Differentiating Your Hotel's Guest Experience
3 Trends Expected to Boom and 10+ Ways to Embrace Them
Innovation is the name of the game in hospitality as hotels hunt for new ways to make their mark and uplevel guest experience.
Many Guest Experience Managers are feeling the pressure to bring fresh new ideas to leadership that translate into hard dollars and work within existing budget and operational parameters.
What does this look like?
My line of work in hospitality consulting requires consistently keeping a finger on the pulse of market trends, and several are swirling about. I did some research, and the numbers confirm: three trends are likely to boom in 2024 and beyond. Read on for the findings of my research and suggestions for how they can be adapted within any hospitality environment.
Work Hard, Travel Hard: The Evolving Business Travel Lifestyle
The Global Business Travel Association reports that global business travel spending has increased 47% year-over-year to top $1 trillion, with 40% of this spend going toward lodging costs – an impressive figure compared to other categories. This is just a hair away from its pre-pandemic total of $1.4 trillion, which is expected to be restored in 2024 and further climb to $1.8 trillion by 2027.
How can hotels entice corporations with travel dollars to spend? There are several actions that can be taken, regardless of budget or level of expertise.
A Simple but Effective Exercise: A Loyalty Program Specifically for Business Guests
There's a wide range of business travelers today, from digital influencers to micro business owners to work-from-anywhere employees. Then, of course, there are salaried workers whose employers are footing the bill. What kind of loyalty program will satisfy the needs of everyone? A free stay, for example, is an appealing reward for self-employed travelers or employers trying to trim expense reports, but it doesn't offer much to salaried employees who are working their tail off.
Once again, I looked to the numbers. Anyone who has traveled for business knows it's no picnic, but the data I found was shocking. A 2018 study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that workers who spend 14 or more nights away from home per month have a significantly higher body mass index score and are significantly more likely to report poor health, no physical activity or exercise, and trouble sleeping compared to those who spend less time on the road.
This immediately brings several ideas to mind. Business guests could use their program rewards toward a free pillow upgrade (ex: lavender scented) or room spray for deeper sleep. How about a 30-minute private fitness lesson or a spa voucher? Employee wellness has skyrocketed in recent years, making the concept of a business guest loyalty program with employee-centric benefits highly appealing to employers.
The Rise of "Bleisure" (Business/Leisure) Travel
Business travel is not always strictly business. A new era of business travel has emerged, driven in part by COVID: bleisure. This is the merging of "business" and "leisure," and it's a market that has been solidly growing.
Consider these facts as they come together: 78% of millennials intentionally add personal time on a business trip, 57% of companies have a policy for employees to extend business trips with vacation time, and 74% of frequent business travelers wish their corporate travel policy included a budget for entertainment.
This is a huge incentive for companies looking to improve employee wellness and become a destination workplace. The best way to competitively position your hotel in this regard is to continue prioritizing the overall guest experience. What kind of activities or offerings will make people want to extend their stay after a busy bout of networking, schmoozing, or conferencing? This is what will position your brand as an ultimate "bleisure" destination, whether you're located in a tourist hot spot or not.
Will Travel for Food: The Many Faces of Culinary Travel
Food is truly an experience. There's something to be said about the street foods in Asia, the wine in Bordeaux, and the pasta in Tuscany. Food tourism is nothing new, but we're seeing all new ways to create experiential moments around food and drink that are fueling culinary travel. Virtuoso, a leading global network of luxury travel advisors, estimates that culinary travel has increased by a staggering 70% over the last two years. If you ask me, this is just the beginning.
As more millennials and Gen Z'ers travel, hotels would be wise to expand their palates. It's no longer just about traditional dining settings and awards on restaurant walls. It's about the excitement of a new experience and connecting with people, cultures, and traditions.
Ideas to taste test:
1. Set Sail.
Virtuoso's advisors saw yacht bookings rise 79% in 2019, and interest has maintained since then. This may not appeal to gritty adventurers, but it certainly would be of interest to those who value quality, luxe getaways. Luxury hospitality powerhouses like Aman and Ritz Carlton are already on board, and Four Seasons is preparing to launch a yacht collection in 2025.
Yachts not on brand for your hotel? There are plenty other ideas to consider. For example, sunset sailboat dinners featuring fresh-caught fish or guided boat tours that explore the history of a body of water and sample the food its people would forage. There's something for every type of niche traveler!
2. Offer a Smaller, More Intimate, or Cultural Experience.
Imagine guests being welcomed into a (vetted) local's home to share a home-cooked meal (even the best pasta in Tuscany can't compete with a local's recipe passed down through the decades). Picture walking through olive groves and vineyards followed by a tasting of the current harvest, or jungle cooking in one of the world's oldest Mayan villages. There are many ways to give your guests a cultural culinary experience that will not soon be forgotten.
3. Put the Power of Cooking in Guests' Hands.
Private or group date night cooking classes, children's cooking classes, make your own sushi, build your own food bar…the options are seemingly endless. You could invite a local farmer to teach guests how to make a farm-to-table meal, or a chef from a popular local restaurant to show guests how to make their spot's most drool-worthy meal. For children, you could do something wacky or "gross" like slime spaghetti or monster sundaes (after all, there's a reason Jelly Belly's BeanBoozled game is such a success).
This wide range of ideas gives you something to take back to your direct report, or at the very least draw inspiration from.
Healing through Nature: The Growth of Adventure-led Wellness
Adventure-led wellness has been picking up steam, perhaps also driven by COVID (one 2022 report found that adventure-based mindsets helped maintain psychological well-being during the pandemic). The Global Wellness Institute predicts wellness tourism will grow an average of 21% annually through 2025, and adventure-led wellness is a unique area of this market that can give hotels a competitive edge. Think free diving in natural healing pools, meditative hiking, and sunrise yoga at the beach. Could this be the thing that puts your hotel on the map?
Combining mindfulness, adventure, and rejuvenation:
- Remember to cater to all kinds of people and interests (ex: team building experiences for business travelers, pre-natal wellness exercises, child-friendly activities for families, experiences for those with disabilities). Offer a spectrum of experiences that whet every adventurer's appetite.
- Establish a partnership with a third-party provider. An adventure guide, for example, is insured and will provide the gear, expertise, and assurance of a safe experience. Your front desk will become a portal to adventure-led wellness with minimal effort on your end. A simpler approach could include partnering with a local yoga instructor for 30–60-minute sunrise or sunset sessions with mats provided to guests. Think about the experiences you want to create and see what companies or partners are out there. You'll give guests something different and new while reinvesting dollars in your local community.
If these ideas are a hard sell, dial things down even more by offering guests basic equipment for self-guided activities. Set up a few bikes and helmets or bird watching binoculars or sell a few pairs of running shoes in your gift shop for those who wish they had packed their own (we've all been there before). Adventure-led wellness can be as simple as a nearby jog, bike ride, hike, or the like.
The numbers don't lie, nor do the industry leaders I am in conversation with. All signs point to these being surefire guest experience trends that we'll see over the next few years.
Ready to differentiate your guest experience? Keep in mind this Gallup statistic as you plan: 70% of buying decisions are based on emotional factors, and only 30% are based on rational factors. Any new idea you bring to the table should spark something in your guests' hearts. It's not about what looks good on paper, it's about how your guests will feel. Focus on celebrating the individual and creating meaningful, lasting memories – that's what will keep bringing guests back for more.
Here's to creating incredible new guest experiences in 2024 and beyond!
Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from www.HotelExecutive.com.
