Our very own Smartphone, which we have come to love so much in the past few years is going to play an increasingly important role in our hotel stays. We can, now, complete the check-in process, unlock a room with a mobile key, text the hotel staff for room service, adjust the settings in our rooms, all through our smartphone and hotel smart stay mobile apps. Technology such as NFC or near field communication is gaining value and hotels are using them more than ever before in order to embrace the smartphone revolution.

Augmented reality (AR) can make a lot of information available to guests in order to help them in their decision-making and improving their experience. For example, hotel rooms can be made interactive through the use of AR-supported maps and travel guides. AR can also be used to enhance hotel experiences such as in the famous case of ‘Best Western’, which allowed children to visualize themselves alongside Disney characters.

Facial recognition systems are designed to recognize returning guests to a hotel by displaying their information to hotel staff as soon as they enter the premises. This enables staff members to greet guests by their name and spend less time on getting their details and preferences.

With the salient demand and utmost necessity of smart hotel TV to amplify and diversify hotel services, Viggo delivers an exceptional guest engagement solution – Viggo Smart Hotels. It is said to be the most advanced quad-core Android-based hotel set top box which can transform your hotel into a digitally smart zone.

The Viggo Smart TV set-top-box is backed up with unicast and UDP multicast that allows you to acquire TV channels from their current IPTV infrastructure. The device measures 71x71x20 mm making it ultra slim and a portable solution that bags notable features. The device provides clear 4K/UHD video at 60 fps and high-quality audio. Its external infrared port allows seamless integration.

Chatbots are increasingly invading human spheres of influence and becoming valuable companions for human beings. Chatbots, in the hospitality industry, can provide 24×7 reception and online booking services. These artificially intelligent chatbots can improve customer satisfaction by being available to round the clock, reduce costs by decreasing manual interventions and enhance service effectiveness through quicker response times. Holiday Inn in Japan was the first major hotel to adopt a chatbot concierge service called the Bebot.

Personalization will become a source of competitive advantage going forward. Guests will expect hotels to know them better in today’s world of big data and excellent data management tools. They will expect hoteliers to preempt their needs and requirements and will prefer to stay with the ones that can do so. Hotels will, however, need to understand the thin line between being proactive and being creepy and not step over to the wrong side.

Technology is no longer restricted to the Fortune 500 companies alone in today’s world. Technology is meant to be embraced by one and all. Adopting cutting-edge technology in the hospitality industry can not only provide hotels with a competitive edge over others in terms of efficiency but also help them enhance the experience of customers.

This list of hottest technology trends clearly shows the growing importance of Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality in this industry. Smartphones will play a crucial role in bringing technology to the hands of the customer; and while chatbots and facial recognition will continue to delight guests, hotels will need to make a vigorous effort to glean essential information about clients from big data.