Operating platforms and hotel brands aside, mobile technology is about making hotels and their services more accessible to potential and existing in-house guests. It is interesting how far hotels have come but there are some roadblocks in actually providing this accessibility, especially beyond distribution or when it comes to providing services at the click of a button.
Beyond bookings apps
E-concierge, digital menus and their myriad counterparts have become the talk of the industry but how extensive is their use? What is the gap between what is available and what the industry needs?
Hotels.com has developed a bookings app. “We have applications specifically developed for Android smartphones, iPhone and iPad platforms. It has seen about 1.5million downloads,” says Abhiram Chowdhry, marketing director Asia Pacific, Hotels.com. The Pune Marriott Hotel and Convention Centre also has a bookings app (also providing the city information facility). It is available on iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Android devices.
In India, much of the app-related development has been restricted to the booking area. But abroad, hotels are taking apps into rooms, behind reservations desks and into F&B areas.
For instance, the Plaza hotel in Central Park South has partnered with Intelity to offer ICE Touch on iPads to all of its guests. Plaza guests can order all of the hotel’s services at the touch of a finger.
A few months ago, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts introduced iPads across its Middle Eastern hotels. IPads were made available in each of its 24 hotels regionally and in what was called a first instance, are used by front-of-house guest relations and concierge teams. The chain was looking at the device to take the traditional hotelier-guest experience to a new personalised, electronic level. For example, guests accessing the hotels’ Club Lounges and libraries have the opportunity to download their favourite newspapers, magazines and novels directly to their iPads, as well as videos and other new media. E-concierge not only deals with with immediate guest requests electronically, but also connects to apps such as AroundMe and Arounder Touch – where staff can channel relevant information back to guests to improve their overall hospitality experience. The brand’s various properties use their apps in distinct innovative ways. For example, at the Mövenpick Hotel Qassim, iPads are given to guests post-meal for them to fill out online surveys in English or Arabic. The Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach is using iPad applications in guest rooms, in conjunction with iRiS Software Systems to have guests tailor their preferences wherever they are in the hotel, and select specific services from the ‘Personalise my stay’ feature.
However the first Mövenpick property to open in India, in Bengaluru does not have these features, at least not yet. Spree Hotels managing director Keshav Baljee says that at the moment, rather than mobile apps he is content working with a website that functions on mobiles meaning that it would work across platforms. “The next step would be to develop an html 5 web app which would work on i-Phones, Android and Blackberry platforms,” he says.
The universal app
So what is obstructing the permeation of mobile app use in India? Why is it restricted only to bookings and information services? More importantly, will existing roadblocks restrict the permeation of mobile app use to reservations, not allowing it enter various areas of operations?
The biggest challenge, hoteliers says, is the lack of a universal app that transcends hotel brands and operating platforms.
“The problem with individual hotel apps is that their use would be limited to only loyal guests of the hotel. You cannot picture a guest downloading apps for each and every brand he stays with. So there is need for a universal app which I foresee as being developed within the next two to five years. This universal app would have guests downloading the app and hotels would need to sign-up for the app somewhat like how a merchant signs up with visa,” says Nikhil Nath, chief executive, Knowcross Solutions, a Gurgaon-based software developer.
There is of course the problem that guests will come with their own phones and the app needs to work on all their operating platforms. Also, India tends to be different in its demand for brands. Baljee says, “While the demand for smartphones is increasing, the percentage of people in India with i-Phones and Blackberrys is much higher.”
So what is the problem in developing this universal app? Nath says there are various components that need to be ironed out before a universal app can begin doing the rounds. “The question is about what critical need of the customer it would address. If it is universal, how does it integrate with various hotel operating systems and how will the developer of the app make a profit?” says Nath.
Critical benefit to the guest, according to Nath, could be perhaps not having stand in a queue to check in/out and to get his entire bill. “Ordering room service doesn’t really count because if the hotel is big enough to get the app, they would certainly be able to afford someone who would attend to my room service request if I call from the hotel phone,” says Nath pointing out that all of this needs to be addressed.
Nath and other developers say that like many other outsourced services mobile apps could also work on various revenue models. “Perhaps a developer could earn while accepting payments during check-out. If the scope of the app’s use gets wide enough, he could earn a premium on every booking made through the app. He could, of course, charge hotels to come on board but hotels might not find that acceptable,” he adds.
JK Menon, CEO, Innovative People agrees with the ‘per transaction’ model. “Hotels usually pay for app use on a commission-per-transaction basis, having developers sign a percentage contract. But room rates are dynamic and fluctuate dramatically so developers would prefer a fixed slab,” he says.
Menon, however, foresees other challenges with the universal app. “From a customer’s perspective, how many people are actually subscribed to data and what kind of data plans do they have? For international travellers, there are variations in speed and costs and with sessions crashing often in India, the payback in form of users of the app might be disappointing for the hotel and the developer. I’ve noticed that even award-winning applications which have done brilliantly in other countries tend to get weak response in India due to data problems,” he says.
Nath says that none of the existing challenges are insurmountable and underlines that he sees a universal app emerging within the next five years.
A suggestion to deal with this is cloud-related. “Applications must be designed in such a way that the user experience at the browser is optimised and made as responsive as technically possible. One of the technical methods we use in our Xn globalRES hotel web booking applications is to leverage Content Distribution Networks. When tightly integrated into the core application, CDNs move static images to many servers around the world, located closer to the browser end user. The main hosted applications remain ‘on the cloud’ (in one data centre), and CDNs speed up the loading of room photos, rate information, maps and other images into the browser. This is especially important in mobile applications,” says Greg Spicer, chief executive, Xn Hotel Systems.
Half the battle is won as an app that will work across platforms is making its way to India. Xn Hotel Systems has developed mobile applications designed to extend and link the functionalities of its core property management systems both to device-independent browser-based environments and also to device-specific choices like the apple iPad. Its Protel Voyager, Protel Cockpit, Protel Survey are mobile applications designed for all browser-based devices and most mainstream mobile platforms. Only its Protel tablet connector for the iPad is a device specific application. The applications are expected to be rolled out in India before the end of 2011.
Chowdhry foresees the universal app emerging through a business model very similar to that of online. “It is unlikely that a single app will emerge, I expect this area will remain fragmented as it currently is online,” he says, underlining that the apps will have to be free to download. Revenue should emerge from the inventory that can be booked or utilised, using the app.
“The value chain as far as the industry will remain quite similar and, of course, within mobile there will be the addition of new players like the mobile service provider and even the manufacturer, which will be interesting,” he points out.
He also points out that it is unlikely that a single app will emerge as this would require these providers to be global, have enough resources to constantly market to a very large number to customers. Baljee says that even if the universal app emerged people would probably also want to have individual apps. “It’s like being listed on an OTA. You might be listed but you would also want your own website,” he points out.
App dos and donts
While app developers are trying to iron out the creases in the development of the universal app, hoteliers are doing everything to make themselves most accessible. Obviously, the first step is the hotels are ensuring that they develop apps that can be easily tweaked to suit different platforms. A top that Spicer offers here is: “The software development environment chosen must be sufficiently portable and componentized, to deal with inevitable changes to mainstream mobile hardware operating platforms such as like Apple iPad, Google Android and the recent Windows 8 Metro architecture.”
Simplicity and intuitiveness of the user interface is also key if a guest is to use it. “We need to keep the language or the user interface as simple as possible so that we receive many clicks and queries,” says Abhijit Chitnis, director of marketing and sales, Pune Marriott Hotel and Convention Centre, commenting on their bookings app (also providing the city information facility) which is available on iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Android devices.
Spicer and team go to the extent of ensuring that the usability design ensures ‘zero training’ as one of its primary goals. According to app developers, hotels opting for apps must keep in mind that while functionality is important, usability is more important. “Some call this the ‘grandmother design test’ where the question you need to ask is ‘could my grandmother log in and use this app without training’,” adds Spicer.
Most hotels that are on the ball as far as mobile apps go say that app developers today advise them to go for a package that has the app developer come out with versions for all platforms at one go.
