Okay so my survey was not scientific in any way. I merely asked the question on my Facebook status, “If I were to say the words “future of hotel booking”, what words come to mind?”
I wanted to get feel of what my network, biased towards frequent travellers, thought about the subject – and well, obviously they do because I got many and varied responses.
“Mobile” and “online” stood out a lot. Other words used commonly were “instant”, “contextual”, “personalised”, “visual search” and “local”. One or two felt it could be more fun, using words like “Gamified” and “Quirky”.
One dared to dream, “All my basic preferences recorded and fulfilled, no questions asked… Preset room temperature and lighting, correct charging and connection cables, login free wifi, right mix of hangers, welcome amenities I will actually use.”
Some dared to hope – “direct”. One or two were more sceptical. “The future of hotel bookings will be in the hands of a small number of giant OTAs and … in the hands of mankind’s Joe Public as they DIY,” said one.
Another agreed, “the lion share in the hand of intermediaries, not only traditional OTAs but TripAdvisor as well as other Metas with direct booking functionality…booking on most hotel sites is still not great and the entire hotel supplier.com keeps running behind the UE curve…”
Someone used just one word “Google” while another added, “It will get sewn up by Google, Apple or Amazon in a similar way to music and books.”
Yet another yearned for the good old days – “back to human personal service” – although I suspect that might be layered with some AI perhaps?
My curiosity about this topic was sparked by the revelations of a study just released by Sabre Hospitality Solutions, the first in a series of reports that aim to position it as a thought leader in the industry. And I was pleased to note that most of the ideas and concepts expressed in my random Facebook poll are covered in Sabre’s “Future of Hotel Booking – A Guide To Hotel Retailing” study, conducted by PSFK Labs.
The future, according to SHS, covers three themes – World as media, Intimate Intelligence and Instant Service.
Let me tackle them one by one.
- World as media
This means hotels will have the ability to inspire people at any point in their journey to access in-context information and book instantly. “The in-context suite is embedded within the booking engine so that people can transact within the environment,” said Andrew Cox, vice president Asia Pacific for SHS.
The facility is already available but “it’s still quite new to the hotel industry. While there is huge interest, there is not the widespread adoption and so the first people to adopt it will be forerunners.”
Kimpton Hotels new website takes you beyond the hotel world
He said it’s up to the hotel to decide what they wish to display. Kimpton Hotels, the boutique hotel group, in its new website unveiled recently, plays up content beyond their hotels and retained an initial stable of 16 content producers around the country. Kathleen Reidenbach, SVP of marketing at Kimpton Hotels said, “Our goal was to ensure that our digital experience really matches and aligns with the hotel experience, or the feeling you have when you walk into one of our hotels.”
“It’s about providing more intimate journeys for the guests when they enter the website. One frustrating thing for customers using hotel websites is seeing packages that are of no relation to the booking engine and you have to hope the package is available. In-context takes the guess work away,” said Cox.
Hotel examples cited in the study: Marriott’s hidden location-based perks for hotel guests – http://www.psfk.com/?p=264507 and Hilton’s Book Rooms Through Instagram.
- Intimate Intelligence
No this is not the new tagline from Victoria’s Secrets but what it means is it allows hotels to offer services tailored to the known preferences of the traveller and allows customers to choose their own journey.
“Profile services in the back end of the CRS are being cross-referenced as the customer is going deeper down in the journey. Not many hotel loyalty programmes are integrated with the booking engine,” said Cox.
So, based on intimate intelligence, the future is “every single customer will have a tailored offer”.
Some examples:
Lucy who greets you by name, hooray.
• Virgin Virtual Hotel Concierge, Lucy – http://bit.ly/1DazeVz, https://virginhotels.com/about-the-app/ – which greets guests by name and offers full concierge services.
• True & Co – 16 questions help women find their perfect bra. Imagine if there were 16 questions that would help women find their perfect hotel room
True & Co helps women find their perfect bra in 16 questions – imagine finding your perfect hotel room with just 16 questions.
- Instant Service
The future is also about real-time access to the hotel concierge – like a live chat – which will make hotels seem like the destination expert.
Example: Conrad Hotel – Instant Access To Hotel Concierge – http://bit.ly/1qrc5Zf, http://bit.ly/1OC7xvw
And more and more customers will also want to “book on the fly”. Hence apps like Booking.com which enables last minute booking in two taps and HotelTonight which offers last minute deals for same-day travellers nearby.
And yes, customers will also want to “reserve in a click”. Examples – LoungeBuddy which automatically compares VIP memberships to find best airport lounge or Zappos which sends reminders to runners to update high mileage shoes.
This is a very useful study and what I like about it, beyond the trends, are the examples (I have only cited a few here) and the how-to bit – the implications of each theme on hoteliers and what they can do about it.
The study also offers scenarios that follow travellers with differing needs and reasons to travel – but that’s always the harder bit. No two travellers are the same and, as we know, a lot of unexpected moments can happen in a trip but it does offer examples of touchpoints where hoteliers can insert themselves into the journey.
All in, it adds to the body of knowledge needed to transform hotel retailing in the future because transform, it must.
You can download the report here.
Photo credit: Top – istock photo
