Tablet PCs: Revolution in Hotel Business

Vision of the future:

• Tablet computer in every hotel room;• Electronic concierges;• Tablets replace desktop PCs on-site and at home.

Hospitality technologies are mostly intended to solve two main problems: to attract as many guests as possible and to convert as many of them as possible into loyal clients. Like in any other type of business, these problems can't be solved without innovation.

Nowadays there's nothing so handy and practical for a day-to-day frequent usage than tablet computers. This statement is confirmed by Google's research conducted within the «Think Insights» project in March, 2011:

• 43% tablet PC users use these devices more frequently than laptops and desctop PCs;• 68% respondents spend at least 1 hour per day with a tablet;• 82% use tablets mostly at home;• 77% claim that they started using their PC and laptop less frequently after buying a tablet

computer;• 28% say that their web tablet totally replaced PC and notebook for daily usage and serfing

the Internet.

A combination of a responsive touch screen, quick launch and shutdown with one touch, about 10 hours of battery life, low weight (approx. 600 g) and tiny size unveil unprecedented areas of tablet PC usage. Considering obtainable price ($500) we've got the best all-in-one mobile device ever! By the way, all the above mentioned advantages make tablets perfect not only for personal usage, but indispensable for business, particularly the hospitality industry. If you are a hotel business owner, tablets can add much value to as many of your services as you can imagine!

Below are some great ideas on how tablets can be used in hotel business:

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1. Multipurpose Control Panel inside a Hotel Room

Tablets replace old-fashioned devices like climate control panels, lighting control systems, alarm-clocks, etc. This multiporpose control panel concept allows guests to get remote access to any device inside their hotel rooms, connect to Internet, watch TV and listen to their favourite music on-line.

All the 270 rooms of the Mondrian SoHo in New York are equipped with Apple iPads. Along with Royalton, it's the second Morgans Hotel Group's establishment in New York where iPads are provided in every room.

2. Electronic Consierge

Tablets are at the disposal of guests during the entire period of stay. Using this device guests can, for example, order food and beverages, call a waitress, set a «please, don't disturb» status, book a table in a cafe, reserve hotel cleaning time, request any additional information from a concierge. Moreover, a tablet PC can be taken away to town for an excursion or to a meeting, fully used as a communication and navigation facility with a pre-installed micro SIM card. Obviously, such a service gives tiangible benefits to a client like saving on external calls and finding his bearings in an unknown town due to an embedded GPS navigator.

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InterContinental Hotels was the first hotel network to supply their concierges with tablets in April, 2010 in order to provide rapid response to their clients' requests.

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It can be noted that guests often arrive at hotels with their own mobile devices. In this case hotels should think of giving their gests access to all the above mentioned services from their own devices. And what is more important here, all the information about clients' tastes and preferences can be saved for further analysis. This is an extra opportunity to improve client service!

3. Tablet PCs for managers

It's essential for managers at any level to track business processes in real-time. The idea of a mobile office emerged long ago, but only now it can be fully implemented due to mobile technologies and particularly tablet computers. Unlike laptops and netbooks, they are much more convenient for viewing documents, managing your data and assigning tasks online anytime and anywhere. That's what is called «just in time» - a rather small-sized mobile device that can easily fit into any bag, with a screen wide enough to view any kind of content.

A well-known hotel network Hyatt Hotels & SPA equipped hundreds of its employees with Apple iPads in order to improve interaction between its subdivisions (watch video). 350 Hilton top managers received iPads for their everyday work. Waldorf Astoria Orlando has a project to introduce 2500 iPads for its employees.

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Hotel personell can demonstrate room interior, showcase suggested services and their advantages to clients with higher efficiency. In the past this kind of data could only be displayed on a screen from a reception desk. Now a guest can make himself comfortable and be served by a hotel worker with the help of a tablet PC.

As The Establishment Hotel's CEO Justin Hemmes said, with iPad as the main manager tool capacities of your hotel business are limited only to your imagination and your developers' skills.

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In conclusion, it would be a good thing to give some quick facts from Eye for Travel's research shown at the Online Marketing and Social Media conference:

• 50-90% tourists all over the world pre-arrange their trips using Internet;• 10% such tourists use mobile devices for that, 75% of which are smartphones and 25%

tablets;• 70% all bookings are online;• 17% hotels already have mobile versions of their web sites.

What is your opinion? How can tablet PCs change hotel business? Run our quick survey.

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