What guests actually want from their phone during a stay

Why the front desk turns into a help desk

Stand at reception on a busy afternoon and count how many questions are about the stay rather than the check-in. What is the Wi-Fi? When does the pool close? Can I book a massage for tomorrow? What is on my bill so far? Each one takes a minute, but together they build the queue that greets the guest who has just stepped off a long flight and wants nothing more than a key and a shower.

Guests are already holding the answer. They book flights, pay for dinner and board trains with their phones, so they expect the same of a hotel. The snag is that many hotel apps ask for an app-store download, a new account and a password, all for a stay of two nights. Most guests do not bother, so the questions go straight back to the desk and the app becomes a line in a brochure. When the app is hard to reach, staff stop mentioning it, and the whole idea fades within a season.

What guests actually use

The features guests reach for are practical and tied to their own booking. Before arrival, they want to check in, tell you when they will turn up and add a request. During the stay, they want the information the desk hands out a hundred times a day, a way to order and book, and a running view of the bill. At the end, they want to check out without standing in line. Families want to know about the kids’ club and pool times; business travellers want an invoice address and a quick exit.

What they ignore is anything that feels like marketing dressed up as service. A guest opens the app to find breakfast times, not to scroll through a brochure. Offers work when they fit the moment: a late checkout on the last morning, a table on a rainy evening, a spa slot that has just opened up. Everything else is noise, and too much of it teaches guests to stop opening the app at all.

• Online check-in and an arrival time before they travel
• Wi-Fi, breakfast hours and the other things the desk is asked most
• In-room dining and bookings for the spa or restaurant
• Their bill so far, and a quick checkout at the end
• A simple way to ask a question or make a request

How to give guests what they want

The test for every feature is simple: does it save the guest a trip to the desk or a phone call, and does the result reach your team without anyone retyping it? If the answer to either is no, the feature is adding work rather than removing it, however good it looks in a demonstration.

• Remove the download: let guests open it from a link in their confirmation and save it to their home screen.
• Put it under your own name and brand, not someone else’s.
• Tie everything to their booking, so they never type a confirmation number twice.
• Make sure requests reach the team who will act on them, with the room number attached.
• Post orders and bookings straight to the guest’s bill.
• Keep offers few, well timed and easy to ignore.

Signs it is working

A good guest app shows up in the lobby before it shows up in a report. The afternoon queue gets shorter, fewer calls come through asking the same things, and checkout is quiet because most guests have already seen their bill and settled it. Ask the front desk what has changed after a month. They will tell you faster than any dashboard which features guests really use.

• More arrivals have checked in before they reach the desk
• Repeat questions to reception and the switchboard fall away
• In-room dining and spa bookings come through guests’ phones as well as the desk
• Requests reach housekeeping or maintenance without a phone call in between
• Checkout disputes about unfamiliar charges become rare

Questions