Nowadays it is all about apps - and especially for hotels apps could mean a lot, namely permanent direct booking options from everywhere and for some hoteliers it seems to mean 'be present just for the sake of presence".
That was what Thomas Lendzion (
right) at ITB Berlin 2011 advised not to do: Lendzion is CEO of Hotel Webservice, a company that is consulting in this new topic.
The web app developer is specialized in catering to the travel lodging industry. Applications include mobile booking engines, hotel information and regional points of interest as well as direction and route planning. Hotel Webservice gives hotel guests flexibility in their travel mobility and connectivity.
The applications operate via a hotel's content management system and central reservation system - keeping each hotel in direct contact to its guests. According to Hotel Webservice's CEO, Thomas Lendzion, "my clients are convinced that today's traveler truly needs an application which keeps him connected to not only the location he is visiting, but also with the hotel he is booked into", Lendzion said - calling his apps "truly full service".
Hotel Webservice works closely with their clients, the hotels, in understanding which apps are most likely to be used by their guests. The challenge with web apps is that it has to provide an up-to-date location based services. It has to act a bit like a hotel concierge. The concierge feels and understands what the hotel guest needs and then finds solutions for this problem.
"Web apps need to work much in the same way," Lendzion said. One of the problems with unused apps, which clutter Smartphone interfaces, is that they mirror traditional websites. They offer end users the same content for when they are on the road while they are at home – when in fact home users and people on the go seldom need the same kinds of information.
Instead, Smartphone applications should be dynamic. They should recognize if the end user is on the road or not. So content changes according to where a user is using the app from and from which device. "Hotels have the challenge to bundle all bits of information which a customer might need onto one platform and we help them do this", Lendzion said. "However, there is also the danger that hotels will force unnecessary content onto their applications – cluttering the app's environment", Lendzion continued.
Managing the apps, keeping the contents clutter free, updating the sites poses the biggest challenge for hoteliers. The site must remain unique. This means that updating must come from within and not from outside sources that are not in tune to a specific hotel's clientele. Costs are not accrued in establishing content – but rather in updating it.
Updating requires analysis of the apps and their users; and understanding what users are doing online, getting feedback and making necessary changes. The apps need to be managed as though they were individual, more client oriented hotels. Just like a hotel needs to know about the neighbourhood in which it is located, so does the app need to know where the client currently stays.
Today, hotels are hiring a new category of people – primarily social media and e-commerce managers as well as online editors who together bring content into a form which is understandable, user-friendly and up-to-date.
These are full time positions which Lendzion and his team have recognized are a necessity in keeping the apps sustainable.
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