Modernization ≠ Renovation
In hospitality, the quest of modernization is an ever-evolving adventure. Hotels constantly strive to revamp their aesthetics, amenities, and services to cater to changing customer preferences and trends. However, seeking to keep up can present challenges of costly renovations and the disruption to your guests. So, the question is: Does modernization truly bring value? Can hotels renovate the guest experience without making physical changes to the building?
Undoubtedly, hotels began to see an uptick in revenue after months of the pandemic-induced slump. This glimmer of hope made hoteliers evaluate strategies for guest satisfaction and attracting new visitors to their hotels. Traditionally, hotels have renovation plans scheduled out years in advance to adhere to brand standards that have changed, modernize, and remodel areas that were not touched on the renovation prior. Does renovating truly bring a higher return on investment (ROI) to hotels?
While physical changes in the hotel bring a visual attraction, it can be costly, timely, and there is a risk of being obsolete as trends change quickly. Not every hotel can afford to do renovations as often as they would like. Therefore, looking for ways to modernize can be an alternative approach to renovating the guest experience without renovating the hotel.
Tailoring experiences to guest preferences can help to elevate the perception of a hotel. Using technology to gather data about guests can help curate experiences. Contactless check-ins, adopting AI, virtual experiences, and app-based programs can modernize your guests’ interactions.
Another aspect to explore is the quality of service. Investing in staff through training, empowering employees to exceed guest expectations, and through a culture of hospitality can significantly impact the guest experience even more than physical changes to the hotel. Using an app-based platform to track guest needs, complaints, and work orders can help ensure guest needs are tended to quickly and timely.
These applications improve communication between departments and overall productivity and organization for hotels keeping reports, work orders, preventative maintenance, and tasks all in one spot. Providing excellent quality of service can help with positive guest reviews online, repeat stays, and favorable word-of-mouth reviews about the hotel.
What guests crave more than a shiny new room is attention. NPP Investments GM Carlos Callands, Jr., found that “our property is able to win over customer satisfaction even though we aren’t new or freshly remodeled. We accomplish that by prioritizing modernization in the backend of our operations software. By ensuring our teams can efficiently keep our property clean and functioning well, we still achieve high guest scores on par with even the most modern, renovated hotels available today."
Strategic partnerships and collaborations with brands that offer guests discounts, opportunities, and experiences can also add value to a guest’s stay without altering the physical state of the hotel. For sustainability, eco-friendly initiatives and implementing green practices can have a positive impact on a brand to the environmentally conscious traveler.
Modernization extends far beyond physical renovations for a hotel. While aesthetic updates are important for hotels, renovating the guest experience by using innovation, personalization, technological advancements, outstanding service, strategic collaborations, and sustainability initiatives are just as important to add value to your guests. These can foster loyalty, create new relationships, drive repeat visitors, and create positive impressions without constantly remodeling physical spaces on the property.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott Schaedle is the founder and CEO of Quore, a hospitality technology company he founded in 2012. Quore is a cloud-based service optimization solution that helps hotel teams boost productivity, create clearer communication, and improve overall guest satisfaction.
Scott’s passion for innovation and design drives everything he does. It led him to pursue a degree in Advertising Design and Fine Arts at the Atlanta College of Art, then onto the Savannah College of Art and Design where he received a BFA in Advertising. Scott was working as an engineer in a local Franklin, TN, hotel when he saw a need to streamline staff operations and was inspired to create Quore.
In November 2016, four years after founding Quore, Scott was named one of the top innovators in hotel operations by Lodging Magazine. The company recently celebrated 11 years of serving hotels in all 50 states and 35+ countries and Scott is excited to continue its growth and expand future product offerings.