Guests staying in a hotel are looking for some form of hospitality that extends further than an available bed, a clean room, and a fully equipped bathroom. Room service, a bar or lounge, amenities in the room and lobby, and breakfast offerings are some shared guest preferences that travelers look for in a hotel experience. But what if a hotel knew what their guests’ personal preferences were and they made every effort to provide them? It doesn’t seem too farfetched, considering the world now seems to run on data retrieval systems that gather information to optimize technology users’ experiences. Anyone familiar with Facebook ads will know they are now tailored to what a user previously searched for online. These know-all systems are supposed to make everything from shopping to researching housing markets more straightforward and more streamlined.

The hospitality sector knows that the key to success is guest satisfaction and they are going to some precise means to provide just that. Hoteliers today are utilizing the same type of technology Facebook uses to show preference-specific ads to their users to gather guest data to offer a personalized experience that can be tailored in surprisingly specific ways. Instead of guests having to specify their particular needs, like a quieter corner room, upon or after arrival, hotels are hoping to be able to gather these preferences from hundreds, even thousands of data points retrieved about the guest so that the room can be prepared with a personal touch before the guest even checks in.

How exactly are these data points collected to inform guest proclivities? Data would be collected from guest profiles, the booking process, transaction data, even payment history during a previous hotel stay. This data would ideally be housed in a central system that would allow hotels to quickly retrieve the telling information about their guests so the optimal experience can be realized. No more calling down to the front desk for an extra pillow or more towels- they’ll already have been thought of, and they’ll be waiting for their guest. When hotel guests who are not already accustomed to Alexa and other information gathering technology get used to their every whim previously being thought of, this attention to detail will likely be very much appreciated by the masses. This is undoubtedly next-generation hoteling.