Expecting an influx of hotel guests over peak periods in the year? Hotels with dine in restaurants can use handheld technology to maximise levels of guest satisfaction.
There are plenty of ways for hotel restaurants to make improvements with the helping hand of technology. Here are some useful ideas any hotel can implement right now with minimal effort.
What is Hotel Restaurant Management?
This refers to hotels that also work within the hospitality sector to serve both travellers and locals.
Many hotels already use property management systems to manage, man, and maintain their premises. With hundreds of rooms to take care of (most hotels typically have over three hundred rooms) these systems help staff to assign guests and commit to room charges, much faster and much easier.
However, property management software does not cover a hotel’s on-site restaurant. To keep things running, hoteliers have to separate their hospitality venues from everyday operations. To use a hotel system, someone has to stay at a computer, unable to move around the premises.
Hotels with Dine In Restaurants Can Use Cloud Technology
Restaurant software could be used to remotely run operations from anywhere indoors. Applying cloud-based restaurant software and integrating it into a hotel’s overall system can boost operational efficiency. Since data moves through the cloud, these features enable staff to be anywhere indoors, operating guest management via their smartphones.
A cloud-based restaurant app stabilises communication between the restaurant’s front-of-house staff and the hotelier’s team. Instant guest communication maintains high table turnover rates through methods that establish a steady in-flow of guests. This means that guests looking for hotels with dine in restaurants can gather seats without hassle.
Today’s Guest Habits and QR Codes
Let’s say the restaurant inside a hotel is quite busy. Since it serves both the public and hotel guests, the restaurant has high turnover rates, meaning that the restaurant has had to integrate a waitlist to manage high demand.
For a hotel guest in one of the rooms this may feel frustrating. A party in one of the top floors will have to travel all the way downstairs to find out if tables are available. Alternatively, if they call the restaurant, they may have to wait on the line — an annoyance for anyone hoping for a hassle-free holiday
So what if hotel restaurants made it easier and allowed their guests to join the restaurant’s waitlist remotely from their rooms? With today’s restaurant tech, hotel guests can make it easier on staff, adding themselves to an online waitlist, filling in their own details.
QR code features are an extremely easy method to help customers do this. Place a QR code somewhere visible in the room — beside the television, say, or on a bedside cabinet — with a directive message: “Ready to eat? Scan and join our restaurant’s waitlist without any hassle.” This way guests don’t even have to move. They’ll appreciate the gesture, and the convenience will help increase business.
Remember that a digital waitlist is mostly about managing a busy venue. When a hotel restaurant meets max capacity at key times in the day (brunch, for instance) staff will find it much easier to manage demand with a digital waitlist. Implementing a digital waitlist and QR code system helps staff to work in a fast-paced environment. Talk to us to learn more.
Selling Beverages
While guests wait, they’re thinking of things to do with their time.
Currently, hospitality venues are banking on a new digital feature to speed up service and bring in extra revenue: drinks pre ordering. With long-awaited tables firmly in sight, customers are eager to make purchases while they wait, pre-buying beverages for when they arrive.
This is a digital feature that guests can access via their smartphones. As soon as they join a digital waitlist, guests receive a link that redirects them to a drinks pre-order page. Here they can browse, consider, and make a pre-purchase — all from the comfort of their hotel rooms.
The advantages are multiple. For short-staffed hotels, for example, drinks pre-ordering releases some of the pressure on staff. Finding team members has been hard for some venues — many hotel bar and restaurant workers went on furlough in the past two years, some never returned.
For tourists and local guests alike this is a great feature to help hotel businesses run smoothly. Transcend language barriers with the aid of the app, allowing non-native speakers to pick exactly what beverages they want. Especially during summer months, with the sun still high after 7pm, hotel guests can enjoy drinking pre-ordered beverages on the hotel terrace.
Organise Digital Reservations — For Free
Hotels are expecting a rise in clients over the coming years. Tourism is set to boom compared to 2021 levels, when government restrictions were still in place.
Flight bookings have already witnessed a significant change. “The top destination” says the Sunday Times “on Skyscanner for this summer is ‘Everywhere’, and 45 per cent of its users — a third of whom are aged 25 to 34 — do not have a specific place in mind when they start planning a holiday”.
Expecting this explosion in guest numbers, experts recommend allowing customers to create bespoke holidays for themselves. They can use technology to carve out their itineraries. This includes booking restaurant times. If a digital system is integrated into a hotel’s booking platform, guests can make restaurant bookings simultaneously to their hotel bookings online.
Online reservations enable guests to book times that will suit them, without having to spend time calling a restaurant or emailing them to confirm their reservations. Instead of waiting around for tables they know when to arrive in advance.
Hoping to improve the overall guest experience? Make it easier for today’s hotel guests with Carbonara App using a free online reservations feature. Now there is no headache involved. Tourists plan when and where to eat when on holiday. Find out more about how online reservations can work for hotel restaurants.
