Before you commission
Before you build a hotel guest app
An app is a clear thing to commission. It has a scope, a supplier and a launch date. The harder question is whether guests are being let down at a point an app can reach.
Published by leapSTONE
The app is an answer to a question nobody has tested
Most app briefs begin with a feature list: check-in, room key, requests, loyalty. Those come from what apps can do, not from where guests lose time or patience. A guest who is waiting for a room is not necessarily waiting for software.
Where guest problems tend to sit
Many of the failures guests notice happen between teams: the front desk and housekeeping, the booking system and the property, the call centre and the hotel. An app can sit on top of those gaps without closing them, and the guest still feels the join. Complaints and review comments usually point to the gap before anyone has named it.
What to settle before you brief an agency
- What guests are trying to get done at each stage of a stay, and where they stop or give up.
- Which of those moments sit between teams, and who owns each one.
- Which a guest app can fix, and which need a change in how the teams work together.
- The number you expect to move, such as complaints, review scores, direct bookings, repeat stays or revenue per available room, and how you will know it moved.
Why an outside view helps
Everyone inside the organisation sits on one side of those gaps. The brand team sees the app, operations sees the hotel, and the guest experiences both at once. Finding the cause means standing where no single team stands. We have worked with InterContinental Hotels Group on guest experience.
What we do first
Discovery Day is one day with your team and the evidence you already hold, ending in a written view of what the real problem is. If an app is the answer, we will say so, and the brief will be better for it. If it is not, you will have found that out before the budget was committed.
Common questions
Do you build hotel guest apps?
No. We establish what is worth building, then work with your teams and the agencies who build it, and hold the standard through to rollout.
What if the app is already approved and funded?
Discovery Day is most useful before the brief is finalised. If the brief is already out, it can still test whether the scope is aimed at the right problem.
What does Discovery Day produce?
A written view of the real problem, the evidence behind it, and what to do next. If you were already solving the right problem, we will tell you that.
Who normally asks for this?
Directors accountable for a number that is not moving, such as guest experience, digital or operations leaders. A chief executive or finance director is often involved once the case is clear.
Talk it through
Most people start with a conversation rather than a fixed choice. We will tell you whether this is work worth doing, and whether we are the right people to do it.
hello@leapstone.co.uk or +44 (0)1483 802862