The New Hotel Guest Experience

As Americans slowly return to travel, guest expectations surrounding the experience have changed significantly. From the time they begin their first internet search to the time they leave your property, they desire a clean, safe environment filled with personalized touches and minimal inconveniences. To deliver on these expectations, however, may require that hotels rethink the way they have “always done” specific processes. It might also require an investment in new technologies. Here, we’ll look at what exactly guests want and how some hoteliers have been able to meet those guest expectations — from booking to checkout. Karen Stephens, Chief Revenue Officer, Revinate recommends that hotels make it easy to evaluate their outdoor experience during the discovery/booking phase. There are three effective ways to do this, according to the CRM provider: Feature outdoor space and experiences within marketing campaigns, update website and OTA listing photography to showcase the property’s outdoor features/experiences, and drive reviews or testimonials that speak specifically to the outdoor experience. Potential guests will also be carefully considering the measures a hotel is taking to mitigate risk for COVID-19 transmission among staff and guests. “Guests want to review and understand what safety and health precautions hotels have implemented across the property for a low-touch/contactless experience and how it will impact their entire stay,” says Tanya Pratt, VP of strategy and product management, Oracle Hospitality. “Health and safety are the driving force behind consumer’s changing expectations. Industry recovery is dependent on putting the changes in place that will ensure consumers feel comfortable traveling again both for leisure and for business.” Paul Barron, EVP Client Engagement, Hospitality, Amadeus, agrees, noting that communicating the hotel’s unique “culture of clean” should be easy to find and clearly understood by guests whether they are using booking channels, on the hotel website, using the hotel call center, or reading emails from the brand. On the hotel website, specifically, hotels should list specifically what their brand is doing to keep everyone on-property safe. Allan Nelson, CEO and co-founder For-Sight, encourages hotels to list their enhanced hygiene measures, physical distancing measures, and active reduction in physical touchpoints. Ultimately, “hotels that can effectively meet the primary need for sanitation and safety and clearly convey this through all booking channels and communication touchpoints will emerge as the leaders,” Barron believes. “In many instances, hotels will have to identify how to do this with reduced staffing, creating an increased need for technology to help automate and optimize processes. Leveraging connected technology solutions across the marketing, booking, communication and on-site engagement will allow hotels to deliver the ideal guest experience to create loyal, returning customers and achieve both short and long term success.” In addition to communicating sanitation/safety measures, Nelson recommends that hotels also make their flexible booking and cancellation policies easy for guests to understand and find. “While guests are eager to travel, they need reassurance that should the situation change suddenly they are protected,” Nelson says. “Making sure that your cancellation policy is clearly written, takes into account the unpredictability of the situation, and is available during a guest’s research is likely to make them feel more confident in booking.” One of For-Sight’s partners, online reputation and feedback expert GuestRevu, recently conducted a survey of 2,500 travelers and found that 67% of respondents said that a hotel’s cancellation policy would affect their booking decision. Remember, “consumers expect the guest booking experience to account for everything that’s different about traveling in the midst of a pandemic,” says Corey Pierson, CMO of Amperity. “Everything from language and messaging to offers and promotions needs to reflect and provide constructive answers to the new set of questions consumers face when traveling anywhere. It’s also critical to understand whether travelers are new to the brand or long-standing customers. Consumers expect their booking experience to account for and learn from their past experiences.”

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