Digital Development in Hospitality (DDiH)

http://digitaldevelopmentsinhospitality.ning.com/

On Friday April the 23 I had the chance to participate like other MBA students from EMC Business School to The 2010 Digital Development in Hospitality Think Tank organized in Paris. At this meeting, various experts and lecturers in the hospitality industry attended like Liz Craig, RJ Friedlander (from Review Pro), Jean Robberecht (Fastbooking VP), Michael Praunger (Sales manager & Young hoteliers awarded)and Veronique Sournies.
The different intervention we had during this meeting were really interesting , and in the overall, they dealt, with the implications of new technologies in the hospitality industry, and their impact on consumers behaviour.
Over the past 10 years, the “high speed” development of new technologies have completely changed the way we live, the way we act, the way we feel and the way we emotionalized products and services. As a student in hospitality development, I realize that to catch up with competitors and current or potential clients, it is imperative that hoteliers adapt their strategy and adopt a new way of thinking.
The Consumer is changing its expectation:
As we saw at the conference, luxury consumers’ expectations are changing. Their use of new technologies like applications for mobile have changed their livings. Mobile app have completely changed the travel experience and expectations. Travelers are dependent , and are counting on their pocket device to tell them on a last minute time where is the nearest station, a hotel room availability and other tones of app four various domains. Obviously, it has some consequences on their expectation: exigent, fast, and personalized desire. Fastbooking is one of the applications that answer to their needs for hotel booking = secure, easy, fast to work. Otherwise the application is dead and consumer will reject it. Now, one can skip the step to the tourism office .The augmented reality is a great example of how app change our life and tend to replace some services like concierge or tourism office. It is clear that they are not totally replaceable and human factor is still important today and still key.
Strategy that may be obvious for “classic hoteliers thinkers” are no longer viable for the constantly growing “technologized” web consumers. Indeed it seems that some hoteliers already got the message and offer a brand new approach to their services. As an example, I find it interesting to site the Palmilla hotel that mainly expresses about people instead of the classic approach of expressing product or services. What tend to be the trend is websites that reflect art using tools like music, colors, sounds, litteration…. london.langhamhotels.co.uk It is argument for them to be distinctive, original and different where web surfers feel closer and intimate feelings, engagement and look for experience. Customer is now key for business, and understanding their behavior help the industry to adapt to their lifestyles, and approach them differently.


The consumer as an influencer:
Moreover, consumer play a big role as influencers. And most of us rely on consumer review before going to a particular hotel or restaurant. This is the part, that had the greatest impact on me. Before this session, I did not realized that so many people rely on the internet to make a decision. And although I am a part of them, I was astonished by the figures presented during the session: “According to Google 65 %, and trip ad 85% online consumers read reviews and 88% of those who read reviews are highly influenced by their purchasing decisions. Those figures are quite high and is the main reason hoteliers have to manage reviews for having positive impact on their business.
Only 80% of hotels pro believe that online reviews have a direct impact on revenue. How about the other? I guess they are so sure of their potential that they wrongly do not pay attention to reviews impart on their revenues. Fortunately, hotels like Barcelona Hotel has understood the opportunity of a good revenue management and possesses the most sophisticated ecommerce platform Review Pro and they look really successful. As a consequence, the more reviews there are, the better the hotel revenue will be.
So my advice is if you are an Hotelier looking for performance, take your head out of the sand and run toward those wonderful new technology tools, applications and gadgets that will tailor the industry, like mobile as a key to open you hotel room. Hope that you will get enough battery on your cell . At a certain point you would not do without it otherwise you will be completely loss are waiting behind the door..

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Saluquia Gomes Neves
Insights from the DDiH Digital Development in Hospitality 23 April 2010.