What developments in tech mean for the future of hospitality

Business related technology continues to evolve at a fast pace across so many industries and sectors, making wide changes to the daily activities of many businesses. Because of these advancements across other sectors and lifestyles, we are able to identify how industries such as hospitality are likely to take advantage of them in the near future, and how these technologies will become part of the hospitality industry. Modern businesses should aim to be as inter-connected as possible. Multichannel services and greater customer accessibility make your business as user-friendly as possible. For the hospitality sector this often means online bookings and payments such as restaurant bills, bar tabs and activity reservations, but also creates an overall improvement to the customer experience. Payment Systems Payment technology has evolved a huge extent over recent years, and your business needs to be properly ready for future advancements in order to keep up with customer’s expectations. Recently introduced mobile payment services from the likes of Apple and Google have created new challenges to businesses, as they have had to strive to keep up with such new developments. Cryptocurrency has even begun to infiltrate the hospitality market, with some businesses allowing payments to be made online and in-house via blockchain-based formats. In October 2018 contactless payments overtook their chip-and-PIN counterpart in the UK for the first time ever – this was helped in part to a huge increase in the number of mobile payments made. However, millions of small businesses across the UK still only take cash payments. In order to remain competitive, hospitality organisations need to ensure they offer as many different kinds of payments as viably possible in order to provide customers with the flexibility that they have come to expect. Businesses that happily offer a range of smooth transactions will succeed over those that are stuck firmly in the past. Self-Service Interest in self-service solutions is continuing to grow. An increasing number of businesses are likely to introduce technology that removes the need for customers to interact with another human being, such as when making a booking, taking an order or requesting services. Self-service tech will continue to improve, becoming quicker and more convenient to both the customer and the business, future-proofing the technology to create long-term solutions. By investing in automated services early on, businesses will be able to cut their costs in the years ahead. Inevitably, not all parts of the hospitality sector can and will be replaced by a robot, but in these situations a self-service option is a welcome addition alongside a human member of staff. This could take the form of an automated phone line in order to take the strain off staff, or a self check-in service alongside the reception desk to ease waiting times. Public Wifi networks Today’s consumers expect to be able to connect to public Wi-Fi networks easily and seamlessly in almost every place of business they visit. Public Wi-Fi is nothing new, but modern consumers anticipation of widespread coverage can in fact change their plans based on the usability of a public data service. When it comes to setting up a public Wi-Fi service, you must ensure your broadband package is able to handle the amount of potential traffic that you predict will be accessing it on a daily basis. Even data limits that sound large can easily be used up quickly if lots of people are logging on to your account freely. It’s also worth investing in a fast package speed, as slow connections can easily frustrate customers and discourage them from visiting your premises in the future. It is recommended that businesses consider implementing a hotspot gateway – this provides a virtual portal that guests access your customer network through, meaning their traffic is separated from your private network so you can ensure a more secure Internet connection for both you and your guests. A hotspot gateway creates an extra barrier between cybercriminals and your data, while also allowing you to put firewalls in place across your network. Your business will also be provided with some legal protection when any guest connects to your network through a hotspot gateway, as they must accept terms and conditions in order to access the connection. By Nathan Hill-Haimes, founder of Amvia, a privately-owned, voice, data and cloud application provider based in Sheffield, UK which supplies services to companies of all sizes