HIGHLIGHTS
• smartphone app with mobile services for hotel guests
• door opening via smartphone
• dynamic housekeeping planning
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Hotel guests increasingly want to use modern technologies and mobile services when travel- ling, but often find themselves in an analogue environment when staying in a hotel. This is difficult to reconcile with the growing expectations of greater independence and flexibility during hotel stays. Guests hardly receive any personalized services, communication gaps and longer waiting times at reception on the other hand are quite common.
Housekeeping is often an inefficient process as well. Amidst a labyrinth of rooms with guests constantly entering and leaving, it is often difficult for the cleaners to perform their daily tasks efficiently.
SOLUTION
With an innovative hotel app, the entire travel process – from check-in to payment and check- out – can be made mobile. With the help of the app, all necessary information can be sent to the hotel before arrival and long waiting times and annoying paperwork can thus be avoided. Via pre-check-in, guests submit their completed registration form and estimated time of arrival. All personal requirements / wishes (e. g. extra or allergy pillows, lo- cation of the room) are registered by the hotel and a room is reserved accordingly. Using beacon technology, guests are recorded in real time upon arrival and receive a welcome message on their smartphone. The hotel staff is informed of the arrival of the guest and can make the necessary preparations for a person- al reception. In complex hotel buildings, indoor navigation to the hotel room can be a useful integrated component of the app.
Guests can also use the app to control air conditioning, lighting or TV programs. Mobile door opening or requesting or booking of various hotel services (e. g. room service, spa treatment, dinner reservation) are possible use cases as well. Used services can be paid cashless via the deposited credit card information, the same applies to the room bill. Problems and malfunctions can also be reported via app. Hotel managers and maintenance staff can view these notifications in a web application and take immediate action to resolve the problem. When leaving the room, guests can use the app to release the room for cleaning. Cleaners can use their smartphone to check which rooms are ready for cleaning and change the status of the room once it has been cleaned. When a guest is checked out, housekeeping can be automatically alerted so that the room can be directly prepared for the next guest.
