The path to “normal” from pre-pandemic operations seems just around the corner or eons away, depending on who you ask. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we’ve had the privilege of supporting more than 3,000 hospitality partners as their playbooks were upended. Working across service levels, brands, and geographies gave our team some insight into how successful teams are leveraging messaging to make their operations run smoothly. 

Here are the top five use cases our partners have turned to messaging with: 

1. Housekeeping Coordination

Throughout the last year, many, if not all hotel brands have moved to providing housekeeping once a week or upon request. Hilton announced recently that they will continue to follow this protocol even as occupancy increases and social distancing relaxes. According to the AHLA, this move is highly supported by guests—9 out of 10 guests agreed it was a good idea. As things recover, hotels are enjoying the cost savings of reduced housekeeping and touting the environmental-friendliness of it. Unfortunately, this trend often adds weight to the front desk team as they triage calls and walk-ups to coordinate housekeeping. 

Enter: digital messaging. 

Guests can simply send a message on their way out of the room requesting housekeeping. Front desk, or pbx team members can route that message directly to the housekeeping team, which saves time for both guests and team members

2. Hang Up On Expensive Phone Calls

No hotel wants a guest to sit on hold or get sent to voicemail. But, with teams as lean as they are in today’s environment, many guests experience just that. 

Instead of leaving guests to wait tethered to their in-room phone, our partners are simply adding their texting number to the hold music circuit, or using a voicemail message that includes “leave a message or simply send us a text at…” 

By directing these calls to messaging, your team can work asynchronously to read and triage multiple messages at once. From the desktop or mobile Kipsu apps, teams can identify and prioritize high-priority requests with a few taps and more importantly avoid playing phone tag with guests. 

3. Express Check-Out

With hotels being short staffed, lines increasingly build at the front desk and traffic jams in the lobby have become more common. Guests are unlikely to wait in a line just to tell you that they’ve left, leaving you to guess at their departure and wait to turn the room. 

Many of our partners offer guests a way to check out of their room via text, meaning you get notified that the room is vacated and your team can seamlessly respond to the message when they have an extra moment between guests lined up at the front desk.

4. Night Auditor On-the-Go

Many hotels are operating with one or maybe two people on staff to help guests at night. What happens if the night auditor is delivering something to a guest room and someone stops by the front desk with a question?

If the desk is left unattended, even momentarily, simply place a sign with a number to text. Messages can be received by the team on a mobile app and responded to from anywhere. You can even add a QR code that directs a guest’s phone directly to the conversation window.

5. Tap the Power of Google Search and Maps

In today’s environment, more guests are making on-the-fly decisions of where to stay for the night. Air travel is still returning, so roadtripping is more common than before. According to lodging leaders, more guests than ever are searching the web for nearby places, calling for openings, simply and showing up. 

Google Business Messaging allows potential guests to message the hotel directly from Google Search and Maps. They can search nearby areas and simply send your team a message inquiring about vacancies. No need for them to tie up the phone lines!

These are just a few of the ways our partners have leveraged messaging to further streamline their operations. There are many more ways messaging can drive efficiency in your property without sacrificing “perfect 10” service.