Phunware Sells Its Hospitality App Into Gaylord Hotels

Software and services firm Phunware, which isn’t solely in commercial real estate, sold its Smart Hospitality Solution mobile app into Gaylord Hotels, owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties and operated by Marriott International.

“The Gaylord Hotels brand consists of five properties located in Nashville, Tennessee; Kissimmee, Florida; Grapevine, Texas; National Harbor, Maryland; and Aurora, Colorado totaling 10,412 rooms which represent five of the top ten largest non-gaming convention center hotels in the United States based on total indoor meeting space,” the release claimed.

Unlike the typical company in proptech, Phunware isn’t devoted to a single vertical industry. Instead, it provides such products as data, analytics, content management, and app development to a variety of industries, including hospitality.

“Phunware’s Smart Hospitality Solution at Gaylord Hotels will assist guests with wayfinding and access to hotel details, as well as link out to Marriott Bonvoy® for reservations, mobile check-in and door access, while providing additional features to enhance the guest experience.”

The extra features include active and real-time mapping, wayfinding, and indoor position with filterable points of interest. Gaylord will also be able to extend the system in the future “with additional integrations to support business systems such as on-demand ordering, concierge communication and loyalty programs,” the company’s press release notes.

For example, a property could enable the system to accept food and drink orders from anywhere in the hotel via mobile app. The system would deliver the guest’s location with the order, allowing staff to bring the order to the correct spot.

A hotel can use a variety of communication methods to support its marketing and sales. Push notifications allow the property to send announcements to everyone using the mobile app. There are geo-fenced messages that only reach guests in pre-determined locations with special offers. Similar are beacon messages, which means triggering messages when someone approaches a location.

Another aspect of the software is to better control and direct staff. Mobile analytics and business intelligent modules can use data to better understand how customers move about the property and what their preferences are. Over time, data can find regular patterns in how people in general act. That allows better development of property and marketing design.

There is also the potential for third-party application and data service integration. That provides two important advantages. One is that, given that the integration, it’s often a way to offer services and capabilities that the immediate vendor doesn’t have the background or resources to develop. The second advantage is that, in theory, a property could continue to add capabilities into the future. Some of the available capabilities through third parties are on-demand ordering, concierge communications, and loyalty programs.