Members of Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ loyalty programme, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), will now be able to check-in via mobile device in more than 300 hotels across the Asia-Pacific region, including Hong Kong.

Image source: MelbTravel

The new mobile check-in feature is available for members who have downloaded the SPG mobile app and booked their stays directly with SPG on its website or in the app.Members will receive a notification a day before their stay asking if they would like to check-in using the app. On the day of arrival, a notification will be sent to their mobile device alerting them that their room is ready and their key is waiting for them at the front desk. When they checkout using the SPG app, their folio will be emailed to them.

Marriott is going to offer these app features for SPG members checking in at Westin, Sheraton, St Regis, Four Points, Le Meridien, Tribute Portfolio and The Luxury Collection hotels. More hotels will begin offering this feature on the SPG app with the global rollout completed by the end of 2017.

“Mobile check-in is incredibly popular among our Marriott Rewards members within Asia Pacific and we have seen usage grow almost 170% from 2015 to September 2017 which is why we wanted to extend this convenient app feature to SPG members as well,” said Irene Lin, VP of digital, loyalty and portfolio marketing, Asia Pacific at Marriott International.

“Mobile check-in is another example of how we are taking the best of our loyalty programmes to make the travel experiences for all of our 100 million members even better, with unmatched benefits and services rolled out at scale.”

Marriott first launched mobile check-in, checkout and room ready alerts in 2013, which is now available at all hotels that were in the Marriott portfolio before the company’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Over the last few years, a mobile revolution has been brewing around us as hoteliers shift their focus to mobile bookings. They have realised the need to engage with guests beyond the regular face-to-face interactions. A mobile service portal gives them the perfect opportunity to engage, and even upsell amenities to boost incremental revenues, paving the way for self-check-in to be a standard in a few years.

Read more on how California-based startup Proxce is creating a seamless and secure hotel check-in experience, here.

The post Marriott rolls out its mobile check-in feature in APAC appeared first on TravHQ.

The hotel industry is facing many challenges and undergoing major transformation worldwide. The travellers are evolving with penetration of internet & mobile and the hotels are adapting fast to this change. They are embracing technology and experimenting with newer ideas to engage with guests. Starwood, with its multiple brands is expanding the network of hotels rapidly in Asia-Pacific to cater to the fast growing tourism market in the region.

We had a chance to have a quick chat with Stephen Ho, Starwood’s Asia Pacific President about his role and the group’s plans in APAC.

Stephen Ho, President, APAC, Starwood Hotels

Stephen heads over 300 hotels of the group across 26 countries while around 260 hotels are in pipeline in the region. He has been associated with this industry for over three decades.

Talking about the changes he has seen over this long period, he said, “In the early days, there was no technology in this industry. Our customers have changed a lot and we see large number of younger travellers now. The way they book hotels has also changed and the bookings now come from different sources. Earlier people either walked into a hotel or booked through conventional travel booking agents. Now with the internet penetration, markets like India and China have shifted towards mobile devices. The expectations of guests have gone up significantly and we have to constantly keep evolving and innovating to offer the best experience.”

Of course with all the new travel startups and major brands coming up, it has become tougher for hotel industry to find the best talent. According to Stephen, “In old days this industry used to attract some of the best talent but now you have to compete with multinational companies as well as local startups. So the playing field is very different now. There can be long hours at times, especially if you are on the service side. There are talented people with strong passion for this business and such people make great team for us”.

As WTTC predicted earlier, the Chinese market is one of the fastest growing travel market and that is why Starwood has a strong focus on the Chinese market in this region. The second largest is India and due to their strong growth, these two markets take a higher spot on Starwood’s list. Stephen shared that they have already opened around eight new properties in India this year and they plan to take the number upto 10 before the end of 2015. They are also introducing the St. Regis hotel in India and will be starting the millennial friendly W Hotel next year in Goa.

In Indian market, they have to strike the perfect balance between consistency across all the brand hotels while adding a hint of local connect to match the different expectations of customers.

China comes with its own set of challenges. While in most geographies, people book directly or through conventional OTAs, WeChat is a preferable choice in China. For payments, debit and credit cards take a back seat there as Alipay accounts for close to half of the online transactions. When asked to weigh mobile bookings against desktop bookings, Stephen said that individual travellers usually rely on mobile while people travelling in groups or for business prefer other booking platforms. That is why they have to focus on all the platforms.

Stephen thinks that hotel brands should diversify their marketing towards travellers from different regions and segments so that factors like economic slowdown in some regions can’t put a dent in their business.

Staying at the forefront on technology, Starwood will be introducing the keyless entry feature across all 5 Aloft properties in India very soon. The feature was introduced earlier this year at Aloft Bengaluru.

The conversation with Stephen took place during TravelRave. You can find our other stories from TravelRave here.

The post “We have to constantly keep evolving & innovating”- Stephen Ho, President, APAC, Starwood Hotels appeared first on TravHQ.

You reach the Terminal 1D of Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi for an early morning flight to Mumbai. The moment you step-in, your mobile receives a new notification on where your airline counter is. You also get an exact direction and the distance i.e. the number of steps you have to take. Once you receive your boarding pass and proceed towards the security check, you get a notification on your departure gate making the whole flying process a cakewalk!

Welcome to a completely whole new way to travel with Beacons! What we are talking about isn’t the future of travel. Beacons have been already implemented across many airports, hotels and even points of interests in different countries and expect this to be a part of your travel experience at the world’s best airport sometime very soon.

Beacons by Estimote, Inc: One of the most popular companies out in this space.

What are Beacons?

Beacons re-define the customer experience in physical retail and at all touch-points where there is a real-time interaction involved. Simply speaking, beacons ride on BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to push targeted and contextual messages to your mobile app the moment you walk-in within their proximity. BLE enables transmission of messages over short distances with a range of few meters using little battery power.

Here is a quick look at how your entire experience is bound to change with Beacons:

Your Hotel Stay

Trouble-free checkin experience

When you check-in to any hotel in India, you undergo a typical drill at the reception where you have to share your passport/photo-id copy (example your pan-card), hotel reservation voucher and then the room is allocated to you. We are so used to a paper driven approach! This adds to your anxiety and if the queue is long, it also tests your patience.

With beacons, your check-in will happen in a jiffy as it will auto detect your name, contact info & your booking details once you step-in to the hotel lobby!

Keyless entry 

Starwood hotels, one of the earliest adopters of this concept has implemented a program called SPG Keyless™ available via SPG® app which enables its guests to have a completely keyless entrance and use their smart-phones to open their room door-locks.

Guests simply need to download the app on their Android or iOS device and need to configure it to receive notifications from a participating property if it has a keyless program implemented. The feature is available to Starwood Preferred Guests and is available across a list of worldwide properties. Unfortunately, none of the Indian cities are present in the list at the moment.

The SPG iOS app

Configuration of Keyless settings on the SPG iOS app

Imagine beacons guiding you about the restaurants in your hotel, their timings, in-room dining services and what not! It opens a whole new world of possibilities altogether

Beacons in your favorite museum or architectural property

Every time you visit a Museum, you either hire a guide or prefer to be self-guided. You stand in-front of those wonderful pieces of art, wondering about their significance and try to read behind the history. Sometimes you get bored and in a way it even limits your experience at these locations of historical significance.

But Philips Museum in Eindhoven is trying something unique with its interactive iBeacon game called Mission Eureka. Watch the video to learn more!!

Does sound exciting indeed? You never know what’s in-store for you, the next time you visit Delhi’s National Museum or Charminar in the city of Nizams

With seamless availability of GPS being a challenge in India, beacons might just provide the much needed boost to the Indian tourism & travel industry. Know of any Indian travel brands using beacons in an interesting way? Do share them with us!

The post How an Indian Traveller’s Journey will change with Beacons? appeared first on TravHQ.