Latest / The Modern Hotelier / #294: These 2 Things are the Foundation of a Great Guest Experience | with Branigan Mulcahy
Transcript
- The Modern Hotelier #294: These 2 Things are the Foundation of a Great Guest Experience | with Branigan Mulcahy === David Millili: Welcome to a special HITEC episode of The Modern Hotelier, hospitality's most engaged podcast. Make sure to follow, like, subscribe and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. Steve, who do we have on the program? Steve Carran: Yeah, David, today we have on Branigan Mulcahy, the CEO and co-founder of Virdee. Thanks for sitting down with us. How are we doing today? Branigan Mulcahy: I'm doing great. It's an exciting HITEC, a lot of activity. It's been good. It's been good. Steve Carran: That's great. So we are at HITEC, and we're surrounded with some of the top technology in hospitality right now. What are you most excited about in the hospitality technology space? Branigan Mulcahy: So there's a lot of really exciting stuff going on right now. One of the things that we're extra excited about is what we've been able to do recently with Apple and Google Wallet's keys for hotel rooms. Really exciting stuff. So we're in the process of rolling out to a large brand in Las Vegas, Caesars. Congrats. So if you go to a couple of their properties now, you'll be able to use your room key in your Apple Wallet powered by Virdee. If I were to predict, I would say that most hotels will be using this within the next three to five years, if not all. I hope so. And so it's going to be a very transformative time for the industry. David Millili: Everyone's pretty familiar with the digital room keys in the hotel apps. Branigan Mulcahy: Right. David Millili: And so unfortunately, they don't have the best reputation for reliability. How are room keys in the mobile wallets different than the current digital keys? Branigan Mulcahy: Yeah, they're very different. I think for the first time we've started to see parity, actually beyond parity, compared to just using a plastic key card, right? Because in the past with the Bluetooth digital keys, you'd have to go download a mobile app, log into that mobile app, find your reservation, find the section in the app that has a digital key, click a couple buttons, activate that digital key, make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your phone. It is a lot of steps before you can actually touch that phone to the door lock and make it all work. And so one of the great things about keys in Apple and Google Wallet is that you don't need to download an app. You can provision through a web flow, and we do that. It's really elegant, and it takes a few seconds. You can check in at a front desk and still use it. It doesn't require an app download. And then the actual experience itself when you're interacting with the lock is as fast, if not faster, than a traditional key card. Right now I'm wearing an Apple Watch, and my room key is on this Apple Watch. This lock is a demo lock, but it's like a hotel room door lock. And if you see the speed of it, it's going to be as fast as a… David Millili: As a fob. Yeah. Wow. Branigan Mulcahy: That was fast, right? So it's really fast. So see, it's locked now, and then you just tap it, and it goes. It's funny. Right? And when we provision these, you can put it on your watch and your phone at the same time. It's just very elegant how it all works. You can share it with your spouse, whatever the situation calls for. Steve Carran: And you didn't even need to unlock your watch. You didn't need to go find your Apple Wallet or anything. You just pressed it right up there without even unlocking your watch. Branigan Mulcahy: That's right. And Virdee, we're partners with Apple and Google, and we're certified to use this type of technology with the watch, and it's really elegant. It's called Express Mode in an Apple context, where it just looks for that, connects to it immediately, and can open the door. Steve Carran: That's awesome. As somebody who loses hotel keys, you can clearly see the benefit for the guest. But I have to ask, what's in it for the hotel operators? Branigan Mulcahy: Right. So one of the most important metrics for me when running this company is guest experience. And so we measure that with guest NPS or guest review scores, anything along those lines. And so when I'm thinking about what is best for the guest, this is really a nice product that they would want, right? Because I want it whenever I travel. And I try to stay at properties that we work with with this technology just because I find this to be super convenient. Steve Carran: Yeah. Branigan Mulcahy: If you're a fan of doing right by the environment, there's about a billion hotel check-ins within the United States every year, just in the US alone. And that's a lot of plastic key cards that are potentially being wasted. They reuse them sometimes, but for the most part, a lot of that's going in the trash. And so with this technology, all of that waste and production and labor around producing those key cards just goes away, which is kind of the right thing to do. Steve Carran: Yeah. Branigan Mulcahy: Yeah. David Millili: So how does Apple Wallet fit into the Virdee vision of the future for the guest journey? Branigan Mulcahy: Right. So what we specialize in—our Virdee, like, what is that name, right? It's kind of a play on the acronym Virtual Reception Desk, VRD. And what we've always built are agentic software tools that really replicate what happens at the front desk of a hotel, and there's three major things that happen. You have communication, and so we have AI-powered, two-way communication tools. The second thing is the ability to action the transactional aspect of the front desk. So I can check somebody in, I can update their payment information, I can verify their identity. I can put them in a "Hey, you're checked in, but your room's not ready" status and then notify them when it is. I can upsell them into a better room or a suite, a late checkout, early checkout. So all of those things are kind of that transactional aspect. That's number two. And the third thing that a front desk agent does is they give you a key to your room, right? Right. Like, you've got to be able to get into the room, right? And so if you don't have all of those three pillars, it's not a complete digital guest journey or digital guest experience. And so we specialize in that. And so I think applicable to any hotel anywhere in the world is a digital two-way communication tool paired with room keys and wallet. And whether you want to have self check-in or not, that's up to you. If you're a busy hotel and it makes sense to do that, right, do that. But you want to be able to talk to the guest and answer their questions and support them in the way they want to be supported, and you want to get them into their room. And if you can do those two things elegantly, you have a great digital experience, a foundation for a digital experience. Steve Carran: Agree 100%. So speaking of the guest journey, with AI being the talk of HITEC, how is Virdee thinking of AI's role in the guest journey and the guest experience? Branigan Mulcahy: I mean, it is critical and pivotal to any digital guest journey that a brand can build today. And a lot of people are talking about AI when it comes to booking, and that's the right conversation because you want to make sure that you're optimized for AI-powered search, and that all makes sense. But when you're interacting with a guest on property, which is what Virdee specializes in, you want to make sure that if a guest asks a question, they get an immediate response, right? If the guest is frustrated, they're escalated to a human immediately. And you have the ability to serve them, put in tickets for a fresh set of towels. You do all these things that can be powered by AI effectively. Even when it comes to putting them into the right room, are you a high-value guest? Maybe you want to go back to the same room every month that you come back to this property. With tools like AI, you can start to set up those things automatically without relying on notes in the PMS. David Millili: How should hotel operators be thinking about the balancing of efficiency gains from AI with the industry's core mission of delivering personalized service? Branigan Mulcahy: It's a great question, and I get this a lot. Does this make sense in the luxury sector? Where does this make sense? So there are a few things that all hotels have in common. They all have check-in, right? They all have room doors. They all have these things, whether it's an economy property or the highest of luxury. So there are certain common elements there, right? Where does AI come into that? It's making sure that you're delivering to the guest what they want in the moment. And if we can take some of the awkward transactional processes off of the human's plate, so your on-property staff members, if you can say, "Hey, I'm going to take care of the give me your credit card, give me your driver's license, give me this, that, or the other," if I can remove that to a software encounter, maybe even before you get to the property, that ultimately results in a better guest experience down the road. Because then your on-property team members, instead of asking you for your driver's license, they can recognize you and say, "Hey, welcome. I got you checked in. I saw that you already added your key to your Apple Wallet. Can I give you a plastic key, or can I book a reservation?" You can deliver that extra mile of human-touch service while removing the awkward transaction. Steve Carran: So looking ahead five years, what will distinguish those who are leading in AI from the people that are falling behind, and what should hotel owners and operators be thinking and talking about to be leaders in AI? Branigan Mulcahy: Right. So it kind of depends on what type of hotel you are. If you're a franchise organization, your primary KPI is really net unit growth. So am I adding more and more franchises to my platform? There's a lot of brands out there, and I truly believe that the brands that lean into this and effectively execute on an AI strategy, not just for booking but for the digital guest experience, and provide room keys in Apple Wallet, which I think is a huge driver of brand loyalty, are going to win. Most brands haven't dipped their toe in that water yet, and I think they will. The people that execute on those things effectively are going to see the highest net unit growth, and I think the ones who don't are probably going to see either lower net unit growth or maybe even attrition to other brands. David Millili: All right, so this is going to be a tricky one for you, but if you could wave a magic wand and remove one major friction point from the hotel guest experience, what would it be, and how close are current technologies like digital wallet keys and AI to solving it? Branigan Mulcahy: Right. So when I think about the way that most hotels treat guests, they kind of treat them all equally, right? When I'm a guest and I book a reservation somewhere and I walk in the front door pulling my roller bag and I go to the front desk, I'm treated just like anyone else, whether I stay 200 nights a year at that brand or if I stay zero. So if I'm waving a magic wand, I would say that a big part of our vision is to drive much better personalization for that guest so that if you're a high-value guest, you're treated as such. If you're a fraudster, you're treated as such. And if you're a high-value guest, you're not treated like a fraudster because standard SOPs are involved for everybody. And I think with software tools like the ones we provide, that is very much possible in the next few years. David Millili: That's a great answer. Branigan Mulcahy: I mean, it's possible today, but widely spread in the next few years. David Millili: Yeah. No, that's an excellent point. Well, that does it for The Modern Hotelier. This is where you can let people know how they can get in touch with you and how they can find out more about Virdee. Branigan Mulcahy: So you can find us at virdee.ai. You go to our website, there's lots of ways to connect with members of our team. Just let us know, and we'll set up a call within the next 24 hours of when you submit a form, and we're happy to help. Steve Carran: All right. David Millili: Well, that does it for a special HITEC Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Thanks for joining us. Steve Carran: Thank you, guys.