I recently read an article by Richard Kastelein discussing why he feels that social TV was born to be in the hotel industry. The piece outlines how technology is a great way to get guests interacting with each other potentially asking other guests for recommendations or suggestions of things to do in the hotel or local area, via a hotel social network. And I would have to agree with Richard.
Over the past 10 years, we have seen the role of the in-room TV evolve from being just a box through which to watch movies and listen to the radio, to a means of pushing information about hotel services and facilities to guests downloading content and providing an alternative revenue stream. Indeed, we are already working with a number of hotels to enable them to offer this enhanced level of service, via our guest communications portal, Sensiq.
For the lucrative 25-45 age group that hotels are targeting, technology is no longer a luxury but a necessity and when staying in a hotel, they expect that little bit extra. With social networking very much on the rise among this age group, as a way of interacting, sharing and recommending anything from the best bars to the latest films, transferring this capability to the hotel rooms seems to be a logical step forward.
And I think there are potential benefits of this type of application to hoteliers. Not only would hotels be providing guests with superior services and social TV content, but they potentially have the opportunity to build demographic profiles (subject to the usual data protection legislation) that could complement data from their loyalty schemes, providing more opportunities to increase guest satisfaction and revenues.
But hey that is just my opinion, and I would be interested to hear your views, and experiences, of social TV. Feel free to comment below.
