Fingi uses smartphone as new mobile platform for UK hotels
Product details
In partnership with Samsung, Fingi provides each hotel room with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, pre-loaded with its own app and services.
Guests can use the app to make reservations, operate room controls including lights, air conditioning and the TV; make use of 3g connectivity outside of the hotel and the Wi-Fi inside the hotel. They can then save all of these preferences for the next time they attend another same-branded hotel.
Fingi also gives the hotel a unique two-way communication with the guests. If you’re running a happy-hour special, for instance, you can let the guests know in a very unobtrusive way, as it comes through the app.
The app also provides the hotel with analytics, which is useful for providing data services and getting to know their customers better.
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USP:
While there are other in-room entertainment solutions and apps on the market, Fingi claims to be the first to use the smartphone as opposed to a tablet to combine communications, room controls and hotel services.
Availability:
Fingi is available to all UK hoteliers now and is currently in use at at the Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites London Stratford City for the duration of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
Cost:
Fingi offers a variety of business models depending on the hotel and its requirements. There’s a turnkey model which also depends on the current infrastructure of the hotel; a good Wi-Fi signal is important.
There is also a business model where Fingi finance the capex and take a slice of the occupied room rate; and a model where there’s no capex involved.
Alternatively, the hotel can upcharge a small amount for the use of the smartphone and app, and Fingi can then take a revenue share.
Why you should buy it:
“You might go to a hotel because of its location or its design, but what builds brand loyalty is service,” said Carl Ruben, vice president f business development at Fingi. “nhancing the guests’ service by dividing the customization of their preferences, that’s what builds brand loyalty.
"It's a great yield opportunity for the hotel as well."
The app offers: -
- Enhanced service to your guests
- Better analytics about your guests
- A mobile strategy which takes advantage of the device that the majority of guests already have in their pockets
Other products on the market:
Locatel recently launched a new multimedia ‘infotainment’ system that hoteliers can connect to in-room TVs to provide guests with news feeds, TV, radio and on-demand films.
