SYgle>Industry Information>Hoteliers end location ambiguity with geo-tagging

Hoteliers end location ambiguity with geo-tagging

Column: industry Tag: geo tagging,locations,hoteliers Published: 2017-06-15 16:57 Source: Author:

(Illustration: Annamarie Hudson)

GLOBAL REPORT—Geo-tagging, technology that allows precise identification of locations, is providing hoteliers with a novel way of better serving guests, according to sources.

Internet-based mapping sites have for some time shown the general locations of hotels and resorts, but the maps come with a certain degree of ambiguity that can cause delays and guest frustration.

“Key to any usefulness is helping travelers get from A to B precisely,” said Richard Lewis, former CEO at both Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based Landmark Hotels & Suites and Interchange & Consort Hotels, and current partnerships director of travel and tourism at startup global addressing system What3Words. “Not all guests have entered an international airport and been picked up by hotel limousine, so they require a precise entrance to the car park, not the front door, and then the front door. It is not the case of just dropping a pin to the middle of the hotel as Google does.”

Hoteliers sees practical ways in which such technology can further enhance guests’ experiences. Michael Halsall, director of sales and marketing at boutique hotel company Grace Hotels, is one early adopter of the technology. The company has seven existing properties in Argentina, France, Greece, Morocco, Panama and the U.S., and another seven in its pipeline, including a debut in Switzerland.

“Some of our hotels are remote,” Halsall said. “Our hotel in Argentina has a remote turnoff to reach it.”

Geo-tagging coordinates can be sent with booking confirmations, and the technology has other practical implications.

“We’re able to provide fixed addresses to a meeting with someone at a specific spot,” Halsall said.

Other hoteliers said such software might give directions, for example, to the best and least-visited view of a mountain, the best ice-cream stall in town, a landing spot for a hot-air balloon, the exact umbrella of a friend on a beach or a set of very accurate coordinates for that tricky walk down to that hidden beach.

“For our Greek hotels, signposts are not necessarily that great and often only in Greek,” Halsall said. “We give exact directions to local artisans, to pottery and art galleries. … In the U.S., sometimes the roads are far longer than in Europe, so number 400 is often not opposite or anywhere near number 401.”

Guests can also give recommendations to other guests based on their own experiences and discoveries.

Paul Callingham, managing director of Starboard Hotels, which has a portfolio of 13 hotels, said guests’ experiences were improved by the cancelling of time and frustration. He added the technology is also perfect for delivery companies.

“Post codes constantly are wrong and can send you in the wrong direction,” said Callingham, who is also a board member of the InterContinental Hotels Group owners’ subcommittee. “The entrance of the hotel not always is visible, and that’s the last thing you want if you are walking from the train station.”

Tech convenience

Halsall and Callingham champion such technology and point to the advantages early adoption brings to their companies.

“It is an interesting initiative of which to talk to our guests, and we like to be a mover in technology,” Callingham said. “I do not know how long that will last, so for now it provides guests convenience and is paid for by companies such as postal service DHL, where the savings and practicalities are enormous and obvious.”

Postal services are beginning to revolutionize deliveries in such “remote” countries as Mongolia, Congo and Djibouti, Lewis said.

Halsall said hoteliers need to work closely with startups if they wish to be leaders in technology and service.

“Hotels may never employ such ideas to the scale of other industries, but in terms of ideas adding valid purpose to the guest experience, we want to be involved,” he said

Lewis said the mapping technology has plenty of room to grow.

“I compare it with the hippy-trail network of former times, combined with the modern trend of (fear of missing out),” Lewis said. “Hotels are beginning to understand they need to build community to become ever more powerful. Through user-generated content, hotels can provide even better service, especially if they do not have a concierge.”

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