Mobile Trends in Travel Sector - Mariott Sets the Pace

Mobile Trends in Travel Sector - Mariott Sets the Pace
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It may seem less obvious, but the m-commerce and hospitality can be efficiently combined to provide the most relevant and responsive services to any potential customers. Moreover, mobile shopping and transactions through smartphones made their advances by gaining more popularity, so it isn’t surprising that such a fact has the direct relation to the hotel sector among other industries. Being the cutting-edge e-commerce service, Shopify also provides various options for any business to go mobile. And if you use the standard Shopify web store already, it’s high time to have turned to your advantage Shopify iOS mobile app to expand your sales channels. Check out EasyMobile to learn more about it. 

Personalization is The Key to Success

Reaching and going beyond the expectations of guests is already the touchstone applied to basic principles of service trades, not only hotel chains. In that case, Marriot definitely knows how to accomplish that with new mobile technologies by offering the multilingual approach covering now five languages, customizable travelling content and convenient Mobile Key options to compete against other mobile concierge solutions spread on the market. Yes, that’s awesome when you can ask for a specific charger if you forgot to take it from home. Furthermore, you can do it via mobile, even though you haven’t checked in yet. That’s impressive, and more companies have to think about such nuances in their everyday business activities.

By providing an option of bypassing check-ins in many countries, ordering particular amenities included to the room and even opening its door, this mobile method definitely increases the loyalty of customers towards the brand, especially when you try to create the all-encompassing experience for all consumers. Nowadays being tech-savvy isn’t the choice but necessity even for generally offline enterprises, and those making it first will limit the access of slower competitors attempting to seize new markets.

Shopify mobile options may also be very handy to your hospitality business. And going mobile doesn’t have to be expensive, check out EasyMobile for easy and fast transition if you already run the web store built with Shopify.

How Exactly the Marriot’s Mobile App Redesigned

The updated app now includes the dynamical adjustment of provided content and specific features according to the stage the traveler is in. So, it’s completely personalized whether you’re only planning your trip or already getting ready for it. Mid-hotel stays and transits are covered too. For instance, members may use their rewards to upgrade rooms, Gold and Platinum Elite can also request guaranteed late check-outs via the mobile app instead of going to the front desk to apply for that. Once any step is processed, you’ll get exact notifications about the fulfillment.

Moreover, this year the expanded Mobile Key allows skipping the regular check-in procedure at the front desk of over 500 Marriot’s hotels throughout the entire world. But, due to regulations, this feature is still unavailable in Japan and Venezuela, and partly limited in France, Italy, Poland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Russia where you still need to check out traditional way.

As the study arranged by Google showed, 74% of mobile users installed at least one app related to travelling. That’s why Marriot could see the potential and made the efforts to use this opportunity by adopting the iMessages platform to create the customizable content for their brand like virtual stickers that efficiently worked for other marketers as well.

Among other hospitality innovations recently introduced, you should also check a mobile butler developed by Button Marketplace and integrated by Hotels.com, the online hotel booking service partnered with Groupon, delivery.com, Uber, as well as OpenTable, for this feature. In order to create the intuitive and seamless travel experience, companies are eager to unite different local complimentary services and goods within one platform, be it ordering food, reserving a table at particular restaurants or booking a ride to your airport.

The poll regarding the mobile concierge option arranged by Hotels.com itself showed three most popular wishes:

  • 62% of customers would use it for making restaurant reservations
  • 51% would exploit it for requesting directions
  • 48% of travelers would get tickets via the app to visit various tourist attractions.

Actually, you can make your customers’ desires come true if take an advantage of Shopify platform for your business and combine in your Shopify mobile app the features that the customers would like to use in it. Thanks to the platform flexibility, you will not need to build stand-alone solutions, but will find pretty anything in the standard feature set and in various applications available in Shopify App Store.

Mobile apps are becoming the operational standard for many businesses, making many of them perform in the brick and click mode in order to assist the needs of the today audience that doesn’t mind trying new tools for smoother processing and content relevance. Therefore, Shopify iOS app together with their POS may work not only for the retail, but for hospitality business too, even if you offer only bed and breakfast service. You should check famous hospitality giants first to understand these trends, they already discovered the potential. And the recent update of the Marriot’s mobile application may serve as a good example of realizing how such mobile initiatives should be arranged to meet the requirements of your target group.

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