Best Western On Delivering A Digital-First Customer Experience In The Hospitality Business

The global tourism industry and hotel sector could not have prepared for the pandemic’s exact brand of devastation.

Companies within Australia may have had a leg up in managing the health crisis, however, after dealing with wildfires that ravaged an area the size of Pennsylvania just prior to the pandemic’s onset. Best Western Hotels & Resorts Australasia, a hotel group serving Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, was one such hospitality business that had to quickly and nimbly pivot its operations.

“Prior to the pandemic, we had about three months of devastating bushfires,” said Graham Perry, Best Western’s Australasia managing director. “Like the pandemic, the bushfires don’t recognize borders, and [they] actually provided us a little bit of experience about how to handle national crises and what to do. We learned to be responsive and adaptive.”

The fires blocked off one of Best Western’s hotels in Coffs Harbour, a city in New South Wales. No one could get in or out, and 300 bookings at that hotel had to be shifted to other locations, he said.

“We developed contingency plans for hotels that were either directly or indirectly impacted by the fires,” Perry said. “As a result, we had to do things that we had never done before.”

Prioritizing Digital Innovation

Best Western Hotels & Resorts is part of the BWH Hotel Group global network, which features 18 brands and 4,700 hotels in more than 100 countries. The company had to take a digital leap before the pandemic began, digitizing different aspects of the customer journey for seamless experiences. The hotel chain has not yet experienced widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) or biometric-based digital IDs for verification in the Australian market, but some biometric verification tools such as speech recognition are closer to implementation in international markets like China.

Although Best Western has not deployed biometrics in Australia, it relies on various digital tools that make verifying digital identities a continuous part of the customer experience, enabling the hotel to know its customers are who they say they are. This includes offering access to a mobile app that allows users to manage their bookings and that will soon allow them to access various services.

“Technology has always played a role in hospitality,” he said. “So, when we came into the pandemic, it was all about how you could use technology to provide customer service.”

Leveraging Mobile For Verification

Today’s guests can increasingly bypass the traditional ways of checking in, registering and accessing facilities, according to Perry. Implementing digital innovations has been a priority for Best Western, including mobile check-in and payment capabilities, mobile-based keyless entry and notifications for potential upgrades. He also explained that the industry is expected to start offering smartphone-based virtual concierge and guest services, too.

“From smart devices, guests can actually see all of the attractions around the hotel,” he said. “All of these things were happening anyway — the pandemic is just accelerating it.”

Consumers are using their mobile phones now more than ever to book their trips and navigate around their destinations. Hotels that use smartphones for digital IDs can leverage mobile phone cameras to scan customers’ driver’s licenses and payment cards to autofill their online booking forms, for example. Such tools can also validate that the IDs or cards are authentic, providing hotels with secure verification methods and guests with frictionless mobile experiences.

Hotel groups that prioritize investments in mobile experiences could reap the returns and boost customer engagement as changing consumer behaviors have led to a shift in engagement strategies. Such offerings could also help hotels compete in a cutthroat space that is vying for guests at a time when tourism has decreased. Digital innovation in the hotel sector will continue to accelerate rapidly to meet consumers’ needs during times of crisis, especially as technologies such as AI become more affordable and accessible.