10 Must-Haves for Your Digital Guest Directory

If you’re thinking about designing your hotel’s new digital guest folder, what should you include? We’ve got 10 must-haves that will give your digital guest folder a certain je ne sais quoi!

The first digital guest folders only entered hotel rooms a few years ago. When compared to their paper predecessors, they offer greater opportunities to truly delight guests with an unparalleled level of service while also creating extra value for hotels.

1) A smashing home or welcome screen image

First impressions count! Choose a beautiful image for the welcome screen that fits your hotel’s corporate design and identity. The welcome screen should ignite curiosity and invite guests to further discover the digital guest folder’s content.

The Provocateur Berlin’s welcome screen reflects its particular and glamorous style inspired by 1920s Paris while at the same time being so typically Berlin.

2) Make room-service easy

Including room-service in your digital guest directory is an absolute must. Guests won’t even have to pick up the phone to order room-service as this can now be done digitally at the push of a button! This makes ordering for your guests just as easy as ordering takeout at home – or even easier for that matter!

For hotels, digital room-service simply makes sense as it can increase room-service revenue and give reception staff more time for other tasks.

3) Enticing & mouth-watering pictures

Try using beautiful visuals to seduce your guests into ordering via the room service menu or eating at your hotel restaurant – after all, they’re away from the restaurant where the smell of spices and freshly cooked fine food would otherwise whet their appetite. When your guest is thinking about ordering room-service or considering whether or not to book a table in your restaurant, images in the digital guest folder are the key! Convince them that your offer is worth it by showing off your high-quality food with a few mouth-watering photos.

4) Late check-out

Make it easy for your guests to find the late check-out on the digital guest folder if you offer this service by allowing them to submit a late-check out request to reception. This can create extra revenue for your hotel and offering this option by the click of a button will make guests more likely to request this service!

5) Interesting tips for the area

Paper guest folders often contain a few recommendations or maps of the area. The big advantage of the digital guest folder is, of course, that you can easily update this information without the need to print new pages and distribute them to each room. By adding a few tips for events, walks, and sightseeing tours, you can invite your guests to lay back, browse, and plan their stay with the help of the guest folder.

You can give it a personal touch if you let your staff pick their favourites in the area and present those with a little personal note, f.e.

“Our cook, John, loves to go for a hike on top of Edinburgh’s famous volcano that erupted 350 million years ago. John highly recommends a hike to Arthur’s seat, the highest point of the volcano, to enjoy a good view of the city and the beautiful sunset. Just ask our receptionist to borrow a pair of binoculars to watch the wide variety of wildlife. Deliciously filled picnic baskets for your walk can be pre-ordered here.”

6) Entertainment!

Make sure to include digital entertainment in your guest folder. After all, you do not just want to transfer what once was printed in the paper folder into the digital form. Digitalization makes it possible to entertain your guests in their hotel rooms in many ways. Here are some possibilities...

• Something to read: Links to regional and international newspapers makes it easy for your guests to take a nice coffee break while reading the news. If you’d like to provide more than just links to newspaper websites – which are sometimes restricted – you can include SuitePad’s newspaper service in your digital guest folder that gives your guests access to 400 newspapers in 20 languages.
• Something to listen to: Include links to online radio stations or direct them to streaming services so they can listen to their favourite music on YouTube, SoundCloud, or Spotify.
• Games to play: Grown-up guests like classics like sudoku and chess. Children love coloring apps, memory games, or other interactive games that can be integrated into the guest folder.

7) A remote control – for even more convenient entertainment!

Offer a whole new level of comfort by replacing TV remotes with the tablet’s TV control. Thanks to its integrated infrared sensor, guests can operate the hotel TV with the SuitePad tablet. It’s even possible to stream directly to the hotel room TV – with SuitePad TV Plus, guests can connect their smartphone to the hotel TV and watch their favourite shows and movies from Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video.

8) Special offers as pop-ups (Spa, Bar, Restaurant, or other outlets)

Pop-ups can be annoying! Which is why we want to recommend how you can include them without getting on your guest’s nerves. We suggest you to use pop-ups sparingly, with good offers and valuable information at the right time.

For example, you may want to offer your guests a discount for spa treatments or for the restaurant for the same day if you’ve had cancellations. This is a good way to fill up free spaces that would otherwise lose you money, while also offering your guests something of real value.

9) Quick Feedback

Getting feedback while your guests are still on your premises can really make a difference – especially for guests that prefer to express a complaint digitally rather than face-to-face. This way, you can still intervene and improve the situation in good time instead of finding a negative online review weeks later!

Imagine, for example, a guest isn’t sleeping well because they’re used to using a larger pillow at home, but due to shyness, they won’t ask for an extra pillow. While they’re using the tablet, the quick feedback window can pop-up where they have the opportunity to simply say that they’re not sleeping well. The hotel staff can react immediately and supply an extra pillow. 

10) Opt-out of housekeeping: SuitePad’s “Green Option”

Show that you are environmentally conscious with the feature that lets your guests opt-out of the daily room cleaning: SuitePad’s Green Option. You and your guests will not only be doing the environment a favor by foregoing room cleaning, but hotels can also reduce housekeeping costs! Electricity and water bills will lower as a result, as will the amount of washing powder and cleaning products used.

As a thank you for using this option, you could offer your guests a small benefit such as a voucher for a free drink in the hotel bar, or a discount for the restaurant. A lot of guests even skip the room cleaning without any benefits offered just because they are happy to make an environmentally-friendly choice!

This is a win-win-win situation for hotels, guests, and the environment!

We hope you enjoyed our selection of 10 must-haves for the digital guest directory. If you are interested in digital guest directories and would like to get more advice from the experts, feel free to contact us here at SuitePad!

_{- Published on August 14, 2019}