LAS VEGAS—Glowing Inc., a hospitality digital messaging and engagement company along with Infor, a company providing business cloud software specialized by industry, have successfully deployed an integration with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. The project included a real-time, two-way integration between Infor HMS, a hotel property management system built for the cloud with the flexibility, security, efficiency and mobile capabilities, and Glowing’s Digital Engagement Cloud, at Mandarin Oriental properties in NA, EMEA, LATAM and APAC.
Infor HMS is a property management platform that integrates front-office and on-property technology to better manage room availability, pricing and guest profiles. This can make it easier for hotels to track guest preferences, simplify reservations and provide consistent quality and services.
“Glowing provides the capability to link the guest’s messaging profiles to their reservation. This linking happens automatically if the guest’s phone/WhatsApp number is on the reservation. Glowing, being an omnichannel platform, also enables the properties to connect the guest’s IM profiles (such as Facebook, WeChat, Line, etc.) with their Infor reservation,” explained Jasen Lew, CEO of Glowing.
Infor HMS also puts multiple hotel operations onto a single app, allowing hotels to consolidate information about multi-property performance, create customized reports and, in turn, make better forecasts.
“The real-time two-way integration between Glowing products and HMS will allow hotels using Infor HMS to contact the guests via WhatsApp Business and/or SMS and stay connected throughout the guest visit,” Lew said. “The hotel can also broadcast messages to guests checking-in/checking out on a specific date or based on their in-house status. The hotel can further automate these broadcasts to be more personalized and based on the guest journey triggers. Along with delivering a high-quality guest experience, the system also helps drive revenue by connecting different departments with the guest and enabling them to take guest orders and upsell any relevant options.”
Hoteliers can also securely export guest conversation notes from Glowing to Infor reservation notes, giving hotels a view of the guest experience and messaging history.
“It has been noticed that guest engagement is frequent when Glowing is used, which leads to more revenue during the guest’s stay. Glowing has observed more than 25% of all conversations on its ‘Infor-integrated properties’ to be revenue related,” Lew said.
For hotel owners and operators, the integration can help improve both operations and the guest experience. For starters, hotels don’t have to manually confirm the guest’s room number whenever an order or request is placed, Lew explained. The system also recognizes Mandarin Oriental’s membership program and extracts this information from Infor to auto-tag the guests in Glowing.
“Glowing provides more flexibility for colleagues to take time and assist the guest via desktop or mobile,” Lew said.
He added, “Glowing offers a more familiar way of communicating, i.e., the messaging platform of the guest’s choice. This makes it a lot more accessible and efficient for the guests, where each hotel extends the message platforms that are most relevant for their clientele and their region. Additionally:
- Guests do not have to identify themselves. The system knows the guest’s name and the profiles are shared across all the properties under a single brand.
- Guests can communicate back and forth in their language and the system automatically detects and translates it to the hotel.
- Guests can send photos to provide more context in the conversation and communicate more effectively.
- The system can link a previous profile using Infor and have a context to older conversations and visits to provide better service and show guest recognition.
“Glowing offers a written mode of communication but a lot more instant and alive. For urgent matters, it is reliable, and the guest knows they would get a reply instantly (v/s an email that can take more time),” Lew said.
The integration also assists with COVID-19 protocols, allowing hotels to use Glowing to send pre-arrival questionnaires linked to reservations, exported to Infor.
Lew noted that as more guests prefer messaging to maintain social distancing, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the perfect hotel partner; a brand that prides itself on the personalized and bespoke service.
“Guest recognition is a priority for them to make the guests feel important and to enhance their stay and their loyalty to the brand,” Lew said. “This interface allows the properties to identify guests to the get-go, which is crucial in delivering the bespoke service.”
