The modern Hospitality industry has gone through many changes through years. But, digital revolution has unleashed a convergence of forces that are transforming the Hospitality industry broadly and swiftly. Its impact is reinventing the entire customer experience from pre-booking, booking, and on property experience to checkout and beyond. Those who fail to adopt risk losing out to both established and emerging competitors. We believe the following trends that are impacting the Hospitality industry across enhancing guest experience and improving the operational effectiveness.
- Rise of Millennial and catering to their needs –
- 50% of the business travel revenue will be driven by Millennials (aged 18-34) by 2020
- 98% of the millenials use a smart phone on a daily basis
- 50% cite food as the key factor in selection of a Hotel
- Mobile devices as the primary entertainment channels
Companies need to redefine their strategies around the personality and habits of the millennials who travel a lot, who are the early adopters of technology, like personalized interactions that are spontaneous. Hotels have to please them with delightful and surprising experiences through the entire life cycle from pre-stay, stay and post stay.
- Leisure travel is on the rise – There is a rise of international travellers. Hotels must be able to provide services in multiple languages, personalized experiences based on the culture and unique needs of this audience.
- Visual Social Sharing is exploding –
- 2B photos uploaded and shared per day across snapchat, whatspapp, FB Instagram and Flickr
- Visual + Text empherical sharing now on the rise
- Providing Omni Channel service opportunities (Social, email, Call centre)
- Enhancing Customer Segmentation and enable Social CRM
The explosion of social sharing is causing hotels to become more involved in the social channels for self promotion.
- Increased focus on health and fitness – Guests today are more conscious about the health and well being. Hotels are responding with fitness centres, pools and spas. Travellers are expecting innovative options increasingly. In addition to this, travellers are opting for healthy food options. Hotels need to understand the personas and the habits to tailor their services to suit individual needs and enhance the guest experiences.
- Emerging roles of Hotel Staff – Many travellers are preferring technology t humans. They want to check-in digitally, key less entry etc., this provides the opportunity of the hotel staff to focus more on providing personalized services as against the routine tasks.
- Real-time Issue resolution – If a guest is not satisfied with the stay, they can easily provide this feedback on various social media. Hoteliers must be able to address these issues on a real time basis. Engaging with guests and resolving their issues through these forums help maintain good reputation, healthy and trustworthy relationships to drive the future bookings.
- Seamless technology – Innovative technology, Mobile check-in, and seamless connectivity across platforms, devices and applications are the need of the hour to provide exceptional digital experiences to the Guests.
Hospitality industry is pivoting towards Industry market leaders. Understanding this trends and planning the digital transformation will provide the hoteliers an opportunity to enhance guest experience, improving operational efficiencies and monetize across multiple channels.