The average profit margin for a hotel is just 4%. To beat that, you’ll need to take steps that the average hospitality company doesn’t. Hotel digital signage can help you achieve that.
Digital signage helps companies across many industries earn an improved ROI. Digital signage in the hospitality industry can do the same.
Keep reading to get step-by-step instructions for leveraging digital signage to achieve your ROI goals in the hospitality industry.
ROI and digital hospitality signage: The basics
Digital signage can be a great way to help hotels and hospitality businesses improve their ROI.
Here’s an overview of some of the ways digital signage can help your business and enhance customers’ experience:
- Allow guests to use self-check-in to reduce wait times
- Liven up your waiting area and keep your guests occupied
- Share useful travel information
- Advertise your add-on services more effectively
The idea behind digital signage in the hospitality industry is that if you can provide all of these benefits to your guests, you’re more likely to stand out from the competition. A memorable stay makes it all the more likely that your guests will return to you in the future.
We’ll dive into the specifics of what it takes to achieve your ROI goals with digital signage in the next section.
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What will you need to set up digital signage for hotels?
Digital signage is a technology that’s made up of three components:
- Screens – these could be TV screens or touchscreen tablets
- Digital signage software
- A media player
You’ll need all three of these items to begin your journey with digital signage. You can independently source them one-by-one or look for reliable providers of comprehensive hotel digital signage solutions.
Coping with hotel digital signage challenges
If you’re investing in digital signage, you want to make sure that you get as much out of it as possible. Avoiding the roadblocks covered in this section should help you do that.
One point worth making is that all digital signage software is not created equal.
Some software is slow, tough to work with and limited in what it can accomplish. Products like UPshow’s marketing engagement platform, on the other hand, make it easier to achieve your ROI goals by giving you complete control over your digital signage displays.
The screens that you choose can also have a big impact on the quality of your digital signage system. If they aren’t positioned optimally, guests won’t always see your displays. This can reduce the efficacy of your system and bring down your potential ROI.
It’s also important to have a content strategy in place before setting up your digital signage solution. If you don’t have a clear vision for what you want to accomplish, it will be more difficult to optimize your strategy and hit your ROI target.
Step 1: Define your expectations from hotel digital signage
The first step to driving ROI with hospitality digital signage is understanding what you want to get out of this investment.
You can do that by coming up with a marketing strategy that will define how you use this technology and to what end.
For example, you might want to increase the value of each guest that visits your hotel. Other goals might be to improve customer loyalty or to free up time for your staff.
Whatever your goal, creating a clear strategy can provide you with a solid benchmark for what you’re hoping to achieve, and how you hope to get there.
Step 2: Set up your digital signage solution
Next up is installing digital signage in your business, either by utilizing existing screens or setting up new ones.
As you do this, be mindful of placing screens optimally to ensure they are visible from all seating areas or spaces in which your guests are likely to congregate.
The layout that you use should be informed by the goals you set in the previous section. For example, if you want to start selling more products specifically in your waiting area, it would be important to have digital signage screens throughout that space.
Step 3: Let your guests check themselves in
One of the most effective ways to drive ROI with digital signage is to allow guests to check themselves into your hotel. To do this, you will need the right digital display boards.
More specifically, you will need touchscreen devices in your lobby. These could be large screens, tablets or even computer monitors. The beauty of digital signage is that you can use it with nearly any type of screen.
This helps drive ROI by freeing up your staff’s time. When an employee doesn’t have to spend their entire shift checking people in, they can get more done elsewhere in your business without you having to pay them more to do so.
Step 4: Offer standout in-room services
You can also connect your digital signage system to your guests’ in-room TVs. This option opens up a lot of possibilities to provide customers with exceptional in-room services.
For example, you could use an in-room digital signage system to display personalized messages to your guests when they enter their rooms or automate the room service ordering process by letting them purchase food for delivery on their screens.
There are many exciting ways to use digital signage inside of your guests’ rooms, so don’t be afraid to get creative and use this technology in whatever way you think would be most effective for your business.
Step 5: Display creative wall art
When people step into a hotel, they’re often looking for a luxurious experience that transports them away from their everyday life.
The decorations that you choose to adorn your walls are a big part of delivering that experience to your guests.
With digital signage, you can create and share a wide variety of stunning displays with high-resolution images and even animation. This makes it much easier to achieve the specific type of experience and ambiance that you want your guests to have inside your walls.
Step 6: Share travel information
You can also provide value to guests by giving them travel information through digital signage. This technology is a great way to share information about traffic, directions and fun destinations.
Step 7: Advertise your add-on services
Research shows that upselling to existing customers is 68% cheaper than acquiring new ones. Digital signage can help you upsell by giving you an easy way to advertise your add-on services.
You can advertise whatever you want in between the other types of content that you show on your screens.
For example, you might have one screen set aside to display travel information to your guests. You could break that travel information up with ads that highlight your restaurant, bar or standalone products in the lobby.
This is effective because your digital signage will grab people’s attention. Leverage this captured attention to sell more products.
Step 8: Use lobby display ideas to entertain waiting guests
People really don’t like waiting.
However, this can sometimes be unavoidable, especially when your hospitality business is busy. If you can keep your guests entertained during these times, any wait they have to endure won’t feel quite so long.
Once again, digital signage can help you achieve this. UPshow’s software gives you access to more than 500 channels of live video entertainment. That makes it very easy to always show content that your guests care about so they aren’t focused on how long they’re waiting.
Step 9: Install digital signage in conference rooms
The clientele of a hospitality business makes a huge difference in how it caters to its customers. If your clientele comprises professionals and businessmen, then it's likely that your conference rooms receive a lot of attention.
This makes them ideal for digital signage placement. You can make the digital signage available to your customers for giving presentations or hold virtual meetings with remote associates.
If used in the right way, you will not only improve your customers’ experience but also improve the visibility of your services. For example, you can use conference room digital signage to display crucial information such as availability, capacity, or even booking schedules.
Along the way, you would be able to upsell your services such as travel desks, rentals, and any special events being held on the premises.
Step 10: Track your progress with hospitality signage over time
No matter how you decide to use your digital signage, it will be important for you to analyze how it’s helping you get closer to your ROI goals over time.
Tracking this is the only true way to know whether the digital signage strategies that you’re using are working or not. If you keep your eye on digital signage data consistently, you will also be able to assess whether new ideas work for you or if there are necessary optimizations.
To effectively measure your performance over time, you need the right software. That’s why it’s important to look for a digital hospitality signage solution that has built-in measurement.
Digital signage can boost your hospitality company’s ROI
Digital signage is a versatile technology that hospitality companies can use in a variety of ways. We hope that this how-to guide has helped you understand how to unlock the full potential of digital signage for your hospitality business and given you the information you need to get started.
When you’re ready to select your digital signage software, consider reaching out to UPshow. Our software combines every feature that you want in a digital signage solution in a single, easy-to-use platform. With our help, it will be much easier for you to drive ROI with digital signage.
