Door-to-door delivery services in food, transportation, and groceries are more ubiquitous than ever before. The hospitality industry has been tapping into this trend of location- and app-based ordering across hotels, resorts, and casinos. Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Md., has created a platform that allows guests to order beverages through the My Live! Rewards mobile app and have drinks delivered to their location. The program will be rolled out to the entire casino floor in an upcoming version of the app.
Brian Uran, vice president of loyalty marketing at Live! Casino & Hotel, got the idea from a summit that encouraged hospitality companies to think of their organizations as tech startups. He says he took that literally and, from there, implemented the beverage delivery platform. He adds, “This is one element of the premium and convenient services that hospitality companies promise guests. Consumers are now expecting convenient services and the ability to have service brought to them rather than seeking it.”
The beverage ordering process is simple—guests download the My Live! Rewards app, enter their name, share their location, and order a drink to their specifications. A number of different payment options are available, like loyalty points, credit cards, and cash. After ordering, a bartender receives the order on the hotel’s POS system. The drink is made, and a cocktail server is notified via smartwatch of the drink, the location, and the guest’s name.
The process is simple for both guests and staff, which Uran says allows for the best service possible. Live! Casino & Hotel looked to maintain the property’s systems when implementing the program, and Uran found that the biggest challenge was finding a way to keep systems unchanged. “We didn’t want to introduce a new system. We didn’t want to sidestep the current system. Staying focused on making it a simple process for the team members and making sure our systems were unaffected by this were the biggest challenges,” he says.
Uran says that as long as hotels keep offering compelling reasons for visitors to share information, like their location, guests will continue to use and want these services. Uran adds, “It’s the same with our rewards card. Guests have to give up a little information, but they’re willing to do that to get better services and benefits. And this program is no different. Instead of giving up their names and address, they’re giving up their locations so we can find them and deliver their beverages.”
Uran sees a future where efficient and convenient app- and location-based services continue to grow and be more prominent in the industry. “In gaming and hospitality, once it takes off here, more and more casino and hospitality companies will try something like this to where it’s almost commoditized so that guests are expecting it whenever they walk into a hospitality facility, that they can order service wherever they are. It doesn’t have to be just drinks,” Uran says.
And Uran offers some advice for any hospitality companies looking to implement an app- or location-based service at their properties. He adds, “Always put the guest first. It’s easy to think about how we as a company want our guests to interact with us because we think it’ll be more efficient or that’s the route we want them to take. But if you make sure you’re putting the guest first—and the staff right behind them—you’ll have a successful program.”
