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How one hotel leverages touchless tech

Like every hotelier, Provenance Hotels has been adjusting its operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

After closing several of its U.S. properties in response to state mandates or market forces, it reopened Villa Royale in Palm Springs, California, in mid-June, followed by Hotel Lucia in Portland, Oregon, and Hotel Preston in Nashville in early July.

Contributed by Ellis Booker

Provenance’s app will streamline back-of-house services. | Getty Images
Provenance’s app will streamline back-of-house services. | Getty Images

The reopenings were made possible, in large part, to an array of touchless technologies and re-imagined customer experiences. The strategy seems to be working. Villa Royale, a secluded, 36-room adults-only hideaway, was sold out for the first two weekends, with drive-distance guests coming from Los Angeles and San Diego.

Touchless tech in place

At Provenance, the heart of its digital approach is a “virtual concierge.” The face of the service is Paige, an illustrated avatar and persona. Paige is still being built out by Alice, a developer specializing in guest-facing mobile apps for hotels, but the Provenance team explains Paige’s persona as “a creative and curious type, with a voracious appetite for learning,” and as a destination insider that can share recommendations and activities.

According to Provenance executives, the platform will enable dynamic content in the form of efficient text messages among guests and hotel staff. It eliminates some paper products, such as in-room compendiums and menus, and allows guests to ask questions about local sights and nearby resources.

In the works

But like a number of other hoteliers, Portland, Oregon-based Provenance was already headed down the digital path well before the pandemic hit.

“We began working on this last September,” says Director of Marketing Jay Bowen about the homegrown application. The goal, which predated the pandemic, was to provide a more personalized conversation with the guest before they arrived, while they were on the property, and after check-out. According to Bowen, this push was in service of Providence’s commitment to sustainability. “That would have happened regardless of COVID-19,” she says.

Along with guest-facing features, the app will ultimately help make back-of-house operations paperless, too. Housekeeping will use it for scheduling and maintenance requests, including sending images of problems to the relevant departments.

“We plan to utilize its functionality to streamline back of house processes,” says Shannon Overholser, media relations manager. “It’s something we’ve just started to engage with and are looking to integrate more in our day-to-day operations for housekeeping and more.”

In addition to its smartphone app, Provenance has moved to a contactless check-in process including single-use, eco-friendly paper key cards.

Providing a personalized guest experience, even with new protocols around social distancing and mask-wearing, has gone well, according to Chief Marketing Officer Ralph Aruzza.

“There’s been virtually no pushback,” Aruzza says, noting that any incidents have been successfully dealt with by property staff. The brand has added questions in its post-stay survey and is allowing guests to voice their opinions about the hotel’s touchless technologies and other issues.

“Our business was on track in Q1, and we were doing well,” says Aruzza, adding that the brand is monitoring search traffic and its competitors. “We have no more and no less” information than anyone else in the industry, he says.

Like every hospitality brand, Provenance’s leadership is watching state government responses to the coronavirus pandemic very closely. About a possible retrenching of social-distancing mandates affecting travel, Aruzza says, “We’re all concerned.”

Tech approaches to COVID

“Our research suggests that recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels could take until 2023 — or later,” wrote consultant McKinsey in a June report about the hospitality industry.

About technology to address coronavirus, McKinsey cited robotics and touchless technology, and noted the stringent measures put in place by some hotel chains in China, where the novel coronavirus began.

Measures there have included requiring guests to provide proof (via a QR code) that they have not been in contact with infected people, and measuring guests’ body temperature at check-in, anytime they enter and exit the hotel during their stay, and at check-out. “For Western hotels to adopt the same standards would of course require changes in government policy and public-health approaches,” McKinsey’s survey pointed out.

In its April Consumer Leisure Travel Survey, McKinsey surveyed 3,498 travelers from five countries. One question: “Actions hotels could take to help protect guests from coronavirus that would make you more likely to stay at a hotel for leisure?” Intense room cleaning was by far the leader – but respondents placed “Completely automated/touch-free check-in process” near the bottom of the list.

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