While occupancy rates fell substantially during the pandemic, the hospitality industry is bouncing back. In fact, hotels in the United States saw occupancy levels nearing 67% percent in August – a promising figure for future business, since industry standards favor an occupancy rate of at least 70 percent.
With the rising influx of returning patrons, hoteliers face mounting pressure to secure their bottom line and achieve sustainable success in a new era. By turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, powerful benefits can enhance the guest experience, drive efficiencies, promote cost savings, embolden staff productivity, and ensure employee safety through rapid response capabilities.
However, when evaluating solution components like software, hardware, and infrastructure, it’s critical to identify and select suitable IoT devices capable of meeting specific business objectives. With the right device selection, short- and long-term ROI can be realized by harnessing scalability, simplicity, and speed needed for today’s challenges and whatever the future may hold.
Large Scale Deployments Require Flexible Enterprise-Grade Devices
Hospitality facilities can be undeniably expansive, with multiple locations and buildings spanning vast plots of land nationwide and globally. Prioritizing enterprise-grade IoT devices with proven resilient and scalable capabilities must be top-of-mind for successful, swift deployments.
Extendable devices like the MQflex, a LoRaWAN®- certified multi-sensor device, empower hospitality management groups to deliver upon enterprise-wide scalability needs. The MQflex is suitable for dynamic deployment environments and applications with its robust environmental rating, long battery life, and flexible mounting options.
It can attach to a wall or floor using an adhesive backing, a screw mounting kit, zip ties, or a stainless-steel ball chain that can be affixed to a magnetic mounting bracket for metal or refrigerated spaces. The device enables proven use cases thanks to its reliable design, durability, and dependability.
Leak Detection and Alerting
Whether in guestrooms, kitchens, conference rooms, gyms, or lobbies, early detection of water leaks prevents costly repercussions and mitigates risk in hospitality. This is even more pertinent in less frequented non-guest spaces like utility rooms, basements, and storage areas where leaks could go unnoticed until massive damage incurs. In the instance of damage control, detecting leaks from pipes and faulty equipment in real-time can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages – if not more – while avoiding disruptions to the guest experience and preserving critical brand reputations.
For leak detection, an optional accessory for the MQflex, the Connect Bracket, has a convenient auxiliary connector to support a variety of wired probe-style sensors, such as a 2-meter leak rope, to monitor and alert active leaks resulting from faulty plumbing or other anomalies. If a leak is detected, alerts are issued through email, SMS, and API so operators can take immediate remedial action.
Multifaceted Environmental Monitoring
Hotel guests want assurances of cleanliness, safety, and comfort. The MQflex supports a wide temperature sensing range (-40ºC to +60ºC), monitoring temperature and air quality continuously and autonomously. This helps enhance guest comfort by maintaining optimal levels in guestrooms and around hotel facilities.
MQflex devices also monitor the performance of threshold-driven events, like malfunctioning refrigeration or HVAC units to monitor irregularities. Detecting system malfunctions or equipment failures in real-time, operators receive actionable alerts for initiative-taking rather than reactive handling, stopping problems when and where they arise.
An invaluable benefit for food preparation areas, hospitality enterprises can meet safety and compliance protocols by ensuring proper refrigerator and freezer temperatures. If temperature levels should deviate, alerts notify personnel for immediate handling. Or, in the event refrigerator or freezer doors are inadvertently ajar, causing potential food spoilage, devices placed on doors mitigate these issues by detecting and triggering alerts to staff for resolution.
Total Data Transparency
The deployment of MQflex devices enables hospitality enterprises to collect multitudes of high-value data automatically. The data collected from sensors can be sent to existing systems or data lake, eliminating silos, where it can be stored and analyzed.
Leveraging user-friendly digital visualization applications poises hotel executives to derive meaningful, data-backed insights capable of driving calculated purchasing decisions, increasing customer satisfaction, and keeping operations running smoothly.
This data is also critical for understanding where and how to reduce operational costs.
Along with making infrastructure and software decisions, it pays for hospitality companies to review available device options like the MQflex to deliver a variety of powerful business outcomes.
MQflex for Powerful Benefits in Hospitality
MQflex delivers powerful benefits to hospitality enterprises seeking to modernize, optimize, and enhance their operations with an exceptional ROI via IoT-backed automation. Utilized in tandem with IoT solutions, MQflex devices are cost-effective, resilient, and scalable for enterprise-grade deployments.
The MQflex is effortlessly mountable in diverse settings and comes with replaceable batteries lasting up to five years. With scalability for the future, hoteliers can address their most pressing needs while leveraging the same wireless foundation to drive additional use cases. This enables them to maximize their investment value while providing safe, comfortable environments for their guests and staff.
