Welcomer is a new type of Android app designed for those in the tourist or hospitality business. Basically, anybody that needs to meet and greet guests, make sure they’ve arrived safely or picked up their car; that sort of thing. Welcomer is an Android app that allows hotels, car rental business, trip organizers and more to see a list of their guests and their contact info from their smartphone or tablet; getting rid of the need for paper and speeding up the process. It’s a new app, so there’s definitely room for improvement but is this something that you could make use of in your business? Read on to see.
Getting started with Welcomer is a little bit confusing, but you’ll need to start with downloading the app from the Play Store.
You’ll need to then create an account and choose whether or not you’re an Agent or a Welcomer. In lamens terms, a Welcomer would be someone who accepts guests, while an Agent would be say, someone at a booking agency.
Once that’s done, you’ll need to add some information on guests or clients that will be arriving, after all the point of the app is to welcome people.
Once you’ve added a number of guests and assigned a Welcomer, which would be say “Lake View Hotel” or something similar, then you and the Hotel will be able to see a guest list. Then, when someone is welcomed by the Welcomer, the Agent will also be notified and the Agent will know that things are going okay.
That’s pretty much all there is to it, which makes Welcomer really quite simple. It’s best used to keep track of clients and such on trips abroad or that sort of thing, and there seems to be a lot of potential here.
Welcomer is like a lot of other apps that have just hit the store; there’s a lot of potential here, but it’s hard to see it. The problem with Welcomer is that there’s little incentive for everyone to get onbaord with the app, it doesn’t link into Google Calendar, or something to that effect so it feels a little basic. While I get that the app is designed to make things easier, it does seem like one more thing to worry about. Having said that, the app has only just got off the ground, so there’s definitely room for improvement and over time I’m sure future updates and such will bring with it some polish and clean things up a bit. The concept is a compelling one, and I agree that it will clean things up and reduce the amount of paper needed in the tourist business. With an interactive tutorial of some sort, I can see Welcomer becoming much easier to use and something that people will definitely be interested in using, but that might be a long way off yet.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Welcomer runs fairly quickly and there’s no need to wait around for anything.
- Theme (4/5) – The orange and blue theme is nice and certainly gives the app an official, yet warm feel and is fairly inviting.
- Features (3.5/5) – I get the appeal of the concept, and I can see why it’d be great in the tourist industry, but right now things feel a little empty, like there’s something missing from the app. Over time though, I can see this getting much better.
- Overall (4/5) – Welcomer is an app that has a lot of potential, and it’s very much functional right now, but it’s not something I can see being useful for everyone out there. Over time though, we might be saying something very different.
Pros
- Can help to reduce how much paper people are using around the business.
- Great way of keeping those who organize the events and those who take care of their accommodation or their car in sync with each other.
- Easy to use, no need to mess around with complicated systems or anything like that.
- Works completely from your Android phone or tablet.
Cons
- Interactive tutorial would be great to help get new users onboard, although this and other features are planned.
- Link to other services would make Welcomer a little more appealing I think.
Welcomer is like many apps just getting started, it’s fueled by a great idea, and there’s a lot of potential on offer here. It’s a great idea that I’m sure will get better over time, and with some more direction and perhaps links to other services, I can see Welcomer being used by the likes of AirBNB hosts, car rental services and even small Hotels. As of writing however, this is a niche app that would perhaps be better for smaller businesses rather than large corporations.