The Renaissance Mayflower, a historic luxury hotel in Washington, is using Compcierge mobile features to communicate with guests via text messaging.

The hotel tapped Gold Mobile, a provider of mobile enterprise CRM services, and Compcierge, a provider of hotel and hospitality guest services, to launch the mobile platform, which consists of four plug-and-play mobile applications designed to streamline efficiency and reduce cost while delivering new premium guest services. Capitol Hill Towers has also implemented the Compcierge Mobile suite.

“The concierge desk, staffed by senior concierge including two Les Clef’s d’Or Concierge, prides itself on providing efficient, personalized and courteous service,” said Robert Nagys, guest service manager at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, Washington. “As most busy concierge can attest, using the Compcierge application as a tool to augment our service delivery is a key component to the desk’s success.

“Our hotel guests are trending towards younger, more technologically-savvy travelers, which has made the need for our concierge to keep up with technology even more important,” he said.

“Compcierge Mobile now gives the concierge desk the ability to quickly, easily and affordably deliver a variety of information to guests in the moment via SMS.”

The Renaissance Mayflower, a Marriott hotel, sits in between Dupont Circle to the north and the K Street business corridor to the south.

With 650 guest accommodations and 74 suites, this hotel serves domestic and international travelers on business and leisure travel.

Challenges of the old way
In the past, guests of the hotel would make requests of the concierge desk such as to book a dinner reservation.

The Renaissance Mayflower’s concierge would dutifully make the reservation and either hand scribe or print out a confirmation. The guest would return to the desk later to pick up the paper confirmation.

The second trip back to the desk and the need for paper were both inefficient and not eco-friendly.

The advancements of email and email-enabled smartphones eliminated some of that barrier, but not everyone has a smartphone.

In those cases, the concierge went back to the desk…and back to the paper.

Without a way to easily send text messages, those guests who preferred receiving texts were stuck with the hotel’s old way of doing things.   

Keeping up with the guest
The new Compcierge Mobile features give the hotel’s staff a convenient way to convey information to the guests, when they need it, the way they want it, per Mr. Nagys.

Texting the reservation information to guests’ mobile phones eliminates the second trip back for the guest, saves time for the hotel’s concierge desk and perhaps helps to save a tree along the way.

“While our concierge still provides the old-world quality of service, the delivery of the messages are catered to the guests’ technology preference—paper, email or SMS,” Mr. Nagys said. “With Compcierge’s integrated technology, our concierge are able to text out information on restaurants, venues and directions, quickly and efficiently.”

The hotel can push reservation confirmations, as well as information such as “closest metro stop,” “directions from a specific location” and “information on an event happening that night” – all from a template library of frequently sent messages.

The two-way text chat conversation feature gives the hotel a real-time way to communicate with guests while they are out site-seeing or in business meetings. 

“Our installation process was very simple, efficient and quite seamless,” Mr. Nagys said. “Compcierge adjusted our application license to enable the SMS features for each computer workstation that we needed.

“Behind the scenes, Compcierge and their SMS platform provider, Gold Mobile, administered the account setup, so we were up and running in a few short days,” he said.

Compcierge Mobile and the Gold Mobile CRM Platform are designed to create a new service paradigm, enabling hotels to a achieve superior level of guest services and ultimately enhanced satisfaction and loyalty.

“All in all, we are very happy with our choice in selecting Compcierge and their mobile SMS solution,” Mr. Nagys said. “It has empowered our hotel to keep our guests moving at their own rapid DC pace, and has given our concierge staff a boost in the level of customer service we now deliver.

“The text messaging service is easy to use, fast, efficient, cost effective, and hits the mark for our guests and the level of service they demand,” he said. “We are undoubtedly a more responsive desk and concierge department with these new tools.

“Happy guests are return guests and that’s the name of our business.”

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Commerce Daily