Hotels Look Toward a Geolocation Future
Jennifer Billock December 16, 2016
Location-based services are on the rise among hotels that wish to interact better with guests.
A recent survey by Zebra Technologies, a global technology solutions provider, asked about 1,200 hotels how they plan to implement location-based services in the future. In the survey, called the 2016 Hospitality Vision Study, Zebra found that many hotels — about 74 percent of those asked — plan to begin using that technology within the next year.
The hotels asked said they plan to implement geolocation practices during check-in to allow for it to be done on a smartphone, to offer coupons and discounts, to track guest location and see what facilities they’re using, to enable mobile wallet transactions, and to electronically track baggage.
“When you’re doing geolocation offers, you’re orchestrating the guest stay in terms of promoting on-property amenities, whether it be food, beverage, or even retail shops,” Tom Moore, Zebra Technologies’ North America retail and hospitality industry lead, told Skift. “That is much more valuable for the hotelier than just data, and the fact that someone is at the hotel. They want you to stay there, and sell you more, and leverage more location-based services to do that and, if it’s relevant to guests, they will value that.”
Guests, though, have some concerns about privacy. More than 1,680 were surveyed for the study and 60 percent had objections to location tracking and a lack of control over how personal information will be used. That being said, 75 percent were willing to share their personal information with the hotels, and 74 percent were please with accommodations that offer tailored messaging and offers.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
