Virdee Use Cases
How Virdee Straight-to-Room technology can help your hotel.
These use cases highlight how Virdee Virtual Reception has been implemented across a variety of property types along with specific case studies. While every property is different, one thing is the same for all of them: Virdee takes guests beyond contactless check-in.
After reviewing the use cases and case studies, check our our deployment guide, which share best practices on optimizing a virtual reception deployment.
Case Studies
The full-service hotel
Characteristics
- Full service, many amenities
- Guest-to-staff interactions have value
- Technology is a property feature
Implementation
This full-service hotel is a property with a larger focus on personalized interactions vs limited-service hotels. People come for vacation and may be infrequent travelers that need personal attention. At the same time, a large portion of guests is business travelers, and those seasoned professionals are adept at using technology and would love nothing more than to bypass the front desk. We need to address both groups.
Self-service technology serves two purposes at this property. Firstly, no property is immune from staffing shortages, and a virtual reception will alleviate the current congestion caused by lack of staff. Secondly, guests are expecting the option to interact contactlessly with hotels, and providing that option becomes an amenity that drives guest satisfaction. That's where fast and secure Virdee Identity comes in. With the large number of guests in this hotel, knowing who is who and checking IDs quickly is critical.
Upgrades at check-in and access to amenities throughout the stay play a role in the complete digital guest experience while increasing conversion. Guests at this hotel expect to be able to order room service, valet, late check-out, and more via the app.
A kiosk is not needed at this property unless there is a need to reduce staff extremely during certain parts of the day or night. For example, guests who lose their key or lock their phone in their room can go to the kiosk for a replacement key without requiring staff to be present.
The budget-conscious economy hotel
Characteristics
- Economy property
- Limited budget
- No or limited services / amenities
Features
- Mobile web / app
- Remote Assistance
- Kiosk (for fully staffless)
Implementation
With a tight budget, this property strives to minimize staffing costs whenever possible. With low-cost rates and no amenities for incremental revenue, there is a drive to go staffless, if possible. The guests mainly use the hotel as a place to sleep and are out and about during the day. The destination for them is the city, not the property.
This is a mobile-centric deployment, focusing on driving guest interactions across the board via the app, thereby reducing staffing pressures. Giving guests the ability to seamlessly check-in and get on with their day gives them 99% of what they're looking for.
To support guests when they have questions or run into problems, Remote Assistance offers guests help via centralized, offsite staffing (thereby reducing staffing pressure even further). To enable full staffless implementation, a kiosk is added to provide features like physical key cards and check-in for those without smartphones. To drive additional revenue, the mobile app can provide access to third-party services (like food delivery) with revenue sharing.
Signage is crucial for any deployment and especially so when going staffless. Check out our implementation guide.
The family resort hotel
Characteristics
- Family-oriented
- Efficiency-focused
- Wristbands used as room keys
Features
Implementation
This property is a resort-style property that attracts families for fun-filled vacations and provides a large number of amenities and activities on site: shows, multiple restaurants, a waterpark, daycare, etc. They have unique needs, as guests tend to stay mainly on the property throughout their visit. Therefore, the demands on staff are higher, and there are going to be large groups checking in at the same time.
Efficiency is the name of the game here. Encouraging mobile check-in before arriving at the property will be a huge step in alleviating long check-in lines. With wristbands, kiosks are a must at this property. Guests who are checked in scan a QR code and get their wristbands. Those who haven't checked in can still use the kiosk to do so. Staff can be present to help guests through the process. Of course, proper signage is critical to guide first-time guests.
With so many things to do at these resorts, it's important to make it easy for guests to access and book entertainment. During check-in, they can review packages that they purchased at time of booking and add additional packages. During their stay, they can book additional items anytime via the app.
The casino resort
Characteristics
- Very long front-desk lines
- Many amenities
- Large floorplans
Features
- Kiosk
- Upsells and amenities access
- Room-ready notifications
Implementation
A casino, especially the types of casino resorts found in Las Vegas, are properties with thousands of rooms and guests showing up in large groups. Lines at these properties can be hours long, keeping guests from enjoying what the resort has to offer while hurting guest satisfaction. Peak conference and vacation seasons are when these properties face their most challenging times, and protecting the guest experience is toughest.
Kiosks are the number one tool that casino resorts leverage in order to shorten the front-desk lines. Since many guests are infrequent travelers and at the property for the first time as well, they are less likely to have checked in online beforehand. These are not road warriors and need to be treated differently. Kiosks placed strategically near the front desk help motivate guests to leverage technology to shorten their check-in time. Additional kiosks can easily be kept in storage and rolled out during particularly busy periods.
Casino resorts offer all kinds of amenities, from spa treatments and poker classes to amazing villa room upgrades and five-star restaurants. Guests can feel overwhelmed with all the options. Placing amenities front and center in the app along with special upgrade offers during check-in helps guests enjoy their stay more while driving incremental revenue for the property. Virdee partners like MapsPeople provide detailed interior maps, guiding guests to their destination while taking them past the best attractions.
Room-ready notifications work particularly well with large crowds checking in at the same time. These make it possible to fully check a guest in (either via mobile or kiosk), assign them a room, and then provide a push notification once the room is ready. A physical key card can even be printed beforehand with the room access already on it, and the guest receives the room number once the room is ready.
Lastly, because of how busy these lobbies can get, signage is important to help educate guests and avoid long lines.
Microservices for hotels
Characteristics
- Established brand
- Has specific tech gap
- Has own mobile app
Features
- Secure identity verification
- Mobile key
- Remote Assistance
Implementation
Many large and branded properties have established mobile apps. For them, it's often harder to implement a full, new app. The app they have may work perfectly but just be missing a few features, or a current feature may not offer the necessary functionality anymore. This is where the build vs buy concept comes into play. By incorporating microservices into existing apps, companies save a lot of money and outsource continued maintenance.
Features like secure identity verification and Remote Assistance take a lot of effort to design, test, and implement. A large property may be rolling out its own mobile key technology in order to go staffless at night. The additional security of identity verification is a welcome addition to the mobile key technology. Remote Assistance provides guests with direct access to hotel staff even when no one is physically present during the night.
The biggest benefit of microservices is that they seamlessly integrate into existing apps. Guests only see a new feature added. They don't see any additional branding or have to download another app.
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