As a hotelier, you know how important offering an exceptional guest experience is. This could make the difference in whether or not people return to your hotel, and whether or not they recommend it to others either by word of mouth or via reviews on travel websites. However, you feel that no matter how hard you try to offer an amazing experience, there’s always someone who complains that their stay wasn’t good enough because you didn’t offer enough variety.
In order to provide your guests with an exceptional experience, you need to make sure that their experience is two things: seamless and personalized. If the guest feels like their experience was easy to navigate and that it was tailored to their needs and desires, they will be much more likely to return and to recommend your business.
Though this may sound like a big project, there is one simple way that you can improve your guest experience: by adding a self-service market in your hotel lobby. This article will show you how a self-service market on your hotel premises can help you broaden your offering so that you can simplify and personalize your guests’ experience, no matter who they are or where they’re from, so that you stand out from your competition.
1. Provide Access to Essential Products and Services
Some of your guests may arrive at inconvenient hours, when not many shops or stores in your area are open. They may also be forced to travel light because of baggage restrictions imposed by low-cost airlines. How many guests have asked you for a power adapter or a toothbrush lately? Have you ever been asked for an umbrella on a rainy day? Providing access to these essentials in your hotel lobby will guarantee a great experience. Not only will it make their experience more convenient, but they will save time, not having to travel to another store to purchase these goods.
You can offer these products in a micro market in your lobby, with an unmanned self-checkout kiosks so that guests can simply grab what they need and pay either via their room key or with their preferred payment method, whether it be a credit or debit card or mobile wallet.
2. Simplify Orders from Your Kitchen
Your guests may want to order something from your kitchen. With a micro market self-service kiosk that sends bons to your kitchen for printing, they can easily do this. Nayax’s Nova Market supports 15 languages, helping you bypass any language barriers and make it easier to order fresh food from your kitchen and simplify your breakfast orders.
3. Make Sure Information Is Readily Available
Ensure that guests know everything they need to know about your hotel and its surroundings. If there’s a special event in the area, a restaurant you’d recommend, or a good taxi service, they should be informed. If your front desk isn’t open 24/7, you’ll want to make sure that guests can still access this information. Creating a digital document with anything they need is a great way to do this. Guests can then simply scan a QR code and have instant access to valuable content that will improve their trip experience.
Pro tip: You can display the QR code on your self-service kiosk screen for guests to easily scan. You can also partner with other businesses in your area and advertise their restaurants, shops, or events on your self-service kiosk screen, adding yet another new revenue stream to your hotel.
4. Mobile-friendly
People rely more and more on their mobile devices for everything from communication to research to navigation to payment. If you offer mobile-friendly hotel services, this will help you meet your guests where they’re comfortable. Allowing mobile payments at your self-service kiosk is therefore essential. Payment apps like Monyx Wallet can also leveraged loyalty and engagement.
5. Personalized Loyalty Programs
Create personalized loyalty programs for your guests and give them more than what they paid for. Small gestures such as a complimentary snack or coffee can go a long way. You can take this even further by providing special discounts per guest. By asking guests simple questions when they book such as if they have any allergies or dietary restrictions, you can provide them with discounts on products that they can or prefer to eat, making them feel special and cared for. These kinds of perks and rewards programs not only improve the experience, but make it much more likely that your guests will return to take advantage of the rewards they’ve gathered. It also guarantees that your guests will spend more at your hotel, helping you increase your revenue.
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6. Convenient Booking, Check-in, and Check-out
Provide a convenient experience from booking, to check-in, to check-out. Making the full process convenient and easy to manage will improve your guests’ experience. This is especially crucial at check-out when guests don’t want to waste any time.
Pro tip: Consolidate all of the costs on one invoice, including anything guests purchases at your self-service market. This can be done via a payment system that can read your customers’ room key at your self-service kiosk, adding the price of the goods they purchased to their final invoice instead of charging them every time they make a purchase.
7. Accept All Payments
Accepting any form of payment will make your guests’ experience simpler, especially if they come from a different country. Ensuring that they can pay with their preferred payment method will ensure a seamless experience both during checkout and when making purchases are your self-checkout kiosk.
Whether you choose to integrate your self-service kiosk with your hotel management software and allow guests to pay with their room keys, or simply enable open payments so that guests can pay with the payment method of their choice, Nova Market is the best option for you.
With Nayax, you can take all of these steps to improve your guests’ experience with a simple, out-of-the-box solution: Nova Market. Adding a small store in your lobby will go a long way with your guests, help differentiate you from your competition, and ensure that your ratings are high.
To get started with Nayax, contact us today.
