What should hoteliers look for when selecting Hospitality Mobile Service, Marketing and SMS solutions?

With Mobile phones being a key and cost effective Guest Technology Touchpoint, what questions should hoteliers be asking vendors and what features should they look for when selecting a solution?

Below are my top 10, and these are just some of the questions hoteliers should ask and features to look for. For more about low/no cost entry level solutions and higher cost full featured solutions read "Mobile Service, Marketing and SMS Tools for Hospitality" at http://budurl.com/MobileServices

1.Does the solution integrate with your existing systems? If the solution has a Guest contact or information capture option, how does this information integrate into your existing PMS, Sales and Catering system, Guest History system? Ideally, you do not want to have to maintain a separate Guest Information database.


2.If the solution has mobile portal tools, can existing website content be used or will you need to budget for web development time?


3.Does the solution work globally? If many of your Guests are international then the solution should be to acommodate and International carriers and multiple languages. Also, make sure you understand costs and convey any cost impact to your customer.


4.Does the solution work for any phone. Least common denominator is SMS Messaging, then moves to various levels of browser as well as downloadable applications (i.e. IPhone).


5.Can the solution work for a single hotel or scale to an enterprise with hierarchical levels of management?


6.Is the solution client based or cloud based? Ideally, a cloud based service would be best, minimizes hotel application management and can be accessed from anywhere.


7.Where does Guest Information live, who in the service providers organization has access and what happens if the service shuts down (how can your data be accessed)?


8.Guest Loyalty, services such checking of points, checking reservations, confirmations, coupons, special targeted packages, use of the mobile phone to replace the membership card.


9.Check in/out, allows the customer to bypass the people touchpoint if they want to. But also allows the hotel to be notified when a Guest is on their way to the hotel when the Guest checks in remotely. When the Guest checks in remotely, a message can be sent back about hotel services and events.


10.Event and Emergency Information, can be sent to the Guest with a sponsored by message if the Guest is attending a citywide convention or a hotel group meeting. As well, in an emergency situation alerts can be sent to Guest mobile devices.