for Hotels - Singapore Tourism Board Innovation Challenge/Hotel...for Hotels 22 May 2017 ... automated linen/ uniform/ asset ... High usage of bath linen in the room results in more

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Tourism Innovation Challenge for Hotels

22 May 2017

Challenge Briefing Session


Agenda

1. Address by Ms Margaret Heng, Executive Director, Singapore Hotel Association

2. Introduction to Hotel Industry Problem Statements

3. Explanation of Challenge Process

4. Q&A


Executive DirectorSingapore Hotel Association

Ms Margaret Heng


Agenda




4. Q&A


1. Hotel Landscape in Singapore

2. Adoption of technology in Singapore hotels today

3. Problem Statements

Sharing on Hotel Industry


413Hotels

(as at end 2016)

20New Hotels

in Yr2017(estimated to

open in 2017)

vectors created by Freepik.com

63,443 Rooms

(as at end 2016)

64%Small Hotels

(less than 100 rooms)

Large Hotels(more than 300

rooms)

17%

19%

Medium

Hotels(up to 300 rooms)

Source: STB and URA

About Singapore’s Hotel Industry


Back of House Robots that can take over repetitivemanual work such as linen delivery

Front of House Robots that can take over simple service tasks such as items delivery to guests

Radio Frequency Identification to conduct automated linen/ uniform/ asset inventory count

Interactive digital solutions to enhance and deliver seamless hotel experiences.

Self Check in Kiosks for guests to self-help and not have to wait in line

Data Analytics and measurement to increase hotel revenue and productivity

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created by Sceneit

Adoption of Technology by Hotels


Hotel Industry Problem Statements


#1a

Current situation Front Office staff is required to assist guests with checking in and out of the hotel. There is a set of standard operating procedures that hotel staff have to follow to ensure that service standards and hotel regulations are met. This could be time consuming for the staff to manage.

Queues can get very long at the front desk, especially during peak hours for checking in and out. This results in a longer wait time and drop in service experience.

Main causes of problem

• Hotels need to fulfil regulatory checks - verifying the identity of the guest and checking if he is an overstayer

• Guests require help for requests and enquiries

Check-in / check-out processes:How might we automate the regulatory checks required as part of the check-in and check-out processes to save on Front Office manpower hours?


Re

gula

tory

R

eq

uir

eme

nts

Guest Arrives FO requests for

guest’s passport

Hotel retrieves room bookings and

record guest‘s particulars

Guest authenticates information

FO provides room key and

guest proceeds to room

Collection of every hotel guest’s information• Full name • Passport No. • Nationality

1) Verify authenticity of guest (i.e. identity matches passport)

2) Confirm validity of stay (i.e. checking of ICA entry stamp)

Check-in / check-out processes:How might we automate the regulatory checks required as part of the check-in and check out process to save on Front Office manpower hours?

Typ

ical

Ch

eck

-In

Pro

cess

#1a

Desired outcomes • Fulfilment of regulatory requirements• Integration with the hotel’s Property Management System (PMS), access to bookings

from all sources (e.g. direct bookings, OTAs etc), and access to status of room readiness• Payment / pre-authorisation collection• Issuance of room key for check-in


How might we collect guests’ preferences before they arrive at the front desk?#1b

Current situation Hotels require the Front Office staff to ask a series of questions to the guests to

ensure high service standards, such as whether they want newspaper delivery,

wake-up call, breakfast with their reservation, if they want a welcome drink or

hotel points, if they want to sign up for a club membership, and even how they

want their bed to be turned, their check-out time, and much more.

This creates a staccato of Q&As where the guest has to make a decision on the

spot. The staff also has to enter their answer manually into the PMS.

Desired outcomes • Allow guests to browse and choose their hotel rooms prior to arrival at the front desk, or

• Allow guests to select preferences such as newspaper delivery, wake-up calls, breakfast options etc, or

• Allow hotels to upsell to the guests (e.g. room upgrades, F&B experiences, club lounge access etc)


How might we enable effective maintenance of building and guestroom facilities through the use of sensor technology and analytics to monitor performance and detect failure?

Current Situation When an asset breaks down in the hotel, the Engineering team is only notified

when a user reports the defect. Sometimes hotels are also unable to rent out

the room until problems are fixed. Assets could include hotel room light bulbs,

TVs, air-conditioning, etc.

Main causes of

problem

Unable to identify and predict when, where and why an asset is going to fail

or malfunction

Data may be available but no analytics and management applied to make

use of it to improve performance

Desired outcomes Shorter reaction time to detect and fix facilities when they fail

Enable hotels to predict future trends relating to facilities maintenance

#2


How might we enable tracking of inventory and auto-trigger procurement of commonly used items e.g. beverages, linen, amenities etc?#3

Current Situation Every department within the hotel does their own inventory-counting

periodically before raising an order with supplier to top up used items. They

have to manually count the inventory in the main storage rooms or chillers, and

coordinate with their heads of department to relay their purchasing request via

the central procurement system.

Main causes of

problem

• Staff have to make an estimate of how much more is needed based on

occupancy forecast

• Sometimes, people forget to notice that the stock is running low, or the

occupancy changes (human error)

Desired outcomes Department managers get notified when the stock is running below a

certain level

Forecasts of occupancy rates are integrated with a prediction for how much

more stock is needed, so that the staff does not have to conduct a manual

calculation

Enable required orders to be automatically transmitted to the hotel’s

procurement system when the need arises


Linen & Bed Making:How might we autonomously transport dirty linen from hotel rooms to the back-of-house collection point?

Current situation Housekeepers spend time is carrying out non-cleaning activities. After

stripping the bed linen and collecting the soiled bath linen, the housekeeper

needs to remove them from the guest room and bring them into the collection

bin located in the back-of-house. The housekeeper might need to make 1 – 2

trips per room, taking time away from the actual cleaning.

Housekeepers typically clean about 14 – 16 rooms per shift, which means they

need to make the same number of trips to the collection bin.

Main causes of

problem

Collection point is a distance away from each guestroom

High usage of bath linen in the room results in more soiled linen to collect

and transport.

Desired outcomes Autonomous transportation of dirty linen from hotel rooms to the back-of-

house collection point

#4a


Linen & Bed Making:How might we enable hotels to automatically share count of linen sent to and returned by the laundry vendor?

#4b

Current situation When dirty linen is sent out to external vendors for laundering, the laundry

attendant documents and manually shares the quantity with the external

vendor through hardcopy forms. The items are counted again when the

laundered linen is returned to the hotel, and the count has to be matched

against the original count. This could be quite manpower intensive.

Currently, a series of paper forms are used to keep track of the linen. Snapshot of the forms: (1) Daily form: write down the number of soiled linen that are brought to the laundry room. Transfer all these numbers to a standard form for the laundromat. (2) Monthly form: Copy the numbers from the daily form to monthly-view form (with all 30 days). (3) Invoice: compare the count of returned linen with hotel’s count, and review the balance. (4) Type into Excel sheet.

Spending time managing these paper forms is highly time-consuming and unproductive.


Linen & Bed Making:How might we enable hotels to automatically share count of linen sent to and returned by the laundry vendor?

Main causes of

problem

• Lack of digitization and a common platform with the laundry vendor

• Laundry comes into the laundry room at different times, so the attendant

keeps recording the numbers (eg 5 + 12 + 7) on their own sheets of paper

before finally summing this up for the laundry vendor (with a separate count

for each type of linen)

Desired outcomes Eliminate paper forms

Automatic calculation

Common platform that both the hotel and the laundry vendor could use

Enable analytics to determine frequency and type of loss

#4b


Linen & Bed Making:How might we enable housekeepers to speed up the room cleaning process by making a bed faster ?

#4c

Current Situation Bed making takes too much time. E.g. Housekeepers spend an average of 25

minutes cleaning a room, of which 7 - 10 minutes are spent making the bed.

Main causes of

problem

Housekeeper needs to walk around the bed multiple times to tuck in and

tighten flat sheet

There can be multiple pillows to change pillow linen (up to 8 pillows per

room in luxury hotels)

Task of fitting duvet cover can be challenging for 1 person to complete

Desired outcomes Reduce at least half the time required to make an entire bed, including

pillows and duvets

Reduce need to keep walking around the bed to tuck in the flat sheet

Enable hotel to maintain comfort level associated with use of the bed by

guests

Enable hotel to maintain bed making standards i.e. crisp and tidy sheets


How might we enable easy location of luggage stored away by the bellman at point of retrieval?

#5

Current Situation Current luggage storage management systems are manual. - when a guest

needs to store away a piece of luggage, a ticket number is issued by the

bellman to the guest. The bellman tags the luggage with the same ticket

number and stores it away in the storeroom.

At retrieval, the bellman tries to locate the luggage with the ticket number

manually. This can take time when there are many luggage in the store.

Main causes of

problem

• Too many luggage in the store

• Luggage are placed randomly due to space constraints and sometimes due

to their odd-sizes

• Number tags are small to identify

Desired outcomes Enable quick location of required luggage

Enable notification when luggage is left uncollected over a period of time


Current Situation Guests usually look to the Concierge for recommendations on how to spendtheir time, such as an itinerary for a 2 or 3 day trip. This can be time-consuming for the Concierge, especially during peak hour and they are multi-tasking between handling luggage, taxi bookings etc.

This travel advice is a valuable service, especially since it influences the quality of the guest’s stay.

Main causes of

problem

Guest might not have internet access

Concierge might be pressed for time and cannot always give customized

information

Desired outcomes Self-help platform for guests to access personalised recommendations

based on their profiles

Allow hotels to cross-sell products to the guests during guests’ stay(e.g.

hotel F&B, club lounges etc)

How might we automate personalised recommendations for guest itineraries so that it reduces the Concierge’s workload?#6


Current Situation As there are limited ways for hotels to communicate with guests (emails, calls to

operator etc), hotels may not know enough of their guests in order to delight

them (e.g. special occasions like anniversaries, birthdays etc) or perform service

recovery in the case of a unsatisfactory experience

Hotels collect feedback and reviews from guest via traditional methods e.g.

surveys, TripAdvisor reviews etc. Often times, hotels will only come to know of

the guests’ unhappy experiences after they depart, which will be too late to

perform any service recovery.

Main causes of

problem

• Hotels are unable to get information in a timely manner to be able to react

accordingly, either to perform service recovery, or to delight guests.

• Hotels are unable to cope with multiple sources of communication

Next gen customer engagement:How might we allow hotels to communicate and elicit guest feedback from alternative channels e.g. social media, messaging apps, to perform service recovery or raise service standards?

#7a


Desired outcomes • Ability to tap open source data such as social media channels to mine relevant

information about guests in real time

• Ability to perform service recovery or delight guests while the guests are still

with the hotels.

• Allow hotels to use one central integrated platform to communicate with guest

on various channels, including but not limited to existing messaging apps

Next gen customer engagement:How might we allow hotels to communicate and elicit guest feedback from alternative channels e.g. social media, messaging apps, to perform service recovery or raise service standards?

#7a


Current Situation Guests constantly provide tremendous amount of information about

themselves and their preferences, from the moment they make special

requests at time of booking to the time they check in to the hotel or dine at an

F&B outlet. Hotels may not have leveraged these data to deliver better service

experiences

Main causes of

problem

Hotels do not have a dedicated team or platform to input and store all relevant

guests’ information for better use in the future.

Desired outcomes Identify various touchpoints in the hotel environment that allows collection

of guests’ data

Allow hotels to tap on these information to provide a higher level of

customized service, e.g. pushing specific and relevant activities/ promotions

of interest to a particular guest

Allow hotels to cross sell auxiliary products such as F&B, club lounges

Next gen customer engagement:How might we allow hotels to cater to guests’ preferences effectively and raise service standards and increase revenue as a result?#7b


Agenda




4. Q&A


• Uncover new ideas to drive productivity outcomes and/ or deliver enhanced experiences

• Develop and scale ideas into commercial-ready solutions

Objectives


Call for proposal & Submissions

Evaluation & Shortlisting

Grant Support & Prototype

Development

Solution Showcase &

Industry Adoption

May – Aug Sep – Oct Oct – Apr’18 Apr’18 onwards

Innovation Challenge Process


Call for proposal &

Submissions

• Call for Proposals (18 May – 28 August 2017)

• Vendor Clinics (7 – 14 June 2017) Participants can meet and consult with STB to fine-tune your concepts and garner

feedback To set up an appointment, email [email protected] by 2 June 2017 Please prepare succinct information on your proposal concept and company

details (in no more than 5 presentation slides)

• Networking Session (25 July 2017, PM) Participants can share their concepts with hotel stakeholders and network with

potential Pilot Partners This session is by-invite only, and Participants must have attended the

Vendor Clinics to qualify

Innovation Challenge Process

mailto:[email protected]


Call for proposal &

SubmissionsInnovation Challenge Proposal

• Specify the problem statement • Describe the technology used • Include details on the expected outcomes• Describe plans for prototyping• Describe business model and development plans • Introduce the company background and track

record• Provide an Expression of Interest letter from

Committed Pilot Partner

To submit a Proposal, please complete the Proposal Submission Template, which can be found on the Challenge website.

WHAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE


We Are NOT Looking For

Replication of off-the-shelf solutions

Consultancy services

Increasing resources (e.g. manpower, time, etc.)

Call for proposal &

Submissions


Submission Deadline: 28 August 2017, 1800hrs SGT

Please submit your Proposal via email to [email protected]

For clarifications, you may contact us at this email as well.

Call for proposal &

SubmissionsSubmission Deadline & Contact



1. Strength of Proposal Ability to address the problem statement comprehensively and with clear

expected outcomes indicated e.g. improved productivity, increased competitiveness, etc. Considerations would include: • Cost effectiveness for adoption• Degree of scalability in industry

Innovativeness of solution and/ or differentiation from existing offerings (e.g. first in the industry)

2. Company Assessment Experience & Skill-sets Track record Past projects/ Client references

Evaluation & Shortlisting Evaluation Criteria


Grant Support & Prototype

Development

• Successful Participants will be informed of the results of their proposals by October 2017

• STB will co-fund up to 70% of the qualifying costs for prototype development

• Funding will be disbursed on a reimbursement basis, subject to key milestones and receipt of 3rd party audited documents

• Participant must be an entity registered in Singapore to qualify for funding

Grant Support

Prototype Development

• Development and implementation period could span approximately 6 months


Solution Showcase &

Industry Adoption

40%Development of

solution prototype

• Successful prototypes will be showcased at relevant industry platforms, where appropriate.

• STB may work with Successful Participants to scale up the adoption of successful solution proposals to the rest of the hotel industry.


1. Vendor Clinics• Register interest via email by Friday, 2 June 2017• Prepare succinct information on your proposal concept and company details (in

no more than 5 presentation slides)

2. Proposal Submission Deadline• Submit the soft copy of the completed Annex A: Proposal Submission Template

via email, by Monday, 28 August 2017, 1800hrs SGT

3. For more information• Challenge website –

https://www.stb.gov.sg/Pages/Hotel-Innovation-Challenge.aspx• Email - [email protected]

Summary



Submission of Proposals

1. May STB introduce me to a hotel I can work with prior to submission, so that my proposal can be more customised and relevant?

• We strongly encourage all Participants to leverage their existing contacts with hotels, to better understand and contextualise the problem statements for prototyping.

• The clinics and networking sessions organised by STB however are additional opportunities to learn more about the industry and to connect with hotels.

2. How many proposals may I submit?

• Each Participant may submit one (1) proposal per problem statement as the lead applicant (whether as an organisation or as a consortium). This is encouraged to ensure that resources are best optimised towards developing a solution well.

• All companies may participate in both Hotels and Travel Agent Challenges.

FAQ


3. May I submit proposals on prototypes which I had previously piloted in another hotel?

• No, proposals replicating a prototype without a certain degree of customisation and/ or replicating off-the-shelf solutions, will not be accepted. The customisation is required to ensure a holistic address of the hotels’ industry needs. Should this be found as a replicate, the proposal will not be shortlisted.

• STB will however, accept proposed solutions used in other industries (such as in hospitals, banks etc.) which have been adapted and/ or customised to the needs of hotels.

FAQ


Prototyping Stage

4. Can STB share what datasets will be made available for prototyping? And what type of data do hotels have now?

• STB will not be providing any hotel data.• All Participants may work off the basis that hotels will be able to provide POS and CRM

data. This should be validated with the Committed Pilot Partner.

FAQ


Organiser: In partnership with:

Supported by:

Thank You


https://www.stb.gov.sg/Pages/Hotel-Innovation-Challenge.aspx

Documents

for Hotels - Singapore Tourism Board Innovation Challenge/Hotel...for Hotels 22 May 2017 ... automated linen/ uniform/ asset ... High usage of bath linen in the room results in more