This month we all got our pre-HOSPACE conference game faces on at the Independent Hotel Show, where the theme was very much how to get to know your guest better and why that was a good thing.
There was lots of opportunities to do this on the many stands, from the rather intimate which we won’t mention here, to satin pyjamas, via good old-fashioned messaging.
Although it was less than old fashioned, it transpired. It seems a bit on the obvious side to think that hoteliers have been chatting to their guests all this time, but it turns out that the conversations are mostly around whether they could provide a credit card on the off chance they felt like walking off without paying.
This hack might have more than a passing interest in communication than most, but wouldn’t claim to know all the nuances. But it does seem as though this is not the best basis for a happy - or loyal - relationship.
Hoteliers are slowly coming to this appreciation and it is taking two strands; firstly, getting guests to do as much of the boring stuff themselves as they can. This is outsourcing at its finest and, thanks to technology, is easier than one might fear. ‘Phones and computers are only too happy to populate forms and they have all the guest’s correct details. Best the guest does their own than a harassed team member tries to read their handwriting in a pile of other scrawled-on forms.
Once the guest has done the paperwork, the team is free to deliver the hospitality, is the frequent catchphrase and no one has any objections to that. Where it becomes more interesting is how.
A YouGov poll back in 2020 found that 55% of Brits preferred a text to a phone call. A more recent study found that, within the generations, over 75% of Millennials and Gen Z would prefer to text than call. When was the last time you ignored a call? But when was the last time you didn’t respond to a text?
Texting has given the user control over their communications. This control increases when you are communicating in a foreign language, with hotels investing in messaging software which allows translation, putting all parties at ease and no one receiving their burger done the wrong way.
And once chatty, the guest tends to buy ancillary services as well as giving you more information about themselves which helps you tailor their stay and any future stay, driving that real loyalty which leads to recommendations and repeat bookings.
So the message at this year’s IHS was that communication is key. We look forward to chatting that over at HOSPACE.
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