Guests Spend More When Hotels Make This Easy

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody, it’s your hospitality friend, Glen. I’m excited because I’m on the show floor at High Tech, but it might be over by the time you see this, but I had to catch up with my friend Kevin Bidner over here. He’s the CEO of HCN. You know why? Because you, my friend, have arrived. I’ve been watching this company grow over the last few years. Your booth is much bigger. You’re near Samsung. You near all these other big players in the industry. Congratulations.

Kevin: [00:00:24] Thank you Glen.

Glenn: [00:00:26] That’s really exciting. It’s really exciting to see. So tell me a little bit about this ascent and where you are today. And it’s got me thinking. You’ve been focused on tablets, tablets, tablets since 2015. Suddenly it seems like they’re everywhere. Everything is happening and the universe is finally embracing what you’ve been preaching.

Kevin: [00:00:44] Yes, finally the universe caught up with the message.

Glenn: [00:00:47] Yeah, you look a little bit more relaxed now, I got to tell you, than in the early years.

Kevin: [00:00:51] Yeah, I think, well, things are finally developing. It’s taken a long time, first of all, for the technology technology itself to evolve. Yeah. You know, in the early days, that the tablets would really just be a compendium in the room. Carrying information. That’s right. Today, there’s first of all, a lot of interactivity with the guests. Second of all, it’s connected into the properties, all the properties, delivery systems. And third of all, we’re in the era of AI now. And that’s really the blossoming of the value of what this can do for a guest.

Glenn: [00:01:29] All right, now, before we get to that AI component, I do want to talk a little bit about your your journey and where hoteliers are, where guests are, and the intersection of tablets and empowering your property to be more successful.

Kevin: [00:01:43] Okay, good. Well, I think it’s, it’s, it’s an evolution. Yeah. Like anything else of technology where it starts in one place, you gradually gather more momentum, right until the point where it kind of breaks through and everybody understands this. This is the way.

Glenn: [00:01:59] Yeah. So what was it like being an early adopter? Because like, you know, I started doing the podcast before people knew what podcasts were. You were deep in tablets before people really understand the vibrancy and success they could have for them. It must have been really hard getting the the world to really understand how awesome your products are.

Kevin: [00:02:16] Yeah. Well, you got to first by understanding how awesome it is yourself.

Glenn: [00:02:20] Yeah.

Kevin: [00:02:20] Right. Then you got to preach. Well, then you got to hope for a few early adopters that can see that vision and support it as it grows, which we were very lucky to have some of the best hotels really in the world. We installed in three of the biggest Hiltons and a couple of the biggest marriotts, like the biggest properties in the world. Yeah. And that gave us a stake in the ground and sponsors at the highest level that believed in the technology, right? So it brought the company to a position at an early stage where we had really powerful adoption in the biggest brands.

Glenn: [00:02:56] Yeah. And you’ve been you’ve been out there, you’ve been, you know, buying other companies. You’ve been really doing a lot of really cool stuff. But last year when we were on the show floor, it seemed like everyone was talking about AI, ai, AI for the sake of talking about AI, right? You weren’t last year. Now you are. What’s going on with AI and you folks?

Kevin: [00:03:15] So we while we talked about it a little bit last year, what we did is in that year we went out and built it. Yeah. So now we are showing what the future will look like in the guest room. So in terms of guest engagement, having a device in, in the guest room with a two way communication interface, sitting beside the bed or on the desk, it’s just a natural magnet for the guest’s attention. Everybody’s going to pick it up. And that’s the opportunity to introduce the latest and greatest technology to the guest. So number one, it’s getting the guest engaged. And then number two, keeping them engaged. Right. And that’s where AI comes in. So what I’ll show you is an introductory video from a hotel to a guest telling them, telling that guest about the hotel and the services in the hotel and that that AI can deliver to the guest. So we’ll just have a look at the screen.

Glenn: [00:04:10] All right. Let’s do it.

Speaker 3: [00:04:11] Hi, Kevin. Great to have you here at the historic Palmer House Hilton. And thanks for being a diamond member. Your loyalty is appreciated. I’m Val, your personal AI concierge, here to help you with anything you need, either in the hotel or out in the city. I can understand many different languages. Everything on this tablet is free, so go ahead and explore.

Speaker 4: [00:04:32] I’d like to get some extra towels, please.

Speaker 3: [00:04:36] Would you like an extra bath towel or two? Or a whole set.

Speaker 4: [00:04:39] Just an extra bath towel.

Speaker 3: [00:04:42] Your order has been placed and should be there in about 20 minutes.

Speaker 4: [00:04:46] I’m interested in food. What do you have here in the hotel?

Speaker 3: [00:04:50] Right here in the hotel. Our restaurant is Lockwood, and we also have Potters Bar. Would you like to see a menu?

Speaker 4: [00:04:57] I’d like to get something to the room. What are my options?

Speaker 3: [00:05:01] We have the Lockwood Express menu. Here it is.

Speaker 4: [00:05:04] Okay, thanks. Can you give me some information about the boat tours in the city?

Speaker 3: [00:05:09] Certainly one of the most popular is the Architectural tour, and there are several great options in the city. I’ll bring one of them on screen now.

Speaker 4: [00:05:17] I’d like to go to a top rated sushi place tonight. What can you recommend?

Speaker 3: [00:05:22] Great call for a Tuesday night. Here are three worth your time. Omakase Yume at River North. The city’s most talked about omakase right now. Kyoto in West Loop. The nigiri program here is exceptional and the room is quieter than most. Momotaro at Fulton Market. Great. If you want the evening cocktails, a few rounds of nigiri, and the energy of Fulton Market. I can pull hours, current wait times or show you menus.

Speaker 4: [00:05:49] Wow. Looks good. Can you show me the menus? An hour for each place.

Speaker 3: [00:05:54] No problem. I’ve pulled up their menus. Omakase? Yumi is omakase only at $185 per person. There are two seats available at 8:30 p.m.. Kyoto offers nigiri and kaiseki formats available a la carte starts at $22 per piece. Open tonight 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.. No reservations left, but walk ins accepted at the bar. Momotaro has a full menu, sushi izakaya, small plates and a strong cocktail list. Open tonight 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Four seats available without a reservation. Ready to book. I can grab you a table at any of these tonight.

Speaker 4: [00:06:31] Thanks. Let’s book Momotaro around 6 p.m..

Speaker 3: [00:06:35] Good choice. Momotaro it is. I see you have two guests in your room. Momotaro has availability at 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. for two tonight. Any preference? Shall I change the number of guests?

Speaker 4: [00:06:50] 6 p.m. is perfect and we are bringing a friend. So three guests please.

Speaker 3: [00:06:55] You’re booked. Momotaro Tuesday at 6:15 p.m.. Party of three under Kevin Bidner. The address is 820 West Lake Street. They’ll hold the table for 15 minutes. Scan the QR code to send the reservation to your mobile phone, and Val will be there to help if If you need us for anything else while you are out.

Glenn: [00:07:15] Wow, that was amazing. What a game changer this is. This is really cool stuff. So what does this practically mean for the hotel?

Kevin: [00:07:23] Okay, well, for starters, just having the tablet in the room for the hotel increases engagement in everything they do. For example, rooms. If a hotel has room service, they’ll get 25% more on their room service orders. But if they’ve got an AI to take that order, making it that much easier and less, you know, taking out the friction. You know, I’d like breakfast tomorrow. Would you like eggs? How would you like them done? You know, a conversation to place that order. It just makes it that much easier. And guests love new technology that’ll make it more exciting. And they’ll get more orders. And it just goes for that, the engagement across the whole property. And there’s something else an engaged guest and an educated guest will understand your property and remember.

Glenn: [00:08:14] It.

Kevin: [00:08:14] Right. And we’ll talk to their friends about it. They will come back. Yes, they will come back with their family on the weekend.

Glenn: [00:08:20] I totally hear what you’re saying because from a customer point of view, listen, you hoteliers out there are great, but even though you’re great, that also is a problem because you’re also great a lot of times equally, right? So getting in my head and having me remember that is a challenge. When you have something like the tablet and me as a guest can interact and control my overall experience more effectively and efficiently. That’s when it gets into my brain and I got to go home and go, you’re not going to believe this, guys, right?

Kevin: [00:08:48] Yeah. And it’s also the memorable history and special features of that property that they learned about from the AI in that intro video, right? That guest walks away with a deeper understanding of where they are, and that engagement will translate out to a better guest satisfaction, right? But more importantly, a deeper impression about the property that they’ve learned because they have the tablet in the room. And you had, as a hotelier the opportunity to get your message through.

Glenn: [00:09:20] Yeah. And the fact of the matter is, when I’m at the front desk, for example, that associate may not be able to share all the things that I’m thinking because they don’t have, they don’t have ESP or something like that. But if I’m in my room, I could be like, oh, pickleball, that’s pretty cool. And then go ahead and reserve a pickleball court or a spa treatment or something.

Kevin: [00:09:39] Yeah. It’s a matter of, you know, finding out about those unique, fabulous things about this property, right? That they might not have learned at the front desk. And once they’re past the front desk, what’s your opportunity as a hotelier to impact that guest journey? And here is the opportunity to have multiple multiple interactions and also to use that screen as your advertising to that guest about your property.

Glenn: [00:10:02] So that’s a really great point too, because right now we’re seeing Signature Room Service, which we talked about. I love that idea. It’s going to put the idea into my head and it’s pretty passive right there. So I don’t really think about it as a as a customer either.

Kevin: [00:10:16] Right. It just makes its way into your brain the way the best advertising does, right?

Glenn: [00:10:21] That’s for sure. All right. So Kevin hoteliers are are strapped everyone’s, you know, trying to do the best that they can, but profitability is difficult. I’m curious as to what your model is here to empower hoteliers to be successful.

Kevin: [00:10:36] And here we come back to your first question. And this is the answer to it. And you know, why have tablets arrived now? Yeah. And you know, they’ve been out since 2015. We’re now 2020 611 years later. What changed. That’s really the game changer that puts this front and center to the industry. It’s taken a long time to build the foundations under the business model that HCN came to deliver to the industry, right? We never came to sell tablets to hotels. We came to give them to hotels.

Glenn: [00:11:06] What?

Kevin: [00:11:08] Not just free, right? But with a share of the revenues we can earn on the network. Hcn stands for the hotel Communication Network. Yep. That’s what we came to do. And that network will support stakeholders that will pay to be in your room and present to your guests, and you get a share of that revenue. We write the hotel a check from the first day we install. The tablets aren’t just free, they’re a money machine, and it starts out with a share of on screen promotions. And then we are also layering in experiential marketing, which could be a free non-alc beverage or a free. Hair product that these companies will pay to give out as gifts to your guests. So we are delivering promotions along with the tablets as well as tablet marketing that will not just pay for the tablets, but also provide revenue to the hotels.

Glenn: [00:12:15] All right, so I’m going to go find a psychologist here to see if Kevin’s crazy for doing all of this. But the fact of the matter is, while he is, you guys have a great opportunity out there to empower your business and increase those profits without having to outlay any cash.

Kevin: [00:12:28] I love that, I don’t call that crazy. If it is, that’s a good kind of crazy because.

Glenn: [00:12:33] I feel like it’s my annual right to say you’re nuts for doing this, but.

Kevin: [00:12:37] Yeah, well, you know what? It’s what the industry has been waiting for. A game changer for guest engagement, for guest satisfaction, for internal hotel profitability. And we’ll pay you to put it in.

Glenn: [00:12:47] I freaking love it.

Kevin: [00:12:48] Who could ask for more?

Glenn: [00:12:49] That’s why I’m here doing these things. It’s a win for you. It’s a win for your guests. And it’s just a win for the hospitality industry in general. Kevin, how can we learn more? Wwwhcninc.com right there. Click the link below. Kevin, thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate.

Kevin: [00:13:09] It. It’s been great, man.

Glenn: [00:13:09] Hey, thank you all for being making it all the way to the end. Please like, share, subscribe this video and make sure you reach out to Kevin and empower your guests to spend more money with you seamlessly and have a great time while doing it. See you later. Bye.