The burnout rate of hospitality workers is among the highest of all industries. When it comes to managing hotel operations, tasks like managing reservations and monitoring occupancy can be daunting. How good would it be if these tasks could be automated? Well, Rinkt is here to help you. With the Robotic process automation (RPA) technology, Rinkt can handle most of the repetitive tasks through digital transformation initiatives.
What is Process Automation in the Hospitality Industry?
Process automation refers to the automation software that runs on your physical or virtual machines. When your business uses RPA, you define a set of instructions for a robot.
These bots are capable of carrying out a ton of error-free tasks at high volume and speed. RPA solutions differ from other software because they can mimic most human-computer interactions. RPA can be used in any of your business operations and promises to boost efficiency. While you may be worried that RPA will take away human jobs, it helps free employees up for more meaningful work that will increase the organisation’s productivity.
Automation in the Hospitality Industry
In the hospitality industry, RPA helps automate front-office and back-office processes so that you don’t have to work like a robot. Following are some RPA solutions that are applied in hotel operations.
Responding to Room Availability Enquiries
RPA solutions can allow chatbots to respond to room enquiries by clients. The bots can provide not only information about room availability but rooms’ features as well. The chatbot communication will be conversation-based to make the customer experience more interesting. Since this is a virtual service, customers can get their queries answered 24/7.
Managing Reservations
Implementing RPA in your hotel operations also allows you to manage the reservations. It can act as a complete CRM service by allowing customers to create profiles, showing them the rooms’ real-time availability, and letting them make payments and complete their bookings. Once the payment is reconciled, the room will be automatically marked as reserved and taken out of circulation.
Monitoring Occupancy
Since different hotels have different check-out times, managing check-in and check-out times can be frustrating. In case of any miscommunication, there might be mismanagement, and the customers might end up with a bad experience. Also, you won’t be able to prepare the room for the next guests in a timely manner.
Thanks to the RPA solutions, you can track each hotel guest’s check-in and check-out times. Once the check-out time approaches, you can notify the customers through an SMS, an email, a WhatsApp message, or a push notification through the hotel’s app. This also reduces the workload of the reception desk at large hotels.
Managing Customer Service
By implementing RPA solutions, you can automate your customer review management. The bots can be equipped with OCR and NLP capabilities allowing them to filter out the reviews based on their content. It will rank the reviews in terms of their legitimacy, sentiment, and importance. For instance, a review by a verified customer who has actually visited the hotel will rank higher than a review posted by an anonymous online user. The solution is also capable of taking action against malicious spammers.
Managing Pricing and Finances
When using RPA solutions, you define a set of Dynamic Pricing instructions for a robot. This will allow your system to automatically set the price of rooms with respect to different factors. These factors include special events or festivals, competitor prices, days of the week, and seasons. RPA can be programmed to scrape prices off competitors’ websites to adjust the price. When it comes to managing finances, RPA can help you with accounts payable, receivables, discounts, and automated additional room service costs. It can also assist you in generating error-free financial reports and revenue reconciliation.
Final Thoughts
Rinkt RPA can help your hotel business streamline processes, reduce costs, and drive better customer experiences. Much more than helping you automate your hotel operations, it can also help you manage your finances, marketing, pricing, and customer relationships.
