Contextual hotel apps have increasingly become a part of the growing hotel app market. Offering more than just booking, check-in, check-out and other basic capabilities, these apps provide content relevant to the guests’ trips, whether its on-property or in the hotel’s location.
Last summer, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts launched its first app in Europe and the Americas designed to offer guests access to a variety of services, including:
- The ability to make and manage reservations in multiple locations at once
- Virtual check-in and check-out, including options to book luggage pickup and airport transfers
- Customizing guests’ experience with special requests such as extra pillows, toiletries, baby gear and turndown services
- “Ready-when-you-are” room service orders, as well as the ability to schedule restaurant reservations, spa appointments and tee times
- Local recommendations for exploring individual destinations, curated into “moods” including dining, shopping and cultural experiences
- Personalized recommendations from Four Seasons hotel concierges
- Built-in geolocation service offering maps with time and distance indicators
“Our ultimate goal is to translate our renowned service culture into our digital ecosystem, delivering the highest quality service across all guest touch points,” says Elizabeth Pizzinato, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Four Seasons.
There have been 17 updates since the multifunctional app’s launch based on learnings and trends observed with guest usage. Updates include the ability for guests to add reservations from the app directly to their mobile calendars, enabling guests to see reservations and property details offline and the option to order hotel services while offsite.
“Our focus is always on the guest experience – ensuring we deliver seamless service, at the right time and in the right place,” Pizzinato says. “We are constantly looking for ways in which we can improve the app and the guest’s overall digital experience with Four Seasons, exploring functionalities that make the app easier to use or cater better to our guests’ changing needs.”
Also since its inception last June, Four Seasons launched a Chinese launguage app tailored to the Chinese luxury traveler. The company plans to add additional languages in 2017.
In addition to the hotel giants, smaller companies are experimenting differently with? apps. Marcus Hotels & Resorts’ flagship property, The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, offers an augmented reality (AR) app that guides guests on a tour of the hotel’s art collection. Each year, The Pfister hosts a new artist in residence and the subject matter of the physical tour changes to keep the experience fresh and interesting for guests.
Launched in 2014, the original goal of the AR app was to make art more relevant and accessible to younger demographics, especially millennials. Since its inception, the hotel has also “augmented” the coasters that are used in the bars, restaurants and banquet rooms, and soon it will augment the artist in residence legacy pieces that are in a select number of guestrooms. The hotel will film the artists standing next to their prints, so when a guest puts the device up to a painting, the artist “appears.”
“Technology at the historic Pfister Hotel helps guests appreciate the artwork in new ways,” says Joseph Khairallah, chief operating officer at Marcus Hotels & Resorts. “It is a novel, interactive experience for the guests and lets them explore the artwork at their own pace.”