Hospitality businesses live and die by their
reputations but are accommodation brands really focusing enough on the one
moment where they have the guest’s complete and undivided attention: The stay
itself? It is these crucial moments when they interact to request a service,
such as check-in, a spa treatment or for local recommendations, that will last
longest in the guest’s memory.
Now, there are new possibilities to improve the guest
experience as technologies open up and fall in cost. The future of the stay
will be one where the guest can use their own device to interact directly with
the hotel’s staff or even the hotel itself through AI-powered interfaces.
Customers will be able to call on far more services, and staff will be more
connected and effective.
Hospitality companies’ key objectives currently are to
drive loyalty and improve the customer experience in the hope that this will
drive down acquisition costs by creating repeat guests. Although the pre-stay
digital area is important and has received a lot of focus recently, it is the
quality of the experience when they are in the property itself that will truly
generate long-term loyalty and strong review performances.
From a marketing perspective, it’s the one time that
they have the guests’ complete attention. Potentially it represents a key
competitive advantage for accommodation suppliers, as they compete against
themselves and against the online travel agents (OTAs) to grab and maintain the
guest’s attention.
This paper will demonstrate the solutions that allow
hotels to facilitate better guest-focused services and communications.
We talk to the leading tech firms in the field, break
down the changes happening already and what hospitality brands should be
looking to implement to secure their guests’ loyalty in the years to come.