A new report outlined the direction for tomorrow’s hotels where technology combined with neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and data analysis can elevate operational efficiency and sustainability, and contribute to the evolution of the hotel industry.
Tech Report 2024 “Hospitality 2024: Neuroscience and Technology Enhance the People Experience in Hotels” by VDA Telkonet, a global group that provides technological solutions for Room Functionality Management and Energy Saving for the hospitality market, is a result of an international survey involving 250 hotels worldwide.
Staff Efficiency
For nine out of 10 hoteliers, the most appreciated tech solutions are those that provide staff with real-time data on the status, operation, and potential malfunctions of installed devices.
Constant monitoring of systems, equipment, and rooms allows facilities to implement preventive maintenance or provide a timely response in the event of faults, avoiding compromising the stay of guests and others.
In this way, increasing the safety and comfort of hotel guests optimises resource management to the benefit of environmental sustainability and cost containment.
The study conducted by the company headquartered in Pordenone, Italy, confirms how much technology supports worldwide hoteliers by contributing significantly to improving guest experience (94% affirm this).
If the automation of hotel rooms – which includes electronic keys, sensors, thermostats, and smart switches – by now does not ‘wow’ customers, the element that seems to make the difference for about 94% of the hoteliers interviewed is the possibility of recognising their preferences to increase loyalty.
However, today only 30% rely on a data-driven method, analytical and supported by objective evidence, to recognise what guests want (72% rely solely on the ‘classic review’, 26% on staff intuition).
Application of Neuroscience
With regard to the perception of the potential of data, VDA Telkonet’s Tech Report explores for the first time in Italy the application of neuroscience to the hotel sector. More than six out of 10 hoteliers are unaware of the existence of this science capable of objectifying guest emotions and making them measurable through key performance indicators.
Even if not traced back to the scientific discipline to which they belong, they are still defined as “very important” sleep quality index (58%), air quality (50%), environmental comfort in the hotel room (62%).
With the values provided by the application of neuroscience, in fact, it is possible to obtain quantitative data that immediately communicates the value of the experience to the accommodation facility so that the manager can take note of it and act accordingly.
“The real step forward in the hospitality industry lies in seeking, and pursuing, the wellbeing of all those who are part of the hotel ecosystem, thus moving from guest-experience to people-experience, a concept of true 360-degree hospitality,” said Piercarlo Gramaglia, CEO of VDA Telkonet.
“Guided by a people-centred philosophy, we embrace sophisticated technologies and the latest research in neuroscience to create awareness around a new culture of hospitality, capable of providing a quality environment and experience that benefits the tourism industry as a whole.”
Although it appears that technological solutions based on neuroscience studies can be a useful method to improve people’s experience in hotels, only 11% of respondents are considering their implementation.
Strobilo Pilot Project
The group is launching a pilot project in Italian hotels in collaboration with Italy-based start-up Strobilo, a data tech company that uses the most advanced techniques of neuroscience in combination with Al and Machine Learning to study the relationship between humans and their environment.
Leading the way is an accommodation facility in Rome in which a special neuroscientific monitoring module has been installed and integrated into the Etheos platform, VDA Telkonet’s cloud-based room management system.
Thanks to the partnership, an algorithm collects data from the sensors related to the main KPIs (Sleep Quality Index, Air Quality Index, Brain e Ambience comfort), analyses them in real-time and makes them available to the hotelier, returning an objective performance index of the guest’s experience.
To this quantitative evaluation, it will be possible to combine the capacity of the installed system and intervene through room automation to optimise room conditions that will be dynamically modified, compensating for changes in the environment, to maintain guest comfort at the highest possible level. From this first special monitoring that would allow hotels to offer more comfortable and safe stays, while ensuring more efficient management of resources, it emerges that the major areas of intervention are: operational efficiency (66%), guest safety and well-being (62%), and personalisation of services (63%).
