What is a Hotel Digital Concierge?

Let’s start at the beginning: what’s a digital concierge? Like Siri or Alexa, a hotel digital concierge is a personal assistant that can action simple requests, communicate with guests, and perform automated tasks. This technology is also called a virtual concierge or a smart concierge, but the functionality is the same. Digital concierges are not unique to the hotel industry; you can find them in hospitals, airports, malls, and more, but hotel-specific digital concierges provide additional functionality that is most relevant for hotel guests’ needs. In hotels, digital concierges exist in several formats, like hotel apps and guestroom TVs.

Benefits of Hotel Digital Concierges

Now that you know what digital concierges are, let’s explore some of the key benefits that your hotel can gain by implementing digital concierge functionality.

• Increased guest satisfaction: By giving guests better tools to ask questions and resolve problems quickly, your guest experience will improve with faster issue resolution. But it’s not all about solving problems; digital concierges can enhance the guest experience by offering recommendations and providing convenient services like restaurant or spa reservations. Guests, especially younger and international travelers, will appreciate not having to wait in line at the front desk or pick up the phone to complete these actions.

• More personalized guest experiences: Digital concierges can also contribute to a more tailored guest experience with features like personalized recommendations, language translation, and automatically pulling in saved information so guests don’t need to enter their name or email address every time they book a restaurant reservation.

• Cost savings: One of the most compelling benefits of digital concierges is cost savings, since a digital concierge can take some manual tasks off of your front desk agents’ plates. Although a digital concierge can’t replace a front desk agent completely, you can reprioritize the tasks handled by a front desk agent and leave the repetitive tasks to the digital concierge, meaning you can accomplish more with a leaner team. 

• Increased efficiency: Offloading manual tasks like booking restaurant reservations allows your team to work more efficiently. Instead of constant interruptions – like phone calls and emails asking many of the same questions over and over – your guest-facing employees can dedicate more focus to building relationships with guests and solving more complex problems.

Features of Hotel Digital Concierges

In hotels, digital concierges act as not only digital concierges, but also digital front desk staff, digital restaurant hosts, and digital reservations agents. This software helps guests accomplish a variety of tasks, including:

• Restaurant reservations

• Room service orders

• Spa appointment booking

• Room upgrades and upsells

• Late checkout requests

• Housekeeping requests

• Transportation arrangements

• Local area recommendations

• Tour and activity booking

• Itinerary planning

• Folio or invoice export

• Language translation

• Reminders to post guest reviews

In addition, digital concierges might help guests get in touch with the front desk or a reservations agent, and digital concierges can solicit feedback or guest reviews. Digital concierges also serve as a marketing channel, since you can serve upsell offers, promotions for your outlets, or even loyalty program sign-ups with the digital concierge interface.

Examples of Hotel Digital Concierges

Hotel digital concierge functionality exists in many forms, and there is no “best” option. Depending on your guest profile, budget, and brand, one technology solution will be better than another. You may already have technology in place that you can use to offer digital concierge service. Let’s walk through the most popular digital concierge technology.

Guestroom tablets

In-room tablets enable guests to browse hotel information, enjoy entertainment options, and control lighting and climate. But they can also serve as digital concierges with functionality that allows guests to get answers to questions and make requests. For example, a guest could use an in-room tablet to book restaurant reservations or send a copy of their bill to their email inbox. Without a tablet or other digital concierge solution, guests would have to call the front desk to accomplish these tasks. 

Some leading guestroom tablet vendors include SuitePad, Betterspace, and Crave. SuitePad, the 2023 HotelTechAward winner, earns rave reviews from hoteliers who use the tablets for functions like restaurant reservations, local recommendations, and even sending automated checkout reminders. Betterspace offers similar functionality, giving guests the ability to submit housekeeping requests, bell services, and late checkout requests. And Crave can handle guest requests, provide recommendations, and even give guests the option to video chat with a human concierge for more personalized service.

Guest messaging software

Automating and streamlining your guest communication channels can not only lead to a better experience, but also cut costs and tedious manual work for your staff. A guest messaging platform can serve as a digital concierge by serving automated responses to frequently asked questions or requests and triaging more complicated requests to the right departments or teams for follow-up. For example, top guest messaging system Whistle has an integrated chatbot and a ticketing system with the ability to handle various guest requests, including upsells. Duve and ALICE also streamline guest communication and offer a slew of automation options.

Hotel guest apps

For a more customized experience that incorporates the look and feel of your brand, consider creating a hotel app or using a hotel app vendor to give guests a lot of functionality in the palms of their hands. Hotel apps contain many of the features of guestroom tablets, with the difference being guests can download the app and use it anytime, not only in their rooms. And guests seem to be receptive to this technology, with 80% of respondents in a 2020 survey saying they would download an app that would allow them to check in, check out, and access hotel information. The first-place hotel app vendor in the 2023 HotelTechAwards is STAY, followed by Duve and Bowo, all of which offer digital concierge functionality in their customizable app platforms.

Contactless check-in

Digital check-in software is used on check-in kiosks, tablets, or apps and often contains digital concierge functionality. During the check-in process, you can present options to guests like restaurant reservations, tour or activity bookings, and add-ons like late checkouts or breakfast service. One leading software vendor, Canary, has an intuitive interface and lots of add-on and upsell options making it a great choice for hoteliers and guests. Another vendor, Duve, gives guests easy access to book arrival transportation, request early check-in, and secure room upgrades. And Easyway is known for their robust communication tools which make it possible to automate concierge-style messaging throughout the guest journey, offering add-ons and serving promotional offers through messages.

Hospitality TV

Digital concierge features can also be present on the interface on your guestroom TVs. Specialized TV and entertainment platforms offer far more functionality than your standard Apple TV or Roku; these systems have custom home screens and menus where you can display hotel information, advertise special offers, and even give guests the ability to request housekeeping service, late checkouts, or room service. Moncierge and Hoteza are two of the best hospitality TV providers since their products are flexible enough to work for many different types of hotels. Moncierge’s functionality includes messaging, on-screen hotel services, and on-screen purchasing and ordering, so guests can self-serve requests and even pay for upsells and add-ons. Hoteza offers these same features, plus guest folio viewing and wake-up calls, empowering guests to use the digital concierge on their TV to further customize their stay.

Implementation of Hotel Digital Concierges

Once you’ve decided that a digital concierge is advantageous for your hotel, you’ll need to choose the right digital concierge software. A few things to think about are price, features, and integrations with other software. Price is one of the most important considerations, because digital concierge software, especially if it’s part of a larger technology solution like hospitality TV or a guest messaging platform, can be quite expensive. You’ll want to negotiate for favorable pricing that makes financial sense for your hotel long-term. One input that might inform your pricing decision is determining exactly which features you need in a digital concierge solution. If your hotel doesn’t have a restaurant, spa, or room service, then a reservation-booking mechanism would be less important than some other digital concierge features. On the flip side, if your hotel has a lot of outlets and big ancillary revenue goals, then you’ll want a digital concierge that can really push promotions and engagement with your other on-site facilities. Finally, finding a digital concierge system that integrates with your PMS is critical if you want to unlock maximum usability. In your early conversations, be sure to verify with any digital concierge vendor that they offer an integration with your PMS.

After choosing a vendor, you’ll begin the onboarding process. This process involves both training your staff and implementing the digital concierge software into your guest experience. The vendor may provide a one-time training session or some training resources, but you’ll want to develop a training program that you can use for new employees even after the system is up and running. As you plan the actual implementation, think through every use case for the software. How will you encourage guests to use it? How will you measure success?

Best Practices for Hotel Digital Concierges

To remedy the potential challenges, and to get the most benefit out of your digital concierge system, some best practices to keep in mind are:

• Making digital concierges user-friendly. A surefire way to make sure guests don’t use your digital concierge is to make it hard to access and hard to navigate. Instead, a user-friendly system will present a more efficient and effective alternative to picking up the phone or walking down to the front desk, which is what you want to provide if you want guests to use the software. For instance, you’ll want to make important information and features available with the least amount of clicks or taps to get there.

• Ensuring guest privacy and security. Reduce the risk of security breaches by complying with guidelines and regulations around guest data and credit card information. 

• Encouraging guest feedback. How do you know if guests are happy with your digital concierge? Ask them! Whether by sending an automated message or displaying a pop-up with a feedback survey, you’ll want to frequently get guests’ input on what’s working well (and not well) with the digital concierge.

Future of Hotel Digital Concierges

What’s to come in the future of digital concierges? One major innovation that will likely improve the functionality and personalization that digital concierges offer is the advancement of AI technology, like Chat GPT. “Smarter” AI can power digital concierges and make them seem even more human-like in their responses to questions or requests. As AI becomes more sophisticated, so can the types of requests that a digital concierge can handle. While today’s digital concierges can book restaurant reservations, they’re less capable when it comes to planning special welcome amenities or resolving complicated billing issues. However, in the future, we can expect technology to have enough “intelligence” to make recommendations and decisions on more complex topics.

Hotel digital concierges can exist in many forms, from tablets to TVs, but the benefits they offer are the same: higher guest satisfaction, decreased costs, more incremental revenue, and more efficient work streams in your guest-facing departments. Although your teams and your guests might face an initial learning curve when implementing a digital concierge, it doesn’t take long for this software to become an integral part of your operations and a driver of loyalty and guest satisfaction at your hotel. Choosing a digital concierge is a big decision, but by thinking through your preferences and requirements, you can pick a vendor that will help you achieve your goals.

Hotel digital concierges are critical for hotels to enhance guest experience, increase upsell opportunities, and improve guest satisfaction. Hoteliers need to leverage digital concierges to offer efficient and effective concierge services to hotel guests throughout their journey. The functionality of digital concierge solutions has evolved to include integrations with property management systems (PMS), mobile apps, and social media, making it easier for guests to access services and information in real-time.

Digital concierges offer a range of services from check-in, room service, wake-up calls, pricing, and guest requests. The virtual concierge system integrates artificial intelligence and chatbots to offer personalized recommendations and upsell opportunities to guests. The concierge app allows guests to access information about the hotel, local attractions, and events. Notifications and text messaging offer guests real-time updates and alerts, enhancing the user experience.

Hotel staff can benefit from digital concierge software by automating tasks, such as handling guest information, room assignments, and wake-up calls, freeing up staff to focus on guest experience. The concierge solutions also offer metrics that can be used to improve hotel operations and customer satisfaction.

Digital concierges are becoming increasingly popular as onsite concierge services can be limited. Guests can access services from their mobile devices and reduce the need to interact with the front desk. The integration of wifi and PMS systems offers guests a seamless experience, reducing wait times and enhancing the guest journey.

Hotel owners and management should invest in digital concierge systems to enhance the customer experience, increase upsell opportunities, and improve guest satisfaction. The integration of real-time notifications, artificial intelligence, and chatbots provide a seamless experience for guests while offering valuable metrics for hotel operations.