Why Digital Hotel Compendiums Should Not Cost More
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4min read
Your guest communication solution shouldn't break the bank in time or money.
The ongoing costs of keeping compendiums updated, switching from a traditional to a digital hotel compendium shouldn't add extra expenses—especially when most solutions require costly in-room resources.
What if there were a solution that enhances guest communication and provides essential details—without any additional costs?
The Cost-Effective Solution
Our Hinfo Digital Hotel Compendium provides a smarter, more affordable alternative to traditional compendiums, often costing the same or less depending on your property size.
By using a bring-your-own-device approach, Hinfo allows guests to access your property's services directly on their own smartphones, tablets, or laptops that they already have with them.
Hinfo not only matches or reduces costs compared to traditional solutions, but offers significantly greater benefits for both management and guests.
While it won't brew coffee or change bed sheets, a reliable hotel compendium is an essential tool for enhancing communication between your team and your guests.
Value for Money
Hinfo provides our members incredible value for money, with all 4 of these major benefits compared to printed in-room compendiums, in addition to several other benefits.
1. No Dedicated Resources in Each Room
- Accessible on guests' own smartphones, tablets, and laptops they already have with them.
- Guests can connect via your property's Wi-Fi or their mobile data.
- Eliminates the need for printed compendiums, reducing cleaning and maintenance.
2. Guest Access Anywhere
- Works seamlessly on portable devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
- Guests stay connected to your property's services and local details—anywhere they go.
3. Guests Have Their Own Access
- Every guest with their own device can access your services independently.
- No need to share a single printed compendium or in-room tablet among guests in the same room.
4. Unlimited Information Updates
- Update property and local area details instantly, without visiting guest rooms.
- Saves time and costs, whether fixing typos, updating details for a local attraction or updating service pricing.
Cost Comparison
Hinfo costs the same or less compared to other compendium solutions, depending on the size of your property.
Now we are going to give you the real-world examples.
Printed Compendiums
Creating and maintaining a paper-based guest directory involves costs for paper, leather folders, ink, and the time to assemble and deliver to every room.
By our calculations, this adds up to approximately AU$40 per room.
Printed compendiums quickly become outdated, as any updates require reprinting and redistribution — a costly and time-consuming process.
As a quick comparison, for a 50 room property, a Hinfo membership is up to 51% cheaper compared to replacing printed compendiums every 2 years.
This does not include the additional time and costs required to re-print, laminate and insert details into folders for information updates.
TV Compendiums
These solutions generally require a TV adapter to be connected to your guest room TVs. These adapters connect to a central server near reception and start at AU$350 per TV per room.
A 30 room hotel for example, would need to be a member of our Hinfo service for 26+ years just to reach the initial upfront hardware cost in each room.
While this is a standalone option, some cable TV network providers also include their own complimentary built-in digital compendium, along with their media content subscriptions.
These solutions are generally only offer limited information, navigation and lack segmenting of property and local area details.
They often lack fundamental digital compendium features, like keyword search or instant access to websites, menus and auto-dialling phone numbers without having to constantly scan QR codes.
Hinfo is designed to be intuitive, easy to navigate for guests with finding the details they are looking for quickly.
This includes being able to access details beyond your guest rooms!
Unlike a smartphone which is easily pocketable, guests cannot simply carry the TV with them everywhere they go!
In-Room Hotel Tablets
Tablets provided to guests by hotels are redundant, as they duplicate the functionality of the devices guests already bring with them.
On average, a tablet such as an iPad costs AU$600, including when purchased in bulk.
A 100 room hotel for example, would need to be a member of our Hinfo service for 33+ years just to reach the initial hardware cost.
This does not include the cost for any software services to run on these tablets.
Breakdown Per Room Per Month
When comparing a Hinfo membership to other tangible solutions, Hinfo averages to just under a dollar per room per month, depending on the room count.
Hinfo is 75-98% cheaper on average for a 50 room property, compared to all other resource-based solutions, after the first full year of implementing each.
Over a decade, Hinfo is still 51-84% cheaper on average, assuming that printed compendiums are replaced every 2 years and TV/tablet hardware solutions last the full 10 years.
Hinfo offers all the benefits of a digital hotel compendium without the high setup costs — and in many cases, it saves you significant money.
Get started with our cost-effective guest digital solution by submitting an enquiry using the form below!
Date of Publishing: 19th November 2019
Date Last Updated: 3rd December 2024
