Guests at Hospitality properties and residents at Senior Living communities increasingly expect up-to-date technology experiences. In an increasingly digitally connected world, people rely on their devices to carry out everyday tasks.
A recent study from OpenKey found that 98 percent of guests expect high-speed Wi-Fi connections to be available whenever they visit a Hospitality property. Not only that, but they also want to be able to use the Internet pretty much right away—specifically, within seven minutes of checking in. Similarly, residents at senior living communities are purchasing and using smartphones, computers, and tablets to search for information, connect with their families, and browse social media.
Why Hospitality and Healthcare Properties Need to Prioritize Technology
Whether you are the manager of a hotel or a senior living property, you need to be able to offer first-class technology capabilities to your guests and residents. Here are three reasons why:
1. Provide a comfortable experience
Offering amenities that make a hotel stay or a community property feel like home is an important differentiator for your property. With a high-speed network in place, guests and residents will be able to use all their devices as expected in any environment.
2. Unlock additional revenue streams
By investing in a well-designed network, you can open new revenue streams for your property. Hotels can give guests the choice of paying a small fee to access video-on-demand options or premium network connectivity.. Senior living properties that add community-wide Wi-Fi often break even on the cost of the solution—or even make a profit by charging a per-room technology fee. After all, many residents choose to pay a local provider for Internet access. Why not provide them cost efficiencies from your economies of scale?
3. Drive competitive advantage
Implementing more tech-friendly amenities can help your property stand out from your competition, increase guest rates, and drive up occupancy. At the same time, it can increase resident and guest satisfaction—giving both Healthcare communities and Hospitality properties additional value over local competitors.
What to Look for in New Property Technologies
At this point, you understand why it is becoming more prevalent for Hospitality and Healthcare properties to invest in new technologies. But you might be wondering how you can find room in the budget for these new initiatives or how to spend your budget most effectively.
It is possible to modernize your tech infrastructure—and even future-proof it—without breaking the bank. Here are five factors to consider when upgrading your hospitality technologies:
1. Scalability
You can save money over the long term by investing in scalable solutions that can grow alongside your business needs. Scalability also enables you to reduce the costs of upgrading and replacing elements of your technology solution.
2. Flexibility
An enterprise-grade network is agile and can be adjusted to accommodate evolving user needs. Look for a network that enables you to make quick adjustments when you need more speed, more redundancy, or more coverage. Ensuring your network is flexible is a way to make sure your technology investments return dividends over time.
3. Cloud compatibility
In the past, if you needed to upgrade your network or had an issue to resolve, you usually had to schedule an appointment with a technician. That request could result in downtime to wait for the technician to come on-site. With cloud-based services, you can offset time and costs when you want to upgrade to the latest technologies or have to troubleshoot issues. Leading cloud-based solutions update automatically, ensuring your guests and residents always have access to the newest services on a secure platform.
4. Expertise
If you want to get the most return from your technology investments, consider partnering with a provider that offers best-in-class install and support services. Leading vendors can create an ecosystem of solutions that work together to ensure an efficient technology environment—one that eliminates duplicate technologies and increases performance.
Such a vendor will go to your property, work with you to design a network that meets your unique needs, and then provide ongoing support—whenever you need it.
5. Simplicity
A modern tech experience is the sum of data, video, and voice solutions. Some organizations opt to purchase each of these services separately, but it is now possible to run all of the technologies over the same converged network.
Why manage three networks—and three business relationships—when you can do with one? As an added bonus, a converged technology network brings additional efficiencies to the equation with respect to scalability, compatibility, and administration, among other things. By bundling the services together, you may also be able to secure a discount for your property.
If your hotel or senior living community has been using the same data network, offering the same video services, or working with the same voice systems, you’re long overdue for an upgrade. While investing in new technologies can seem like a large-scale investment, over time you’ll be able to offer a seamless technology experience that can improve your bottom line.
