NH Hotel Group has launched a new digital platform, allowing guests to access hotel services from a mobile phone, tablet or laptop.
The launch came as a study reported that 86% of guests felt that technology had improved interaction with staff.
The NH Hotel Group product allowed customers to use a mobile device to order room service, make spa, gym and restaurant reservations, request extra amenities, and order products from a ‘virtual minibar’.
To access the platform, guests will have to scan a QR code which will be displayed on posters in the reception, lobbies and rooms of the group’s properties. The group also offers offers a contactless check-in/check-out service through its FastPass app, through which guests can also pick their rooms.
Isidoro Martinez de la Escalera, CMO, NH Hotel Group, commented on the launch: “Innovation is a priority for NH Hotel Group. We believe that the best way to improve our guests’ stay is to offer them a different, agile and simple service, as today’s life requires. Mobile Guest Service adds to our digital commitment with which we intend to make the final guest experience even more satisfactory.
“Furthermore, this platform reinforces the customer’s perception of security, since they are able to interact with all the hotel services using only their own device.”
A study from Zonal and CGA in the UK found that over a third of consumers said that they would be more likely to visit a venue that had order-and-pay technology.
Front of house teams shared similar views to consumers as they saw order and pay technology as vital in promoting safe as well as pleasurable experiences. When asked, hospitality professionals thought helping people feel safer and reducing the need for social interaction were the two biggest benefits of digital solutions.
But they also emphasised the need to balance technology with human contact. More than half (58%) of professionals felt Covid-related safety measures had impacted the level of service they can provide. But this view was not shared by consumers, the research showed that nearly nine in 10 (86%) thought their interaction with staff was the same or better than before lockdown.
Karl Chessell, CGA business unit director, food and retail, said: “The adoption of technology across hospitality has been one of the most eye-catching side effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital solutions have been an integral part of hospitality’s efforts to show consumers they are in safe hands. With the right investment, it can give businesses an important edge as they recover from a very challenging 2020.”
Last week saw Fitch Ratings has affirm its rating for NH Hotel Group at B- with a negative outlook.
The agency said that the affirmation reflected “NH's satisfactory financial flexibility and deleveraging capacity, mirroring that of the consolidated profile of the Thai group Minor International, which owns 94% of NH.
“This is despite the re-emergence of operational disruption in the lodging sector as a result of the global pandemic, this time mostly centred in Europe and North America, which will impact the performance of the sector for longer than previously expected.”
The Negative Outlook reflected uncertainty around the financial profile of the consolidated Minor group and of NH post-pandemic, in “what it seems will be a volatile return to business normality between 2021 and 2022”.
Fitch forecast “a sharp decline” in NH's top line with 2020 reaching roughly one-third of 2019 revenues, before reaching around 57% in 2021, no longer expecting full portfolio reopening by the end of 2020.
The forecast assumed that a muted market recovery with a slower-than-expected NH portfolio reopening would lead to a negative single digit Ebitda margin in 2021. It projected an improvement in the Ebitda margin towards 15.5% by 2023 driven by occupancy recovery in all markets, as well as NH's cost optimisation efforts.
Insight: NH is by no means the only hotel, or hospitality company, to bring in technology which limits the points of contact between staff and consumers, but it has taken the technology a step further, into the realms of That Which Might Be Useful Post Covid.
The option to choose rooms is one not virus-driven, but core to allowing the guest to personalise the stay and compete with the offerings, from, say the OTAs. InterContinental Hotels Group is doing this with its new backend and the very few hotel companies who have done this in the past have reported great consumer enthusiasm.
NH has been successful in its cost-cutting strategy and said that it was “striving to monetise each visit and generate loyalty”, something it will find a whole lot easier by giving guests what they want. Radical, I know.