Hotelway helps hotels and other hospitality entities with guest communication in various ways. “We have spoken with numerous hotels, and majority of them admit, that their room service ordering is not effective. In fact, quite a few have said, that because of this, they do not even want to promote service at all. I find it appalling, because they are throwing money away!” says Hannu Vahokoski, CEO of Hotelway.
Many hotels still print menus with food names & prices, and carry them to the rooms. Managing that – and the changes – can be challenging. It is the same for the customer: what does ‘pasta frutti di mare’ really mean and how does it look like?
And how long do you have to wait until somebody answers the phone in the busy evening? What if you do not even speak the language that well?
There are several solutions in the market to help with this. However, many of them require guests to download an app into their mobile device to function. And as we know (and many studies e.g. by Gartner and Forrester show), people no longer want to download apps. Many of the solutions are also very sophisticated, which is good, but the downside is, that it takes lot of resources to implement. Or, they require additional hardware, like room tablets.
What if there was an easy solution to this? “We take one easy step further with our Room Service Ordering concept”, says Hannu Vahokoski. “Guests can still use their own smart phones, but no downloads needed. They simply click a link that they can get for example from a QR-code, and they can browse the items with pictures. There is a shopping cart, where they add the items in, and then just click to order. The restaurant staff receives an SMS and can proceed with the order. No long phone calls, no heavy integration, just effective service.”
This will provide the effectivity the hotels need. The service supports also takeaway ordering, and scheduling. And the guests no longer need to be in the room to order, they can be for example shopping in the city, or relaxing by the pool.
“This has attracted a lot of attention. We are currently implementing the service with Hiltons in Finland and the next hotel to buy this, can start in late April. Luckily, we can still onboard hotels before the summer holidays”, Vahokoski says.
Once the travel picks up again, the hotels and restaurants need all the help they can get to serve the busy customers. “And to make more money”, Hannu adds.
