How Smart Hotels Are Trying to Understand the New Silent Traveler – Skift.

The Report “The Rise of the Silent Traveler: Reaching Out to the Mobile-First Travel Consumer” highlight the impact that mobile technology is having on hospitality service inside the hotel. The silent traveler represents an opportunity of the kind that hospitality hasn’t seen in decades.

Matthew Carroll, vice president of Global Brand Management for the Mariott, says front-desk interactions are shifting:

“As we see our hotels spend less time having to physically check our guests into a room, or physically check them out, it’s freeing up our hosts to take care of customers better, and to deal with more complicated service issues.”

Hilton’s social-media based service allows a smartphonetraveller to ask questions, such as “what can I do in an this or that area” — it also allows Hilton to scan social chatter for problems that might arise at one of the brand’s properties.

Chris Silcock, senior vice president of Commercial Services at Hilton Worldwide added that social monitoring can pickup issues that don’t get reported. In one case a guest was sharing a problem with the air-conditioning. “They didn’t call the front desk. They didn’t talk to the hotel. But we heard them through our Hilton Suggests service and that team engaged — and we went to that customer in the hotel to resolve that problem.”