Apped out?
Are your guests ‘Apped out?’ Only welcoming words such as these, spoken by humans, convey authentic hospitality.
As a writer in the hospitality space, I am often approached by new companies with emerging technology who are looking for PR. Despite that my articles are almost always related to training tips for human engagement such as sales and hospitality skills, they somehow think that my help promoting whatever new gimmick they have come up with is key to promoting their services. Recently I was approached by yet another company about an exciting 'new' innovation they had invented. It was an app for interacting with guests and fielding their requests. Wow, no one ever thought of that before, and just what the industry needs, another new guest communications app! Yet a quick search on Google for “hotel app for guest communications” reveals page after page of results. With six pay-per-click ads on just the first page, I’m sure those Adwords bids are costly too! Of course, most (if not all) hotel brands also have their own apps, as do all of the OTA’s.
As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the tech companies began salivating like a hungry dog waiting for his owner to finish filling up his bowl and set it on the floor.
The theory is that germ phobia will finally push guests to adopt the apps that some hotel brands have been trying to push guests to use since at least 2014. Sure, smartphone and app check-in use is probably up, and I’ll bet that some of the tech companies will be glad to respond with hard data on this. But let’s see how those numbers hold up now that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated their guidance and now says the average person's risk of contracting COVID-19 from a surface is extremely low.
Another theory, if you listen to the tech companies, is that “Those Millennials and Gen-Zers, well they despise human interaction and aspire to do everything on their smartphone, and they are taking over the travel industry any day now.” Too many hotel companies are buying into what I call the Millennial Myth as if it were fact and not just the latest psychographic that has evolved from Strauss-Howe’s Generational Theory. Many of us Baby Boomers are still in our 50’s and still filling up plenty of seats on airplanes and rental cars. Further, I believe it is truly impossible to stereotype and profile guests based on their birth years.
Somehow, despite all these predictions, when I speak to our hotel training clients worldwide, what I’m hearing is that the front desk is as busy as ever, and it’s not just grandma and grandpa checking in at the desk either.
Could it be that there are others who, like me are feeling “apped-out?” Could it be that there is a new trend of “tech backlash” about to reveal itself?
By the time I have reached a hotel front desk, I have already used the Uber app to order my ride to the airport, the Delta app to get my boarding pass, the Starbucks app to order my coffee, the Avis app to find my vehicle, and the Maps app to navigate. I’ve also used an app to check email, the Xfinity and New York Times apps to catch some news during layovers, and my Facebook and LinkedIn apps to stay in touch with family and business colleagues. Oh, and the CVS app keeps telling me my prescription is ready, my credit card app says “card not present” and “WhatsApp” keeps updating some group chat I got randomly added on to.
To be continued
Doug Kennedy is President of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. a leading provider of hotel sales, guest service, reservations, and front desk training programs and telephone mystery shopping services for the lodging and hospitality industry. Doug continues to be a fixture on the industry’s conference circuit for hotel companies, brands and associations, as he been for over two decades. Since 1996, Doug’s monthly training articles have been published worldwide, making him one of the most widely read hospitality industry authorities. Visit KTN at www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or email him directly doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com. Doug is the author of “So You REALLY Like Working With People? - Five Principles for Hospitality Excellence.”
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