In the hospitality industry, success hinges on cultivating clientele that returns repeatedly to your property. To attain that level of loyalty, hoteliers and resorts need to consistently exceed guest expectations and deliver an extraordinary experience for every guest and every stay. Delivering this level of experience requires tight team collaboration and proactive management throughout every area of your operations. But when the three key customer-facing business functions — housekeeping, maintenance and management — utilize paper-based and other inefficient processes, the result can be a negative impact on the guest experience.

For example, when housekeeping is reliant upon a clipboard and paper to collect and disseminate information, your ability to ensure rooms are ready for guests the moment they arrive — and to respond promptly to guest requests throughout their stay — can be negatively impacted. When your maintenance staff is not easy to locate and is dependent on verbal task lists, the effect can be the slow repair of room-related issues and the lack of visibility required to optimize productivity. And when managers are tied to a desk for computer and phone access, they have less time to spend in the customer-facing areas of your facility where they can best supervise operations to continually enhance the quality of the guest experience.

The slow movement of information through these business areas is the culprit. Housekeeping and maintenance staff are not easy to reach, and paper-based processes often force these workers who are always on the move throughout your facilities to traverse the property many times a day just to report status or obtain updated task lists — time that could be much better spent on task. And while your managers are sitting at a desk to access the computer to check schedules, monitor inventory, place orders and more, they are not out monitoring the many operational areas of your facility, where issues can quickly impact service quality — and the likelihood of a return visit.

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