Note: For HOTELS’ 50th anniversary issue in September, the editors called on industry leaders to offer their ideas about the current state of disciplines ranging from design and F&B to disruption and investment. Today we present Chip Conley, head of global hospitality and strategy, Airbnb, who writes about how hoteliers must adapt to compete for share of mind in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Local and personal: These two words have been primary ingredients in the disruption recipe that boutique hoteliers and the home-sharing movement have offered to their growing segment of guests. From the 1960s to the ’80s, as the middle class started traveling more often, predictability and ubiquity were primary needs. But boutique hotels were an early indicator more than 30 years ago that a more experienced guest population was looking for a more experience-centric offering. Home-sharing has taken that trend of “local and personal” a few steps further and made it global as well. “Living like a local” is a positive byproduct of being a home-sharing guest and because the relationship with a host is so personal, they’re able to tailor the experience to meet your needs.
There are more and more digital nomads—not two-day Hilton road warriors but more like two-week Ace Hotel habitués. The more that travelers blend business and leisure into “bleisure” trips, the more they seek suggestions for personal, off-the-beaten-track experiences. In business traveler preference surveys, “discovery” now ranks higher than “indulgence.” And in this age of social media, it’s cooler to share on Facebook the discovery of an intimate restaurant on an alley than the thread count of your sheets.
Today’s hotel revenue managers are data scientists and sleuths who can help both identify psychographically perfect guests and keep track of their evolving needs so that you can deliver on those needs more adeptly. Machine learning means that the more a customer buys, the better the company can deliver on their unique needs. Many other industries have developed personalization algorithms, but hotels are woefully behind on this trend. This will become increasingly important as travelers see their accommodations provider as a “lifestyle curator” who doesn’t just provide a place to sleep but also a perfectly suitable itinerary of activities.
Creating a residential-feeling hotel lobby is more important than ever to this new version of the extended-stay crowd, and having a savvy tech guru on your staff, and not some 800 number, to solve personal tech crises is essential. Move beyond being a facility and become a facilitator for your guests. Bring the neighborhood into your hotel. Why not have a local boutique or wine store set up shop in your lobby weekly so guests can capture the flavor of the ‘hood? Offer a weekly salon dinner in your restaurant with a few local experts on a particular subject such as history or architecture so that you foster new connections between locals and your guests. Tomorrow’s hotelier is a matchmaker more than a bedmaker.
Finally, give your front desk staff—who are truly “hosts” and not “clerks”—more latitude to build relationships with guests. Maybe your staff can offer walking tours of the area or a wine hour talking about their favorite nearby hidden treasures. Guests remember people, not wall sconces.
Contributed by Chip Conley, head of global hospitality and strategy, Airbnb, San Francisco