users can choose their favourite classes from the comprehensive on-demand library based on their preferred trainer, type of workout, language, and music. Technogym Bike is not just group cycling but offers also total body workout experiences, thanks to the integrated handlebars and dedicated video contents.
Another exciting option for a training session while travelling is the Technogym Case – a full solution featuring a smart range of tools, functionally packed in a high end design bag and completed by a library of training video contents, for a seamless guest experience. The tools inside the Technogym Case were designed to help guests recover and feel good after a long trip, with the QR Code on the tag attached guests can also enjoy a guided workout with a brand new virtual trainer on their phone or mirroring it in the room TV for a better experience.
Technogym Case includes: Foam Roller and Mobility Ball, a perfect tool to help restore proper circulation to muscles; Exercise mat – 100% sustainable; Loop Bands, perfect for lower-body exercises and Power Bands - in three levels of resistance and allow the guest to complete upper body exercises or total body resisted exercises.
"The trend towards wellness and health, which has been growing steadily in recent years, will certainly intensify in the future. With the new room category, we are meeting the need of our guests to stay fit on the go and to implement a perfect workout without having to leave the hotel," says Marc Feller, Senior Director Customer Experience. "The Kempinski Fit Room is an important part of our corporate strategy around wellness and sustainability, and complements the just recently completed acquisition of all shares in spa provider Resense".
Guests will find the first Kempinski Fit Rooms at Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich, Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin, Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates Dubai and Grand Hotel Kempinski Shanghai in China. "As soon as guests are hopefully allowed to Seite 3 of 3 travel again in the coming months to more parts of the world, we will certainly be able to offer even more destinations with this offer" adds Feller.