DeCare Systems Ireland Blog

A few weeks ago a friend of mine who runs a 5 Star property of 33 luxury apartments in London’s fashionable Sloane Square asked me which is the best iPhone docking station on the market. He told me that he had received many requests from guests to have them in the rooms. After looking at a range of docking stations and what they could do for his guest I suggested he should think about an iPhone application.

After seeing how successful the DSI created “ideal a day” app is working for Avon representatives we decided to create something that would be unique in the hospitality industry. We were aware that there were a number of booking engine applications and apps built by large hotel chains, but wanted something that was more engaging to the customer and provided a way for small chains and bespoke hotels to compete with the big chains in this space.

At a very high level, what we created is a service for luxury hotels and resorts that allows them to very quickly and cheaply provide an iPhone application for their guests (and prospective guests) to install on their iPhone or iPod Touch. The aim of the application is to provide a hotel with:

1. A means of marketing to, and maintaining the interest of, prospective customers by delivering interactive offers, late deals and news directly to their phone on a regular basis, without any of the costs associated with SMS messaging and in a far more engaging way.

2. A way of differentiating themselves in the market place by providing guests with a number of services, such as an interactive GPS map of the local area, featuring local attractions that would be selected by users, such as restaurants, sporting venues, walking and cycling routes. The application also allows users to store information that would normally be held in the welcome pack, but is much easier to keep up to date.

The good news is that 2010 probably will not be worse than what can only be described as a dismal 2009 for the hotel industry. In the meantime, luxury brands must balance the need to maintain high guest-facing standards while dealing with the economic realities that come with substantially reduced revenues. With travellers of all types slowly returning to what is very much a buyer’s market, differentiation is more important than ever for hoteliers.

DSI’s iPhone app will help hotels to stand out from the crowd as depending on old routines won’t work. Interactive marketing and targeting micro segments with niche campaigns will get more heads on beds. Hotels that can afford to promote themselves should absolutely continue doing so. The smart ones are spending more, because it’s been proven time and time again that those that continue marketing aggressively during a recession will be the first to come out of it.