MGallery Hotel De La Coupole, Vietnam
The first international luxury hotel to open in Vietnam’s Sapa, the Bill Bensley-designed property offers 249 modern rooms that overlook the surrounding mountains and valley. Amenities include one restaurant, a bar and a patisserie, a heated pool, fitness centre, spa and kids club. The resort also has several function spaces, including a 435m2 ballroom that can host up to 570 guests theatre-style, and six meeting rooms and four boardrooms for smaller gatherings.
DoubleTree by Hilton Taipei Zhongshan, Taiwan
The first Hilton property in downtown Taipei stands 350m from the Zhongshan MRT train station. This 14-storey hotel boasts 106 guestrooms include 11 suites, all of which come furnished with DoubleTree Sweet Dreams Sleep Experience bedding, a 49-inch HDTV, Nespresso machine, separate bathtub and shower, and high-speed Wi-Fi. Some rooms have outdoor balconies as well. Guests will also have access to a 24-hour rooftop fitness centre, a lobby lounge and the all-day dining restaurant Alley. There is also a 68m2 meeting room which can hold up to 45 pax.
Wyndham Casablanca Jakarta, Indonesia
The rebranded property – formerly known as Park Lane Hotel Jakarta – offers 280 rooms and suites, including one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as a Presidential Suite. The five-star hotel offers facilities such as a large lagoon-style outdoor swimming pool, Jacuzzi and children’s wading pool, gym, as well as a spa. There are also two F&B options – the Riva Bar & Grill, and all-day restaurant Café One – and 13 flexible function rooms.
Premier Residences Emerald Bay, Vietnam
Managed by AccorHotels, the latest opening on Phu Quoc island features 745 stylish rooms, suites and two-bedroom penthouses. The resort is also home to three restaurant and two bars, while leisure facilities include a fitness centre, the Emerald Spa, yoga studio and outdoor pool that overlooks Khem Beach.
Novotel Haikou Xinbudao, China
The first Novotel in Hainan province is located on Xinbu Island, a newly developed area in the north-east part of Haikou city. The U-shaped building features 141 guestrooms which include 15 Deluxe Rooms that come with balconies. Square, the hotel’s sole restaurant serves local and international buffets, and a-la-carte menu choices. Other leisure amenities include a lobby bar, gym, kids’ club, outdoor swimming pool and tennis court. For events, planners can avail either of the three meeting rooms such as the 800m2 pillarless ballroom for up to 600 pax, or the six VIP private rooms within the Square restaurant.
Alistair Rodger, retail travel agents director at Hotelbeds, said: “This promotion has prompted the last remaining travel agents from our legacy brands – TravelBound, TravelCube and GTA – to move over to the Bedsonline platform during the last few weeks.
In some ways, hotels today have hardly changed from those a hundred years ago. Guests will still walk into a lobby, check in at the reception, dine at the hotel restaurant and ask the concierge for city recommendations. Yet hidden from the guests’ view is a web of technologies that facilitate their stay from the moment they book to the moment they leave.
VR for sales presentations
One of the most interesting pieces of technology that we employ is virtual reality (VR). We use an Oculus Go VR set that essentially allows travel agents, meeting planners and guests from around the world to view our rooms and facilities almost as if they were here. While PowerPoint files and images are all very well they cannot provide the same immersive experience that true VR can.
Every hotel is unique, and all hoteliers will want to show off every nook and cranny to potential guests and agents, that is what Oculus Go allows us to do. Meeting planners and travel agents are able to travel throughout our hotel and view our facilities as if they were there. This matters because each agent will have their own requirements from the size and style of rooms, the size of the lobby, number of swimming pools to the shapes and sizes of the meeting rooms.
Equipped with this new technology, we have already seen results. We have seen an increase in the number of travel agents visiting our property after viewing it through the VR headsets, site inspections and contracting has also improved. Agents are not going to spend their time viewing a hotel that they do not think fits the needs of their guests and the Oculus Go headsets allow us to bring the hotel to them first. When they do come and visit, they feel like they are returning to a hotel they have already visited!
Training technology
Oculus Go is not the only technology that brings results. We train our staff in language and upselling skills using Boost’s mobile learning solutions. Since we started using Boost we have increased upselling revenue by five per cent and have received positive online reviews on the quality of English language skills that our employees possess.
This has also generated better relations with travel agents as they understand that our staff can speak the language of their guests – if their guests are happy then they are happy. Importantly as a leader, my employees are simply more confident and have acquired new language and upselling skills that they will take with them throughout their careers.
Revenue management
We also use LodgIQ as a revenue management tool which provides analysis of anonymous Big Data to extract revenue insights. This allows us to manage our room inventory in a much more efficient way. Importantly, it has improved our partnerships with travel agents as we are able to provide more rooms at more flexible price points.
Technology does not (and cannot) replace good service, rather it must be seen as an enabler. General managers need to be careful when choosing what technology to employ. Sometimes, technology is at its best when it is hidden.