Hotel Digital Concierge Features

These top virtual concierge features can make and keep your hotel guests happy.

A digital concierge can allow a guest to use their mobile phone, tablet or laptop to ask questions, request extra towels, order room service or otherwise interact with a hotel. This makes it quick and easy for guests to get what they need, boosting guest satisfaction.

Almost 70% of hoteliers rank guest satisfaction as one of their top three reasons for adopting mobile technology, according to the 2021 Hospitality Benchmark Report: Mobile and Contactless Maturity Analysis from Oracle. Other top reasons: speed of service and reducing operational costs.

If you’re considering implementing digital concierge technology at your hotel, it’s important to shop for the right features so you can maximize your investment and leverage this technology to create happier guests.

Here are five important digital  concierge features that can make it a pleasure, rather than a pain, for your guests to use this technology:

1. Easy online check-in and check-out. A good digital concierge can offer guests the ability to easily check in, fill out any necessary paperwork, ask questions or make requests. At the end of their stay, it can allow them to quickly check out and deal with any billing issues. This feature gives guests more control of their check-ins and checkouts, allowing them to avoid waiting in a crowded lobby when they just want to get to their rooms or be on their way.
2. Ability to chat naturally. If your guests are going to be interacting with a chatbot to get their needs met, it should employ sophisticated AI technology that allows it to sound natural and respond accurately and correctly to guest requests. For example, a quality digital concierge should be able to understand emojis because your guests will use them when chatting. And it should go well beyond simple keyword-triggered responses that can annoy and frustrate guests, such as simply spouting generic Wi-Fi information when a guest is reporting an internet problem.
3. Integration with your staff. A digital concierge should be able to work seamlessly with your staff, so one picks up where the other leaves off without delays or glitches. For example, if a guest needs to be connected from a chatbot to a staff member, the digital concierge should provide a transcript of the interaction to the hotel employee. This way, they can quickly review the issue so the guest won’t have to explain their needs multiple times. Seamless integration between a digital concierge and staff members can make or break a guest interaction.
4. A knack for languages. Your guests may come from all over the world, and would love it if the digital concierge could understand and respond to them in their native language. Instead of a digital concierge that communicates only in one language, consider getting one that’s multilingual, with the ability to interact with guests in Spanish, German, Chinese and more.
5. Targeted marketing ability. Your digital concierge should offer robust data and analytics so you can collect information, improve the guest experience and make personalized upsell offers to guests. This can not only increase your revenue, it can boost customer satisfaction when guests get personalized offers matched specifically to their likes and preferences. The concierge also should have the ability to handle payments when guests decide to buy these extras.

Of course, you’ll also want to look for a digital concierge that integrates well with your property management system, complies with data security and privacy protocols and offers round-the-clock service – just like your hotel.