Hospitality Guest Experience Reimagined

[Former Member]

Sri Lanka, a country of many splendors and breath taking beauty has time immemorial left numerous imminent explorers in the likes of Maco Polo who echoed the sentiment “The finest island of its size in all the world” bears testimony to its modern assertion as being “The Wonder of Asia”. While tourism on this South Asian island was growing for almost a decade, visits to the region were plagued by unrest. However, the dawn of peace in Sri Lanka, has paved the way for the tourism sector, to contribute to the national economy, a GDP above 5% levels by 2016.

With ever increasing competition from other Asian destinations, Sri Lankan hospitality industry has seen its own share of challenges to offer guests the best service possible.  John Keells - SGIT partnered with Cinnamon Hotels to co-invent a SAP HANA based solution to reimagine the traditional Sri Lankan warm greeting that is synonymous with hospitality - "ආයුබෝවන් (āyubōwan)”.

The “Ayubowan” Guest Experience Solution was born with the aim of transforming a typical hotel stay into a personalized Hospitality Experience as well as acting as a Loyalty Program for guest acquisition and retention to facilitate greater reach and convenience. The solution comprises a combination of SAP ERP, HANA, Mobile Apps, Social, Predictive Analytics and Wearables such as Google Glass together with components of Internet of Things – iBeacons, which in-turn, offers each guest a tailor-made and personalized experience based on their preferences, location within the hotel and their consumption habits. In effect what is offered by this solution is drives personalization to another level that is second to none.

The Guest experience solution offers a variety of services and benefits to guests and employees;

• Booking – Guest can now make a booking directly through the Mobile App by login in using Social identity.
• Guest identification on arrival – Concierge and Front office staff will be alerted on their Google Glass or Fiori Mobile app using iBeacons (IoT) with a 360* view of the customer including Profile picture and Social data to greet the guest in a truly Sri Lankan style  “Ayubowan”
• Check-in can be done using multiple options;
  • Traditional SAP GUI check-in at the front office is now enriched with Social profile data
  • Front office staff can use the Fiori app to check-in a guest from anywhere and take digital signature
  • Front office staff can also use the Google Glass app to Check-in a guest from anywhere and anytime
  • Go Keyless – Guest can self check-in using mobile and walk right into the room using a Bluetooth key
• Personalized marketing – Based on the information gathered from the users’ previous visits, and social media accounts, the Guest Mobile app displays a list of personalized offers
• Tailor made experience – Hotel staff is capable of offering services based on the user’s preferences and location, thanks to the heuristic profiles available to them via wearable devices.
• Analytics – Customer analytics and agile visualization based on Social and ERP data for effective marketing campaigns

The solution aims to reconfigure the traditional guest experience to give each individual a warm relaxing feeling and create the thirst to make guests want to revisit and spend more during each stay. This seamless marriage of technology with tradition sets a new benchmark in the Sri Lankan Leisure industry.