By Jeff Collard, Omnivex

The hotel business is highly competitive and vulnerable to conditions that are often beyond the company’s control (weather and economy). Customer engagement is critical to the success of large hotel chains that want to establish a consistent and ongoing relationship with their guests. Many major hotels are turning to digital signage as a way to effectively communicate information to both guests and staff to make the guest experience as pleasurable as possible. When it comes to special services (short-term rentals or configured AV solutions such as digital signage), they will seek local partners with appropriate expertise.

Identifying the appropriate technology, deployment, and installation is an area where hotels need help, and a golden opportunity for competent integrators to demonstrate their value. Not only are there sales and rental opportunities to the hotel industry, but digital signage offers additional opportunities to operate networks, develop content, and related contract services.

There is a vast array of applications for digital signage in the hotel industry. A guest should never need to ask for current information; it should just be there when and where they want it. Similarly, staff schedules, performance indicators, and duties should be posted automatically to improve service delivery. Manual updates of whiteboards and pegboards are labor intensive and inaccurate; the information exists in calendars and databases that should be linked directly to displays in staff areas.

Content at the Hyatt Regency Chicago focuses on the guest experience and can automatically react to individual guest’s preferences and information requirements.

Most integrators are familiar with reader boards in hotel lobbies, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Large hotels require better wayfinding capabilities. At the Hyatt Regency Chicago, for example, integrated RFID tags provides contextual information to assist guests in finding the hall with their event. Conference room signage can automatically update with the scheduled events for each room, including corporate logos, current event details, and messages for participants. Room setup can be defined in accordance with the customer’s order and delivered to staff through the same system.

Luxury hotels that want to cater to every guest need to provide services and quality unequalled outside of their facility. And they want to make it easier for their guests to find those amenities. What better way than to publish the information on displays throughout the facility. Health clubs and spas are a popular and profitable area for many hotels, and imagery engages people in a way text cannot.

Hotels sell an experience that they want you to repeat and recommend to your friends and associates. Hotel operators understand their customers and their need to communicate with them. What they need help with is how to deploy the appropriate technologies that will deliver real-time information to their audience on the guest’s terms. This is the role of the integrator and a true value-added service that differentiates you from your competitor and pays benefits to all parties.

As president of Omnivex Corporation, Jeff Collard (collard@omnivex.com) leads Omnivex’s sales and marketing activities as well as relationships with its business partners. Jeff holds a degree in Engineering, has authored numerous articles on digital signage, and travels extensively throughout the world speaking at industry seminars. Omnivex has been a leader in software development for digital signage since 1991.