Frictionless. Definition? “Achieve with little difficulty.” One simple word that inspires new goals and ultimately, vast improvements in every facet of your hospitality operation. This is not the trend of the future — it’s the necessity of doing business today, and it’s at the core of what we do at RMS (and have been doing for over 30 years). Adding these types of tools in collaboration with frictionless-focused apps can transform the way your entire hospitality business functions. The payoff is priceless for your staff, your operation and the guest experience, which let’s face it, is your gauge for success.

Let’s take a look at some of the best strategies to eradicate friction and achieve a higher level of service.

Making Online Booking a Priority
Sure, there are still some guests out there who prefer booking reservations over the phone (especially if they have special requests) but direct online reservations are what the majority of travelers expect. Adding a Book Now button to your hospitality business’ website has some major perks:

• It reduces the need for online travel agents
• Helps boost traffic on your website 
• Gives you the benefit of direct bookings (aka: no high commission fees!).

The other cool part of this feature is that as soon as the reservation is confirmed, the guest receives an email, the system blocks that room out in the system, and automatically synchronizes the update with third-party channels — so double booking will be a nightmare of the past. Zero friction. We like that.

Channeling Your Third-Party Management Power
There are hundreds of third-party booking channels, all offering the same features that travelers have come to love: reviews, pricing specials and often-times bookings. If you want to be a contender, you need to be included in their offerings. The only problem is — keeping your rates, rules, descriptions and availability up-to-date on multiple channels could keep you busy 24 hours a day, every day. So, you can either pay channel managers to help out — or if you’re already using our property management system — just add the Channel Management feature to save time and money. Plus, our system is state-of-the-art and as always, really easy to use. You set your rates, control inventory and make changes from one place, and you can edit your property’s information and distribute it across every channel in seconds. “Achieve with little difficulty” — this definitely lives up to that definition.

Ironing Out the Kinks in Housekeeping 
First impressions are everything when guests arrive, and there’s no better way to crush that opportunity (and encounter that dreaded friction) than to tell them “your room isn’t ready.” Or worse yet, they walk into an allegedly freshly serviced room — and it’s a mess.

There are ways to avoid those types of scenarios— and yes, we offer one of them. Our Housekeeping module puts you in control and lets you take care of every housekeeping angle from one customizable dashboard. You can manage staff assignments and tasks; set up housekeeping requirements for every room (including special requests from guests); stay ahead of supplies so you never run out; check the status of a room in seconds; and provide up-to-the-minute notifications when a room is ready. Just imagining the simplicity eases your heart rate, doesn’t it?

Mobile Hotel Apps
Through the power of the mighty smart phones, your guests could have the ability to check-in, check-out, contact a concierge, order extra towels, book a spa session and even open their guest room door through your very own hotel app. For instance, Ritz Carlton’s app offers a check-in/out tab; a service request tab for towels, shoeshines, turn down service and more; a Folio tab to check recent charges; and even a “Travel Posters” tab, which are photo filters that they hope you’ll apply and share on social media.

We understand, developing a customized hotel app may be a significant endeavor to take on. But boy, as long as the bugs are worked out, it could be the key to an amazing guest experience reputation for your business. Investigate your options — this is one friction-free trend that’s not going away.

How do you create a frictionless environment at your hospitality business? Are you ramping up your technology game to make it happen? Let us know!