4 Great Ways IoT Improves Hospitality Guest Experiences & Operations

Hospitality IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is opening up an entirely new realm of applications for hotels to enhance the guest experience and make hotel operations more efficient. However, IoT is fragmented, and services are delivered through a variety of wireless protocols including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® Low Energy and Zigbee, which is where one of the significant challenges resides. The typical IoT network design includes building and managing multiple IoT networks built for each wireless protocol.  A Bluetooth® Low Energy network supports one or multiple Bluetooth® Low Energy IoT apps.  Another Zigbee network supports one or more Zigbee IoT apps.  Add the Wi-Fi network and hotels soon have a complex set of networks that is challenging and costly to maintain and support.  These challenges are hindering the adoption of hospitality IoT technologies. The Ruckus IoT Suite was built to solve this challenge by enabling one converged network including Wi-Fi and IoT (Bluetooth® Low Energy and Zigbee) to support virtually unlimited services. Having one network to maintain and support dramatically simplifies the overall network design and significantly reduces both CapEx and OpEx associated with building and managing the Wi-Fi network and IoT apps. Ruckus is also partnering with innovative technology leaders to make it even easier to add IoT services to hotels that help to improve the guest experience and improve hotel operations. To get you started, here are 4 great ideas.

1. Guest convenience with digital keys

Ruckus partner ASSA ABLOY lets hotel guests use their smartphones as digital keys. Guests can check in with their smart device and choose their preferred room, then the system generates an encrypted digital key that is delivered to their device. That allows guests to bypass the reception desk on arrival and gain easy, secure access to their room. Digital keys can also be reconfigured for late-checkouts or room changes without the guest having to go to the front deck.  The Ruckus IoT Suite eliminates the need for a separate Zigbee gateway, allowing a single converged Zigbee / Wi-Fi network.

2. Provide panic button for staff for fast emergency response

Keeping hotel staff and guests safe is a top priority. Another Ruckus partner, Kontakt.io, has created a panic button that can be assigned to staff members or guests to assist management during an emergency. You can locate employees in real-time so emergency personnel can respond more quickly. With real-time location sent to a central monitoring dashboard, this information can also help building managers restrict access to unsafe areas, with an easy-to-deploy network of stationary and mobile alarms.

3. Guide guests with mobile wayfinding

In large hotels, you can help guests get to their destination quickly and efficiently by providing directions to their destinations such as restaurants, shops, swimming pools, gyms, and more. These services can also improve guest safety and security by helping them avoid hazardous areas—and can help you locate anyone who might have accidentally wandered into those environments.

4. Send location-based content and offers through push notifications

Send relevant content and offers to hotel guests for a great on-site experience that can also help increase revenue. Personalized communications using IoT beacons and proximity marketing can increase the number of point-of-interest visits and purchases while improving hotel guests’ engagement and loyalty. The potential IoT services are virtually unlimited. All four of the above apps are possible with the Ruckus IoT Suite on a single converged Wi-Fi / Zigbee / Bluetooth® Low Energy network.  This helps hospitality service providers and hotels overcome the complexity and high costs associated with other IoT implementations.  Got other ideas for hospitality IoT apps? Let us know what you’re thinking, and we’ll let you know how to implement it!