NEW YORK ? A Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. executive at the Mobile Marketing Association's SM2 Innovation Summit discussed how the brand is personalizing guests' stays via a new application that offers specific details about all hotel rooms in its 1,200 worldwide properties. 

During the ?Starwood Resorts Leverages Mobile to Enhance Guests? Stays? session at the Mobile Marketing Association?s SM2 conference, the executive discussed the efficiency with which the brand?s new mobile application gathers data and provides extensive details to customers. Starwood aimed to scale the solution across its global branches, bolster guest enhancement tools and accomplish these goals in a quick turnaround time.

?We have such incredible portfolio coverage globally,? said Arlie Sisson, associate director of mobile product strategy at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Stamford, CT. ?Guests are at the center of everything we do. There?s a standard that when you walk into a Starwood hotel you are met with the highest level of service and that pride flows through our mobile products as well.?

Mobile-optimized personalization

Starwood Hotels recognizes that for the hotel and hospitality industry, personalization and customization is paramount to providing exceptional and memorable experiences for guests.

The hotel brand, which includes chains such as Westin, St. Regis and Sheraton, teamed up with advertising agency Domani to create an app designed to make documenting hotel features easy for associates and searching for specific preferences simple for guests.

Guests often times prefer rooms with specific features, and the brand aimed to streamline that desire into a mobile application. It partnered with Domani to create the Starwood room catalogue app, which serves associates and general managers in addition to consumers.

The app allows associates to document each room and check off each of its features, including fireplaces, proximity to elevator and balcony views. All of the data is then collected and catalogued.

The brand believes that the app removes the chance of human error, and is an easy way for guests to browse available rooms and select one containing all of their preferred features or amenities.

Room codes are now standardized, and definitions for each documentable feature are available in case an associate is not certain if the room has it. General managers have responded very well to the app, due to its ability to filter down to which rooms have not been checked yet, and how it helps prevent incomplete information.

The app also has other features, such as curated guides for specific guides that can be tailored to customers? interests.

Consumer preferences
According to Starwood Hotels and Domani, a large amount of consumers are becoming increasingly more comfortable with personalization. If guests specifically prefer a room with a bidet or a balcony, an associate using the catalogue app can easily match them with the perfect accommodation.

While the app was initially developed as a patch-through solution, the feedback has been so positive that the brand is now updating it for iOS 8. Ultimately, Starwood Hotels and Domani acknowledge that the hospitality industry is in fact all about personalization, and catering to guests? desires at every stage of their travel journeys.

?When you think about how the apps, products and services we use are becoming more tailored to our actions and behaviors, it really starts to add up,? said Ross D?Avignon, senior engagement strategist at Domani Studios, Brooklyn, NY. ?The idea of personalization has become something of an expectation; it's no longer really the exception."

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York