Guest Comfort and Loyalty

ADOPT A GUEST-FIRST MINDSET

Guests of premium hotels, whether regular business travelers or first-time visitors, have increasingly high expectations for the properties they stay in. They want the highest levels of comfort and convenience, as well as the capability to personalize their stay from check-in to check-out.  

They’re also, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), favoring unique, experience-driven journeys over traditional destinations, in part enabled by technology innovation. As AHLA’s technology arm, HTNG, asserts: “Technology is the single most powerful force driving the future of hospitality.”  

Guestroom automation and hospitality technologies from Honeywell accomplish this and more. By integrating lighting, HVAC units, door locks, drapes and shades, security systems, in-room tablets, minibar access, hotel services and more, Honeywell enables guests to customize the appearance and functionality of their room and manage their visit through controls and automation that are easily accessible when required yet that blend into the aesthetic of the room when not.

For premium hotel operators, the value of such capabilities is significant since happy guests are often loyal guests, and loyal guests build brands and bottom lines.

Honeywell regards hospitality as a people-first business in which technology must reliably operate 24x7x365 with no interruptions or distractions to ensure guests are happy. Through the integration of software, hardware and services, the company is bringing industry-leading automation and innovation to guest services and hotel operations alike.

GREAT EXPERIENCES START WITH A WARM WELCOME

Honeywell knows that first impressions count. Arriving at the front desk, discerning guests expect a personalized, friendly and efficient check-in experience that provides a taste of the experience to follow. Here, reception staff can offer guests the option of smartphone-based contactless entry to their rooms via DirectKey, Onity's leading-edge mobile access technology, which lets them come and go with ease while instilling a feeling of safety and security throughout their stay. DirectKey can also be provided to guests in advance of their arrival, allowing them to bypass the front desk and go straight to their room.

On entering the room, the positive impressions continue. Guest service teams can use Honeywell’s INNCOM Energy Management System (EMS) to pre-set lighting, HVAC, drapery and tablet displays to greet new arrivals in different ways: via a general ‘welcome’ mode or to specific profiles of guests, such as honeymooners or those with disabilities. Regardless of how a room is presented, a guest will feel immediately at home.

During their stay, the EMS can enhance guest experiences further by ensuring optimal temperature, humidity and airflow in the room and by facilitating service requests such as in-room dining or a later departure. In addition, by connecting the thermostat with motion sensing technology to the door lock, the EMS identifies whether a room is occupied or vacant. When a guest is in residence, any adjustments they make to room settings such as temperature or lighting levels will be ‘remembered’ so that when they return from a day out, the room will be exactly as they left it.

REDUCE ENERGY - UNOBTRUSIVELY

When a guest leaves a room, the system can be programed to switch to energy savings mode – a critical capability for hoteliers. Energy is typically a hotel’s second highest operating cost, with bills exacerbated by lights, HVAC systems and electrical devices being left on in empty rooms and common areas. In the U.S. alone, 30% of hotel rooms are unrented at any given time or vacant for much of the day, fueling unnecessary energy consumption.

Furthermore, the EMS can adjust room settings to the weather conditions outside. In the summer, for example, drapes or blinds can be closed when a specific outside temperature is reached to maintain comfort and optimize energy consumption. In the winter, those steps can be reversed. 

The EMS provides a simple, affordable and automated way for hotel operators to switch off or minimize energy use in specific areas of their properties – but crucially, in a manner that doesn’t inconvenience guests.

IMPROVE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

In addition to reducing energy consumption in line with a hotel’s environmental, social and governance goals, the EMS provides data insights that can be used to increase productivity. For instance, housekeeping staff can check the system’s visual dashboard to see which rooms are currently occupied and which are not, enabling them to service empty rooms first – increasing efficiency and minimizing disturbance to guests. Similarly, they can reduce the resource required for turndown service by providing express treatment to rooms they know are occupied – minimizing both guest intrusion and the amount of time spent per room – and full service to rooms they know are unoccupied. 

Alongside the EMS, an alternative occupancy detection capability can be found within Onity's DirectKey technology.

The EMS facilitates good maintenance practices by automatically detecting faults with guestroom equipment and coordinating repair work when a guest has departed. Moreover, guest service teams can assign a ‘sleep quality score’ to rooms through which Honeywell motion sensing technology detects how many times an occupant gets up during the night to adjust the thermostat, potentially indicating an HVAC problem. When the guest leaves in the morning, a maintenance engineer can be dispatched to check, and if necessary, repair the unit. If the fault cannot be remedied quickly, the guest can be moved to another room and the room temporarily withheld to minimize complaints.

CHART YOUR OWN DESTINY

By leveraging the capabilities of the Honeywell INNCOM EMS and Onity electronic access solutions, premium hospitality brands can exert more control than ever over brand loyalty. Through the integration of guestroom systems and devices, deployment of automation and utilization of guest-centered data, hotels – whether a single property or a global portfolio – can transform operational productivity while providing visitors with delightful, memorable experiences that keep them returning time after time.