How guest service apps have 'changed the game' in delivery of guest service ?

ALICE APP

A tool for online reputation management

How to use in stay apps for ORM ? 

Business intelligence is one of the key success factor and the features of the in stay apps allow the hotel to understand in a better way the business and then improve it.

The stay apps can generate custom reports for revenue, productivity and usage, it can also compare multiple properties and departments. The use of stay apps audit every action made by staff and guests and create logs about it.

The goal is to connect with the guest on their terms and manage requests on yours.

Who is the investor ?

The investor is EXPEDIA. Alice, which allows hotels to manage and complete guest requests across various service departments with ease thanks to its intuitive host of mobile suite products, announced today that it had closed a $9.5 million Series A funding round.
The round was led by Expedia with participation from Laconia, 645 Ventures, and Neuehouse founders as well. The company has raised $13 million to date.

The benefits ? 

- Costs saving : You can offer a huge number of services without the upfront investment that is why the costs saving is the main benefit. Also, you have the option of relocating the investment towards an initiative that would improve the overall guest experience. Further, you can turn a partner in an additionnal revenue generator by sharing proceeds with the on-demand vendors.

- Understanding of customers needs : the ORM science allow companies to track everything about customers behaviors and the key success of a hotel is to better understand what guests expect from it. What kind of services your guests are looking for ? You can understand better individually the customer experience and then improve your business by offering to them what they really want.

- Relevance of guests behavior : Customers expect to have an immediate access of the whole information about the hotel and it's very important for the hotel to give the feeling to guests that he cares about the guest in a personnal way. This is an added value of your business because the competitors might treat one guest like another one. The goal is to provide guest a whole personnalizable experience, far more complete than just hotel rooms and services.

Why does it matter so much ? 

You can change your ORM by investing in Alice apps for exemple because the engagement made by the brand is to provide a user friendly app with a easy and accurate data collection from guests. This is the heart of the business and this kind of tools seduce hoteliers because they absolutely need it. The Alice app can help hotels in determining their marketing strategy for exemple.

Exemples of how apps + push messaging can proactively deliver to guests 

This kind of application contain a contextual intelligence and it is very important because it will be the key of being proactive with your guests.

How do hoteliers have to think about guest services now ?

Alice app for exemple is like a permanent concierge for itself and guest services is the ability for an hotel to be as close as possible from the guests needs. Hotels might also think how they can use the powerful tool of the app to improve interactivity with their customers.

How it is different from a traditionnal ORM ?

For exemple Alice app enables a hotel to have a mobile strategy with their guests; through native apps, SMS and even web, guests can discover and communicate with their hotels for any service. It places the hotel in the palm of their hand, allowing a guest to engage with a property on their own terms.

How does this change the definition of guest services and satisfaction ? 

It is like a tailor guest services and this change is a generator of customer satisfaction because they'll have the feeling that the hotel better understand his needs and we are going one step further in the relationship between hotels and their guests. Guests are willing to give more information to hotels and hoteliers will be able to work on. Customers are the heart of any business but regarding hotels and the improvement of the guest services customers turn into an ambassador of the hotel.

At what points should hoteliers (businesses) be measuring 'satisfaction' ? 

- They can measure the overall guest satisfaction
- They can improve the loyalty measurement


What is meant by post app economy ?  How will messaging services impact ORM? 

It means an easy engagement because everybody uses a smartphone. The messaging services will impact ORM by creating a high and relevant signal to exploit. The multi channel is a good and alternative model for the development and distribution of a mobile experience.



Thank you ! 

Idir BOUALIA & Inès ZARGOUNI