Managing the Busy Hotel Season with 5 Technology Solutions
Five ideas that can make your hotel more efficient — and your guests happier
June 23
Managing the Busy Hotel Season with 5 Technology Solutions

The “busy season” for the hospitality industry has become something of a moving target. Geography, location, and climate are drivers of demand, of course, but pressure on hotel, casino, and spa staff can be compounded by the ongoing labor shortage in the business as a whole. Locales that live for the summer trade can feel the pinch more than others when the weather turns warm, and owners and operators are searching for relief.

Technology can be a huge help. When solutions are properly specified and deployed to support the staff, they can focus on improving the guest experience. Here are five examples to start with:

Circle Wellness, Check-In
Circle Wellness, Check-In
Circle Wellness, Spa
Circle Wellness, Spa

Contactless Check-In — Complete with Customized Customer Preferences

Self-booking and automated check-ins gained tremendous popularity during the pandemic. Options now abound for “contactless” check-ins, but there are ways to customize the guest experience right from jump, as we noted both on the Crestron blog and in our case study for the spa Circle Wellness. The spa offers three unique experiences: the hot and cold tubs, the stone bed, and the “WellPod,” “a reinvention of the sauna: a multi-sensory wellness room featuring Himalayan salt walls, thermally modified wood finishes, multi-channel lighting, a radiant infrared heating system, fresh-air ventilation, and encompassing surround sound.”

As we further noted on the Crestron blog:

Online booking software leads the experience, allowing guests to effortlessly check availability and schedule appointments. And thanks to continued automation with Crestron technology, an app communicates all confirmed appointments to the designated circuits, initiating the pre-check-in events, which include filling the tubs and setting the room ambiance — all without added labor costs.

Once guests arrive, beyond a quick hello from the staff, the Crestron touch screens serve as the primary automation interface, putting the guests in control. As founder Paul Hennessey notes, “Technology exists from the beginning to the end of the guest experience; from our booking software integration and our guest communications to issuing our guests' site access codes and triggering sessions which cues to the full experience, including AV design and HVAC controls.”

One-Touch Control for Restaurant and Spa ...

Crestron has provided control solutions since the company’s inception more than 50 years ago. We discussed the need for simple, easy-to-use interfaces for both staff and guests with Zak Gulling, CIO of both the Atlantis and the Monarch Casino Resort Spa Black Hawk (Colorado) properties, which are owned and operated by Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCRI).

From our blog:

“Our spa, Spa Atlantis, is Forbes Four-Star rated — one of just a few in the world with that designation.” The systems in the spa can be set to provide the perfect environment for a massage or treatment with a single tap. “The therapist just hits a start button, and the room knows what type of massage and how long it should last, so the lighting, audio, and climate automatically adjust.” Video displays will present cozy firelight scenes in winter or Hawaiian beaches for a Lomilomi massage.

The spa illustrates something that drives high ratings across the entire property, says Gulling. “Our watchword is consistency. Our audio's consistent, our lighting's consistent, the video's consistent, so it's repeatable every single time, and we run all that through Crestron.” That extends to the Forbes Four-Star-rated Atlantis Steakhouse. “A staffer simply hits the ‘open’ button, and the restaurant is set, lighting, video, audio — everything.”

Atlantis Casino, Steakhouse
Atlantis Casino, Steakhouse
Atlantis Casino, Spa
Atlantis Casino, Spa
Atlantis Casino, Suite
Atlantis Casino, Suite

... And the Suites, Too

Gulling told us how those one-touch operations extend into the guest rooms:

“In our high-end VIP suites, we can automate drapery and lighting using Crestron touch panels and provide content via DM NVX AV-over-IP,” says Gulling. “Our keypads have a button labeled ‘good morning’ that slowly brings up lights, opens shades, brings up music, and more. The guest doesn’t need to be a tech wizard — we were able to make it very simple and understandable for a guest to use.”

Gulling has been with the organization since the 1990s, so he’s seen how technology has evolved in the last three decades to provide this kind of high-end vibe. “When you tried to put these amenities in the rooms before these advancements, you ended up with four or five different remotes. Guests were always mad. We were always sending staff to rooms to help, and those team members couldn’t focus on other issues. Crestron fixed all of that.”

DM NVX® AV-over-IP technology also gives the suites more flexibility when it comes to content choices. “If a specific football game isn’t carried on the regular channel lineup in the room, we can send their preferred content to that room,” says Gulling. The same kind of content selection applies to other parts of the resort, from common areas to meeting spaces.

Energy Savings, Automatically

A terrific way to keep rooms comfortable — while saving money and helping an operator hit their sustainability goals to boot — is an automated shading solution. It’s far more efficient than manually adjusted shades and can react to conditions that range from occupancy to the strength of direct sunlight. We outlined the concept in a piece on a multiple dwelling unit, the One Sydney Harbour apartment complex, which houses over 800 apartments. The solution here extends well beyond the blinds:

Their strong focus on minimizing energy consumption led them to incorporate dimmed lighting scenes and automated blinds to maximize daylight harvesting.

Crestron processors and occupancy sensors govern lighting with precision across communal spaces like entrances, concierge areas, and parking and recreational facilities. To offer a connected experience to the users, extensive integration with building services, including the control of the façade blinds, a weather warning system, an intercom, and access control were added.

These types of technologies ripple beyond cost savings. As noted by Director of One Sydney Harbour David Edgar, "The tenants love the customization they have in their apartment and how they can control everything, even remotely, through Crestron. The added level of building safety available through the Crestron touch screens also pleases the residents.”

Control and Management Solutions

For the operator, having a window into how the whole hotel — or even an entire chain — is running can be an incredibly valuable resource. The Crestron XiO Cloud® technology operations management platform has been the perfect solution for those who need efficient, reliable cloud monitoring and management. It has enabled customers to deploy systems efficiently at scale, oversee hardware and networks from a broad range of devices, update firmware, and supervise every device in any given room. It’s the definition of a smart system, as it’s constantly evolving using data and analytics.

As we’ve noted on the blog:

Ultimately, the best way to think about analytics platforms like XiO Cloud is summed up by the phrase “complete asset management.” You’ll have relevant data for every part of every space, from displays to shades to thermostats. You’ll know when each device was purchased, its model numbers, firmware version, name it — and it’s all info that becomes more and more critical as your business scales up.

Having all this actionable data on a dashboard that’s easily accessible — as you’ll find in the XiO Cloud platform — can offer a vast amount of information. It can help a hotel operator stay ahead of preventive maintenance and drive down customer complaints.

As the hospitality industry leans into tech, the solutions can fade so far into the background that the guest never need make a single verbal request. As Quim Gener, operations director (USA and Caribbean) of Luxury Hotel Partners noted in a recent ILHA Tech Integration Committee report, “I personally believe we will soon install facial recognition systems in our more extensive resorts, like the one in Marbella. This technology allows us to know our guests' location in real-time and adapt our services accordingly."

But a guest’s comfort level with technology — as with every other aspect of their stay — should be paramount, as Sebastian Betton, senior project manager of Cumming Group, notes in the same report: “Guests should have the option to opt in or out of these technologies.”

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Crestron XiO Cloud and XiO Cloud Premium

The XiO Cloud® platform gives you two powerful subscription options to deploy, monitor, and manage all your workplace technology from one dashboard. Organization-wide. View status. Configure devices. Check network settings. Manage licenses and firmware. All from one secure location in the cloud.

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Hospitality Technology Solutions

Smart guest rooms that turn new visitors into repeat guests. Conference rooms that help them get down to business. Ballrooms that help them have a ball. Only Crestron enables you to provide premier, personalized guest service combined with robust, scalable, cost-effective property-wide monitoring and management. All on a single platform.

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Hospitality Guest Rooms

Tap into the transformative power of Crestron technology-driven hospitality and elevate your hotel's success. Rooms that perfectly match your guests’ personal preferences. Complete, intuitive environmental and entertainment control from your phone or beautiful Crestron touch screens, keypads, and remotes.

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