Tech Talk

Kiosks: Serving the hospitality business

Hospitality technology combined with marketing strategy has evolved to provide for an enhanced guest service experience through self-service options. Sudip Mukherjee describes how hoteliers can enhance their business through kiosks

We are all familiar with ATM centers with their self-service machines, which have literally sprouted up everywhere across the country, extending banking convenience to even the smallest of our towns and breaking all barriers of time. Besides the convenience to the customers, if you try and analyse a little indepth you will realise the integrated marketing strategy of the relevant banks, which has become so necessary in today's competitive environment.

On a similar principle, hospitality technology combined with marketing strategy has evolved to provide for an enhanced guest service experience through such self-service options. Hoteliers, please note, "Opportunity for kiosks to enhance your business is undoubtedly great!" From the consumer demand perspective, changing tastes and convenience has accelerated in this digital age. High resolution Interactive plasma televisions, wireless in-room web connectivity, sophisticated key card combined as smart card have already become common present day amenities integrated with guest room architecture thus offering multi-dimensional offerings from the hospitality perspective.

As Barry Shuler, senior vice president, IT Strategy and CTO, Marriott International comments, "If you don't have self service options you are not offering your guests a full service experience. Experienced hospitality is reinforced through deep continuous conversations with guests, whether with carefully trained service associates or through robust self service offerings. Rich, interactive guest experience increasingly requires graceful architecting of application systems and technology infrastructure to seamlessly connect to guest electronic, computing and networking devices".

Likewise, Angela Brav, senior vice president, applied technology, InterContinental Hotels group, says, "Offering our guests a way to make their hotel experience easier and quicker gets to the core level of hospitality we provide. Kiosks provide point to point access and gets to the heart of what matters most - genuine service".

What is a kiosk?

It is very similar to an ATM machine but can be customised and made more sophisticated to attune to the requirements from the guest service experience perspective, so critical in the hospitality industry.

It basically consists of a:

• Touch-screen terminal
• Cabinetry
• Peripherals
• Magnetic card reader, speakers, bar code, printer, RFID etc
• Keyboard

Application software, used for integrating through Local Area Networking or Wide Area Networking, depending on the location of the kiosk, to a business unit's Property Management System or Restaurant Management System.

PMS integration

Some of the key benefits offered with the PMS integration include:

• Ability to customise the Kiosk User Interface with personalised graphics to reflect the property's identity or corporate brand.
• Locate reservation by membership number, credit card number confirmation number, besides the basic search parameters like first name and last name.
• Remote check-in controlled by start time and stop time.
• Modify select reservation details.
• Modify certain guest profile details like name, address, phone with validation algorithm defined.
• Send key information to remote encoder.
• Print information folio on check-out.
• Send folio by e-mail.
• Display guest messages.
• Remote check-out controlled by start time and stop time.
• Fully compatible with EFT interfaces for credit card payments.

Web integration to airline system

• Retrieve flight reservation by insertion of a credit or loyalty card
• Retrieve flight reservation by manual entry of a 'frequent flyer' or confirmation number.
• Ability to select or change seat assignment.
• Basic flight check-in, including printing of boarding passes, which will allow guests to bypass check-in lines at the airport and proceed straight to the security checkpoints.

Point of Sale integration

These kiosks are excellent self-service options for take-away food outlets or drive through food establishments. Some of the key benefits of using kiosks in such establishments:

• Order can be placed at the kiosk using an interactive graphic interface with audio options (animations for suggestive selling is possible)
• Electronic payment using credit card, debit card, gift card swipe reader.
• Order is routed to the kitchen.
• Printing of tickets.
• Customer order number or name is called when the food is ready.

The kiosk hardware price is directly proportional to the adapted process for which it needs to be used, viz: basic ordering only, basic ordering and e-payment or basic ordering and payment including cash with coin and bill dispenser for change. However the benefits obtained can range from lowering labour cost to enhancing the check average by promoting electronic payment to lowering the risks involved in cash handling by staff.

(The writer is the operations manager - hotel systems with MICROS-Fidelio (India) Pvt Ltd)