Hospitality enhanced: Web app for 'guest journey'

It is more important than ever to reach guests at the right time with exactly the right information. In addition, hotels are looking for ways to maximise both guest satisfaction and revenue. Web app DigitalGuest makes this possible by combining upselling, communication and guest service.

DigitalGuest was founded in 2016 by Christian Markedal to digitise the hospitality sector and is now the market leader in Scandinavia. The Danish company has been operating in the Netherlands since October 2021. Country manager Jeroen Carbo explains what makes the company's web app special. "The hotels I speak to really appreciate that our system combines several elements. The web-app covers the entire guest journey and not just one part of it. In a simple way, our customers can provide the right guest with the right information."

Carbo continues: "We know that downloading an app is a barrier for guests. We take that away. Via an automated SMS link, guests are shown all the information relevant to them in the DigitalGuest web app. Including opportunities to improve their stay with upgrades. Providing information via the web-app replaces the many e-mails guests often receive. This also allows us to reach the OTA guest."

PMS programmes, such as MEWS, have a direct link with DigitalGuest. All information about the guest is thus taken over by the web app. At the same time, the appearance of the hotel or hotel chain is preserved. "With DigitalGuest, a lot is possible. For example, hotels can possibly communicate with their guests via WhatsApp. I always talk to hotels. What is most important to them: service, revenue maximisation, or both?" 

Sustainability is an important theme for DigitalGuest. For instance, Hotels for Trees can be added in the web app, to digitally skip cleaning. It also uses much less paper.

According to Carbo, the human touch remains very important. "Some hotels, due to staff shortages and higher costs, want technology to take over everything, but I find that in most cases automation and digitalisation are mainly a tool in this 'people industry'. We like to help our customers find the balance that suits them." 

Once DigitalGuest is commissioned by a hotel, the web app continues to evolve. "The hotel can use the statistics to analyse guest behaviour and thus improve the experience. Staff knowledge also remains important, to integrate new guest queries and needs into the web app."

One of DigitalGuest's newest users is hotel chain Pillows Hotels, which consists of six hotels. Pillows Hotels offers all kinds of stays, from city hotels in business locations to Grand Boutique Hotels in metropolises in Belgium and the Netherlands. The newest five-star hotel, the Pillows Hotel Maurits at the Park in Amsterdam, opened in November 2022. Christel van Rossum of Pillows Hotels: "As a hotel, you want to share a lot with your guest. With DigitalGuest, guests have all information in one handy place they can access at any time. Fully in our house style and personalised for the guest."