Leverage cutting-edge wireless video conferencing and screen-sharing solutions to bolster your business and the guest experience
by JONAS GYALOKAY
In the era of ever-shifting hybrid work arrangements and growing reliance on various wireless and video conferencing tools for daily business operations, hotels have a unique opportunity to position themselves as a top destination for various business events, from intimate presentations to panel discussions and conferences. As the post-COVID world leans away from using large office spaces, many organizations have turned to other spaces for meetings and hosting guests.
Hotels pose as a natural extension of professional spaces given traveling guests, increased hybrid meetings and working on the go, and their elevated and comfortable interiors. To generate increased brand recognition and profits in the evolving business landscape, it’s essential hotels prioritize delivering flawless meeting, conference, and collaboration experiences for their guests.
THE TIME FOR EFFECTIVE WIRELESS CONFERENCING IS NOW
A recent industry report revealed that meeting space layout and technology are driving venue selection. As in-person events continue to increase beyond pre-pandemic levels, roughly 20 percent of planned meetings involve a hybrid element that must be satisfied upon site visits to secure bookings1. A key challenge many venues face is shorter customer lead times, making it essential for hotels to emphasize the offerings they have to improve meeting experiences.
In recent years, many hotels have invested in display and presentation systems to cater to business activities. However, if the technologies aren’t optimized for a company’s preferred collaboration platform or device, these technologies can falter or introduce delays. This can lead to subpar experiences for both hotel staff and guests. To address this, hotels can embrace bring your own meeting (BYOM) principles through adoption of new room solutions, enabling guests to initiate hybrid meetings via their own devices and optimizing experiences for all users.
Wireless conferencing solutions can streamline meeting setup by granting hosts the freedom to present from any location in the room, while simultaneously maintaining, or even improving, room aesthetics by eliminating clunky wires. These modern wireless conferencing and screen-sharing solutions are able to integrate with pre-existing audiovisual systems quickly, eliminating the need for additional investments –requiring minimal equipment, they plug directly into a display’s HDMI port while still offering the power and capabilities hotel conferencing guests require and expect.
Seamless collaboration experiences for guests can be taken a step further with tools that enable screen sharing and video conferencing without the need to download an application, removing barriers to entry to newcomers or one-time users. With modern solutions currently available, guests also can easily join the hotel’s guest network with connection information displayed directly on screen.
Hybrid collaboration is only as seamless as the tools used to execute it, and it’s essential guests be able to easily join meetings without the use of extra wires and devices that sacrifice the hotel’s design and waste participant’s time.
SMALL BUSINESSES ARE AT THE FOREFRONT OF INNOVATION
At the same time leading luxury hotels are reporting reduced guest room bookings and rates, they’re simultaneously seeing record-setting conference room bookings. According to the latest research from CoStar, a leading commercial real estate information and analytics firm, major hotel chains have reported up to 25% increases in conference room bookings from smaller companies in 2023 compared to 2019, while larger corporations have reduced bookings. This points to a significant opportunity to increase profitability through business travel events and local small business meetings that can develop into long-term relationships.
Beyond price and availability, the top concern for meeting planners is host and attendee experience. The experience determines whether a company will become a repeat customer. Even a minor glitch or interruption can spur customers to seek alternative venues. Hosts have come to expect 100% clarity, connection reliability, and simple connection with their personal hardware, whether a fully remote or hybrid event. As such, any hotel that aims to develop strong relationships with businesses must now offer cross-platform capabilities.
WHERE MEETING TOOLS AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE COME TOGETHER
While guest satisfaction obviously is top of mind for hotels, return on investment is as well. Increased bookings is the clearest benefit of an upgraded conferencing and collaboration system, but many products go beyond a simple system to offer additional capabilities that can further enhance revenues. New solutions offer the ability to fill screens with paid advertisements, room schedules, or customized images, meaning all conferencing rooms and screens can be used 100% of the time, not just during business meetings.
To satisfy customer needs without blowing the budget, hotels should optimize performance and reliability. Through working with technology staff and outside technology vendors, a solution that offers simple, foolproof solutions can be easy and within reach. Prospective customers can rest easy knowing their event will go off without a hitch, and hotel managers can feel confident they’ve attended to all of their customers’ potential needs.
With bookings on the rise and market trends propelling businesses to explore fresh venues for in-person and hybrid meetings, hotels with user-friendly technology services stand to attract higher revenues, increasing return on investment and general profitability.
Jonas Gyalokay leads strategic alliances and sits on the board of Airtame, which he co-founded in 2013. Throughout his tenure, Jonas has played an instrumental role in bringing the company into its current role as a leading hybrid conferencing, wireless screen sharing and digital signage platform for businesses and schools.
