experience must be fully integrated with the hotel’s property management system (PMS), so when it comes to checking out, all transactions are present, up to date and consolidated onto one bill. Chen says: “Omni-channel commerce not
only provides the hotel industry with a wealth of new customer-marketing opportunities, but also represents a hurdle to integrate the payment process across each channel and allow customers to choose how they want to pay, whether that is in the hotel, online or on mobile. The biggest challenge is to keep the entire system simple and make the process easier, faster and as safe as possible.”
The future’s mobile
The consensus across the industry is that mobile is the future. Gerry Hooper, UK chief executive of global mobile payment and mar- keting insights app Zapper, says: “Mobile payment is expected to grow by 65% over the next 12 months, driven by the millennials and early adopters, who are embracing – and enjoying – the future of the dining-out experience. This growth in electronic and mobile commerce is putting increasing pressure on hospi- tality businesses to adopt these new channels.” For Tim Brown, senior director at Oracle Hospitality, the growth in digital wallets and other forms of mobile
30 | Technology Prospectus 2016
SPONSOR’S COMMENT: WI-Q
Stephen Kennedy, non-executive chairman at Wi-Q, believes apps are becoming archaic
payment is likely to be even faster than that of chip and pin or contactless, partly because big players like Apple (with Apple Pay) and MasterCard (with mobile payment app Qkr) are already in the game. “I think everybody in the industry waited for the mainstream players to come to the market, thinking, as soon as somebody like MasterCard or Apple delivered something in this area, it would become mainstream,” he says. “Now, I think it will become the norm.”
And not just for restaurants and bars.
“Mobile is really key for hotels as well as food and drinks businesses,” Chen says. “As mobile device ownership and usage continues to grow, an increasing number of travellers from the UK are using their mobile devices to access travel content and are even outpac- ing the USA, according to a recent survey by Expedia. This implies great potential for mobile
In today’s fast-paced world, our expectation to be able to use our mobile devices for more transactions continues to grow. The hospitality industry is not excluded from our impatience; we want to be able to order from our table and settle the bill using our mobile device. I believe the current solution of ordering
and payment apps will become obsolete. Apps use memory, need updating and require log in. Brands have demonstrated a desire to have their own app, but consumers don’t want multiple apps. HTML technology has moved forward and can deliver a ubiquitous solution like Wi-Q, where consumers can access a branded, user-friendly ordering and payment solution via Wi-Fi from any mobile device. Instant access to an integrated solution is
the way forward, and venues that fail to give their customers the choice of how they browse, order and pay are going to lose out in this technology race.
hotel booking and mobile payments.” The only question is what form mobile payments will take. While apps are doing incredibly well (Zapper, for example, launched
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