The fast-growing hospitality sector is one of the key driving forces behind the tourism industry. While it does have a positive impact on the global economy, its impact on the environment is quite problematic. Currently, the hospitality industry is responsible for 1% of global emissions and it needs to reduce 90% emissions by 2030.
A major part of the industry’s environmental impact is tied down to overconsumption of resources which leads to high operational costs. It’s time for hoteliers to innovate and find ways to run their businesses following sustainable means. And what can be a better vehicle to execute sustainability than technology? With the right tech stack in place, you can lower your energy consumption, reduce the wastage of valuable resources, make your hotel more tech-forward, cut down operational costs, and create an example for other hoteliers to follow.
Let’s take a look at how you can make your hotel future-proof by implementing tech-driven sustainability.
Use mobile-friendly guest and staff apps to strengthen the sustainability efforts of your hotel. The primary goal of these apps is to simplify hotel operations and deliver excellent guest experience, but they could also help you reduce your hotel's environmental footprint and save valuable resources. With hotel tech apps like MyCONECT, guests can check-in, access digital room keys, manage room controls, and check out through their smartphones. This makes operational processes less labor intensive, reduces paper usage and energy consumption, and at the same time, ensures optimum guest satisfaction.
The hotel menu is a significant part of your services. Any small change in the menu would require you to completely rehaul the existing one, requiring extensive printing and wastage of paper. Digital menus can be a great alternative here—they are more sustainable, simple to navigate, easy to edit and customize, and you can cut down on the expenses related to printing a physical menu. Be it at the restaurant or inside the hotel rooms, you can easily get rid of physical menus and offer a digitized version accessible through your hotel app.
Hotels contribute to 289,700 tonnes of waste each year, which includes 79,000 tonnes of food waste. To avoid food wastage, you can use a digital system to take bookings for your restaurants. This will help you gauge the footfall so you can prepare the inventory accordingly. The benefits don't end here—by keeping a tab on your guests’ restaurant orders, you can curate personalized offers for them and use them as an upsell opportunity during future visits. If you have any food items that might expire in a few days, you can offer time-sensitive discounts to clear the stock.
Integrating chatbots into hotel operations is another way to embrace sustainability. AI-powered chatbots can streamline guest interactions by providing instant responses, booking reservations, and taking service requests, with minimal human intervention. With powerful chatbots, your hotel can minimize the need for in-person inquiries and long phone calls, helping you save electricity consumption and paper wastage, all while keeping the customers happy. To stay a step ahead, you could also program your chatbots to offer real-time tips to guests on energy-saving practices in the hotel premises, such as adjusting room temperatures or optimizing lighting.
Instead of handing out a physical map, offer your guests a digital map of your hotel premises and the surrounding city. Your guests should be able to access the map through the hotel app using their smartphones. This simple yet thoughtful tool helps enhance guest experience by providing seamless navigation, and at the same time, promotes sustainability by minimizing paper wastage. You can regularly update the map to showcase nearby tourist destinations, local businesses, and eco-friendly public transportation options. This tech-savvy approach will solidify your hotel's commitment to sustainability, and potentially attract environmentally conscious travelers.
The good news is, you don’t have to necessarily compromise on growth and advancement to be more environmentally conscious in your business approach. By embracing digitization at various touchpoints across your hotel, you can cater to your guests’ requirements while also keeping your ecological footprint minimal. But there has to be a collective commitment—both big hotel chains and smaller establishments should join hands to utilize hotel technology and pave the way for a more responsible, eco-friendly future.