Technology is pretty great. It solves a lot of problems, even some of the ones it causes.
For the most part, technology has made life easier. In our own homes, I can think of some appliances that save us time and energy. Computers and smartphones, combined with the internet, make it easier to research information and connect with people far away.
Advances in technology have made the hotel guest's booking process better as well. It's so much easier now to research a destination, find out what hotels are there and figure out which one to book a stay. At your fingertips are room details, photos and reviews.
The goal, of course, is to reduce friction to make it easier to book. The smoother the process, the more likely the guest is going to move right through and click to confirm. Any potential bump could throw the guest off and make them rethink their choice, regardless of how easy the rest of the booking process is.
But that's what happens when there are so many other choices out there and it's so easy to find them.
My wife is taking a trip with my sister to Chicago for a weekend for a Cubs game. Sidenote: As Cleveland fans, they're mostly going to see the historic Wrigley Field.
When it came time to book them a hotel, I initially tried through one brand's app, but the problem I ran into is that I couldn't add my wife's name to the reservation. I'm not going on the trip, but I was booking for her and paying for it with my card.
I suppose I could have made the reservation through the first app and then just called the hotel to add my wife's name to the reservation, but I know from a colleague's experience in trying to add our videographer's name to a reservation over the phone requires more patience than should be necessary.
Maybe I could have tried switching my laptop and making the reservation that way, but I knew that another brand's app would let me add her and my sister's name no problem when making the reservation, so that's what I did. Very low friction.
Now, I don't know the internal reasons why one hotel brand app lets you do this while another doesn't. I'm sure there's some logic to it, likely around making sure the person making the reservation is the one actually staying in the room, but it shouldn't be that difficult to add in more fields for additional names on a reservation. Again, I don't know, and all of this is just based on my experience as someone trying to book a reservation for a family member. I doubt it's the most common way people book a hotel room, but it's not far out there.
In the end, it's a relatively minor thing. No one's life is on the line. I'll still book with the first brand company in the future when it's convenient and keep others in mind when similar situations arise.
The only thing I would add is that as the hotel industry continues to upgrade the technology it uses, in all aspects, it's important to remember there may be many use cases for your guest-facing tech and you should try to be accommodating to as many as you can in both your application as well as your policies. Like I said above, there are a lot of choices out there, and they're pretty easy to find nowadays.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as on LinkedIn.
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