Grant Thornton released research this week suggesting an urgent need for hotels to leverage cutting-edge technology to personalize the customer experience, but always in balance with the traditional human touch.
With separate research showing that plans to boost R&D spend are low across the global tourism industry, and as Airbnb’s success shows no sign of abating, Grant Thornton warns that firms who fail to act on personalization enabled through digital risk being cut adrift and growth could suffer as a result.
The new report, The Power of Personal: Hotels Roadmap to 2020, highlights a number of key pressures, including the growth of sharing economy providers, the increasing influence of online travel agents in the booking process, and the rapidly evolving needs and expectations of guests. It argues that mastering big data and harnessing its potential to provide the personalization that guests will expect and demand is fundamental to addressing these challenges. Despite this, separate research from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report finds that just 10% of tourism companies globally plan to increase R&D spend in 2016.
“Personalize or perish should be the mantra at the heart of hotel companies’ efforts to build their brands and lay platforms for long term-success,” said Gillian Saunders, global leader for travel, tourism and leisure at Grant Thornton. “But many are struggling to make the necessary inroads to in order to remain relevant to the guests of tomorrow.
“Too many hoteliers are yet to fully embrace big data. Without analytics technology and sufficiently trained staff to make sense of the noise, they can’t plot how to enrich guest experiences from pre-arrival to post-departure. At the same time, the new tools which allow for more targeted services risk diverting attention from the very skill on which the hotel industry was built – human interaction.
“With disruptors threatening the very fabric of the sector, these are crucial months and years ahead for hotel brands. Greater investment in technology and in training staff must be a priority if they are to keep pace.”
Grant Thornton’s report provides examples of hotel brands already making innovative use of data to personalize the experiences their guests receive. They include Starwood Hotels, where guests can bypass check-in and unlock their rooms with their smartphones; and the Bratislava Sheraton’s use of guests’ social media ‘likes’ to present tailored gifts upon check-in.
The report offers seven areas where hotels can deploy technological and human innovations to improve the customer experience. They include understanding that the guest journey begins long before they arrive in reception, and using ad-content algorithms to show customized offers to customers based on searches. At the hotel, technology can be developed to let customers check in, control their room temperature and even customize the room layout. And once guests leave, recording individual preferences can ensure a smoother and more enjoyable repeat experience.
“Technology is reshaping the world we live in and the hotel industry is not – and should not – be immune to that,” Saunders added. “But hotel brands must ensure that if they invest in better data management technology, they can measure its impact on guest satisfaction. Or, that they are getting the balance right between data harvesting and respecting customer privacy. To do this, hiring new staff or retaining existing employees with the right skills will be critical.
“The most innovative hotels are already responding to these challenges. Brands slowest to react to the demand for greater innovation will increasingly find themselves cut adrift.”