Ms. Horwell

Mobile Technology

Mobile Technology: The Biggest Challenges for Hotel Mobile

By Vanessa Horwell, Founder & Chief Visibility Officer, ThinkInk & TravelInk'd

Imagine this scenario. You are a last-minute business or leisure traveler. Thanks to the power of the mobile web you’ve already price compared and booked your flight, the overnight bag and miniature toiletries are packed, and you’ve already scouted neighborhoods for an appropriate hotel and have thumbed through page after digital page of an online travel agency’s hotel search criteria, eager to book what looks good. But in the end, what you really wanted was the ability to cut out the middleman and book your stay directly from a specific hotel via your mobile device, whatever that may be. What gives?

It comes down to this. For an industry that prides itself on customer service, and connecting with guests, ensuring repeat visits; one area that could use some “spit and polish” is in the booming channel of mobile communications. While travelers are increasingly going mobile, hotels have yet to fully embrace the platform’s potential. What is the holdup? So sluggish has been the hospitality industry’s mobile embrace, in fact, that a recent New York Times article, in addressing the challenges of converting websites to their mobile format, only discussed third-party sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline and Hotels.com. No mention of hotels following a similar path was reported.

What’s the holdup of mobile adoption?

While non-mention in a New York Times article isn’t exactly scientific finality, it does suggest a trend. Ultimately the reasons behind hotels’ mobile reluctance are several- fold. The general umbrella concern is that hoteliers have yet to get the digital memo – that is they fail to see the benefits of creating, maintaining and promoting a mobile booking site. For all the talk that mobile is the way of the future, hoteliers look to the present and find relatively few guests booking via mobile. Recent data suggests that only 1% of mobile site hotel visitors booked their stay through that medium, and only 19% of all hotel queries are done via mobile. There’s also the safety valve belief that OTAs or, online travel agencies, are already offering some of those mobile services so why offer redundant services the argument goes?

In addition, apps run off multiple platform carriers, be it iOS, Android and Blackberry. Designing a multi-platform app is obviously one solution, but it remains anyone’s guess which smartphone, if any, will come to dominate the market. Even now data suggests Blackberry’s business world dominance may be slipping, thanks to recent technological hiccups. A recent survey by analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates found that nearly a third of current Blackberry owners plan to shift to another mobile platform - namely iOS or Android. With that kind of fluidity, it’s anyone’s guess what may happen next. Finally, there is also the relatively mundane concern that comes up with any new technology: fear of data errors, personal information security risks, and last-minute booking nightmares that rather than inspiring potential guests to click “book it,” they instead run for the proverbial hills.

Sitting it out on the mobile sidelines is not a good position to take

To avoid this scenario, hoteliers opt to stay on the mobile sidelines, waiting for others promises and pitfalls. But challenges shouldn’t be viewed as impenetrable walls. Hotels that sit on the mobile sidelines, data suggests, will miss out on growing consumer demand. There are some 5.3 billion mobile phone subscribers globally and the smartphone penetration rate is rising daily. Like the mobile transformation that has already taken place in the airline industry, similar changes are poised to impact the hotel industry too, especially considering the symbiotic nature of the two economic sectors. With risk comes reward. As with any new technology there’s always a chance of missteps.

But failure to take those steps likely does more harm than good in the long run. The good news is that as we write the last chapters of 2011 hoteliers are starting to get the message. Even if they haven’t fully embraced the mobile platform, two-thirds of hotels in a recent survey at least say they want to offer bookings via mobile. Saying, of course, isn’t the same as doing, but a desire to move forward in the mobile arena is better than having no interest at all. Going forward, it would be wise for hotel managers to scuttle their fears of the new technology and embrace what other industry’s have already adopted. In this case, the fact that “everybody’s doing it” is a reason to follow the leader.

For starters, launching a mobile campaign doesn’t have to break the bank. Start small. Maybe your hotels’ first goal is simply making sure your mobile website is efficient and user-friendly. Mobile websites are about a mobile experience, not web, (kind of obvious, but important to reiterate) and so make sure your approach is the same. Consider designing a mobile platform that has both flash and non-flash capability. Don’t clutter your mobile website with useless or distracting material. Be cognizant of the limited screen size and many mobile devices’ troubles with multitasking and toggling between tasks.

Taking a page from the airline industry’s mobile playbook

There’s a growing trend of hotels allowing their guests to post their reviews online. Perhaps consider this allowance as a first step and leave out the sometimes-complicated steps of designing and monitoring a booking button. Think of this as your mobile platform’s water depth measuring stick. Gauge one aspect of guest interest and then slowly increase your mobile platform’s complexity and capability. While data snags and last-minute error nightmares are a legitimate concern, hiring or outsourcing knowledgeable information technology staff may reduce the likelihood of a problem.

Once you feel that your hotel’s mobile site or app has met that first marker point, consider adding the mobile booking option - taking a page from the airline industry, which has embraced the mobile channel head on. The airlines were quick to realize that mobile phones are an “always on” technology – and are everything that their customers are.

Just because the full force of the mobile wave hasn’t yet reached hotels, it does not mean that it’s not on its way. It absolutely it is.

And this is what I like to call the “Field of Dreams” constant, borrowing from the 1989 Kevin Costner film. “If you build it” – the mobile platform that is – customers “will come.” While mobile bookings may be performed by only 1 percent of the mobile market now, it’s likely those numbers will spike once travelers see hotels getting on board with the idea. Already Google predicts that mobile travel bookings will grow to 8 percent in 2012. While this number doesn’t drill down specifically to the number of people booking hotels via their mobile device, it does support the “Field of Dreams” constant.

And when it comes to choosing between a cross-platform or operating system-specific approach, perhaps hotels should start with the path of least resistance first, and go with the Android approach for now, as they continue to make up the largest percentage of smartphone users at 40 percent penetration with iOS trailing at 28 percent. Once again these numbers are likely to fluctuate and it will be interesting to see if iOS – Apple’s mobile operating system baby – is able to gain ground.

My final piece of advice for hotel managers, revenue managers and all the rest who make our collective stays pleasant ones comes down to two simple words: Hire Millennials.

Millenials and mobile

Millenials – today’s 18-29 year-olds – are some of the most tech-savvy components of the modern workforce. Their skill in navigating social media, (a tool in which one in four hotels across the globe fail to use entirely), and their reliance on smartphone technology is unmatched. Why allocate the resources to retrain current staff when recent college graduates struggle with some of the highest unemployment rates in decades? Nearly a quarter (22.4 percent) of college graduates from the class of 2009 were out of work, according to recent reports. While there may a bit of a generational divide, it’s important to remember that in only a few years’ time, up and coming hotel managers will already be schooled in web 2.0 ideology and mobile thinking.

Knocking mobile out of the “park” in 2012

It would be foolish to sit here writing and pretend that there aren’t real obstacles for hotels adopting the mobile platform. There are. But when each challenge is addressed up close it becomes clear they are surmountable issues. Hotel managers need the faith and confidence to break out of their old-school comfort zones and ways. In the end, the biggest challenge mobile faces as it relates to hotels may not be the data and complications from without, but the latent fears and trepidations from within.

At the start of this year Nielsen media termed 2011 “The Year of the Mobile.” Maybe hoteliers didn’t fully realize the mobile message. But don’t worry, I wouldn’t count them out. They’ve got a whole new year to get out there and try again. Guests and future guests are waiting to see what hotels will do next. Returning to our baseball analogy, the ball is definitely in their collective courts. Let’s hope that in 2012 the mobile platform helps knock their success out of the park.

Chief Visibility Offer, ThinkInk & TravelInk’d Vanessa Horwell is the founder and Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk & TravelInk’d, a public relations and visibility firm that shuns press releases in favor of storytelling. She has spent the past 18 years working with companies in the US, UK and Europe, developing successful campaigns and strategies for their brands. Ms. Horwell is a senior level strategist who works with companies in North America, EMEA and Asia-Pac in developing winning media campaigns, building relationships with influencers, and improving visibility through a unique style of public relations. Ms. Horwell can be contacted at 305-749-5342 or vanessa@thinkinkpr.com Extended Bio...

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