Top 6 Places to Put Digital Signage in Hotels
Proper signage creates an excellent first impression and guides guests across your establishment. Traditionally, hotels used metal or acrylic panels, paper signs, and artwork to communicate with visitors. Today, digital signage has emerged as the most effective communication platform, as digital displays attract 400% more views than static signs.
However, there are many considerations to make during digital signage installation, including readability, security, content type, and technical difficulties. Most importantly, you have to identify suitable placements to ensure the right audience consumes your content. Start by scoping out some high-traffic areas like lobbies, lounges, elevator waiting areas, and food courts.
Top Placements for Hotel Digital Signage
Highly-visible digital screens let guests know that you are modern, professional, and luxurious. The top placements for digital signage in hotels are:
1. Hotel Lobby
Digital signage livens the lobby via dynamic and eye-catching content. While first impressions matter in any business, how a visitor first perceives your establishment sets the tone for their stay. As the heart of your hotel, the lobby shapes a guest’s first impression. Fortunately, digital signs help hotels create warm and inviting lobbies that enhance the guest experience.
Hotel lobbies perform various services, from check-ins, social hangouts, and information hubs. Digital signage can enhance the functionality of your lobby by simplifying the check-in process and displaying relevant notices.
For instance, interactive kiosks allow guests to check-in by themselves and browse offers and amenities. A slideshow of rooms can encourage visitors to upgrade while property highlights display your facilities. Typically, crowds gather at the front desk at peak times and overwhelm employees. By allowing automated check-in, you reduce queues in the hotel lobby and enhance the visitor experience.
If you want to deliver memorable first impressions, video walls bring your color schemes, logos, and other brand elements to life. Additionally, video walls stream user-generated content from different social media channels to build social proof.
The safety of guests and staff is a top priority for hotel managers. Fortunately, lobby signs broadcast emergency alerts and safety instructions in real-time to protect visitors. These signs can guide hotel guests to safety in case of fires and warn travelers of bad weather.
2. Entrance (Welcome Boards)
High-definition hotel signs dazzle guests after a long flight or tiring day on the road. In addition, welcome messages on bright digital displays let visitors know they can expect a high standard of service.
You can display different content on entrance signs, such as event schedules, nearby attractions, weather updates, and customer reviews. Your guests are also interested in the hotel’s amenities, and digital screens are the perfect medium to promote restaurants, pools, exercise facilities, conference rooms, and spa and wellness amenities. Further, let your visitors know what they can expect during their stay, from healthy meals, luxurious bedding, pet-friendly rooms, and daily newspapers.
Usually, hotels need to display real-time information like weather alerts, check-in times, taxi phone numbers, shuttle times, and airline departure and arrival times. All you need is powerful digital signage software to pull information from various sources.
3. Wayfinding (Touch Kiosks)
Commonly, hotel guests arrive tired and groggy, and the last thing they want is to find their way around a hotel complex. What’s more, large hotel chains with nearly identical rooms and hallways feel like a maze without proper hotel signage.
Thankfully, digital wayfinding systems facilitate movement in any establishment by showing interactive maps, building layouts, and directories. Your guests can search for different amenities on the touchscreen maps and receive turn-by-turn directions that simplify navigation. Further, you can show nearby tourist attractions, ATMs, and the contact information of hotel-approved guides.
Hotels that host many events, trade shows, seminars, expos, and workshops benefit immensely from wayfinding signs. For instance, digital signs in hallways guide attendees to meeting rooms and cafeterias and show added information like start times, agenda, and speakers. Moreover, digital signs promote sponsor brands for extra revenue.
Hotel digital signage solutions also offer multi-lingual support to cater to all guests. For hotels with interconnected properties, guests expect a smooth and familiar stay in every location. With digital signs, hotel guests quickly choose the preferred language and receive instant wayfinding information.
4. Elevator (Inside)
The elevator is a unique area for effective visual communication as occupants are confined in a small space with few distractions. High-quality videos, property highlights, and flashy slideshows of events will grab people’s attention in elevators and keep them glued during the ride.
However, don’t overwhelm occupants with too much content. Instead, promote amenities like wellness centers, fitness classes, bars, lounges, and upcoming events. If you want to encourage guests to check out a restaurant, display a mouth-watering photo, opening hours, and a digital menu. Pay attention to the sign design, as too much text or graphics overwhelm travelers.
Since people take the elevator a couple of times a day, digital signs can help you reinforce your hotel’s brand. Embellish the digital content with your logos, colors, and fonts and tell an engaging brand story that inspires brand recognition. A slideshow of smiling staff, customer reviews, and social media snapshots are great ideas to enhance brand loyalty. Additionally, elevator signs show real-time emergency information that protects guests and employees.
5. Elevator (Outside)
Elevator waiting areas are top placement for hotel signage as they fascinate guests and advertise hotel amenities. Since digital signage systems allow remote updates, you can publish different kinds of content to excite your guests.
For example, event and schedule listings engage visitors looking for new experiences, while neat directories improve navigations in your complex. Elevator signs are also the perfect medium to show people offers they can’t refuse, whether a sea-facing room, room decorations, or spa discounts. Further, captivate your audience with Instagram posts on dynamic displays and live videos from hotel events.
6. Employee Break Room
Effective employee communication keeps hotel operations running smoothly. On the other hand, inadequate communication leads to business failures and disengaged employees. As it stands, 97% of employees believe that communication affects how well they perform their daily tasks.
Digital signage is the best medium to strengthen internal communication. One of the top benefits of break room signs is reaching deskless workers like the kitchen staff, front desk, concierge, housekeeper, spa manager, parking attendant, and porter. Since most hotel workers are always on the move, they don’t access emails and internal communication platforms as often as their desk counterparts.
Break room digital signs engage all employees via eye-catching imagery, graphics, and high-quality videos. You can use digital signage to inform, engage, and entertain your team. For instance, digital screens can show your hotel’s mission and vision and reinforce company values, while safety instructions remind employees of important protocols.
Break room signs are also excellent mediums for employee recognition. When you don’t recognize your team for their hard work, they are likely to be unmotivated, resulting in lower productivity. More specifically, recognition raises employee productivity, engagement, and performance by 14%.
Digital screens can highlight outstanding employees, a message from the CEO or a slideshow of team images to show employee gratitude. Additional content ideas include event schedules, occupancy rates, and best practices.
High-Traffic Areas Make the Best Digital Signage Placements
Signage placement is vital when installing digital signage placements as you want your target audience to engage with your content. High traffic areas like the lobby, hallway, elevator waiting area, and entrance are top placements for signage in hotels. Additionally, furnish your break room with bright screens that update and inform employees. Ultimately, digital signage for the hospitality industry enriches the guest experience.