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Karan Iyer | January 31, 2020
By Karan Iyer
Technology and other trends are creating big ripples in the hospitality industry. When you know what works and what doesn’t, you can better serve your customers. Let’s take a look at 5 important trends in the hospitality industry that will help you grow your hospitality business.
Technology for smoother hotel operations
Running a hotel is no longer chaotic or difficult, thanks to modern technology and software sophistication.
Systems such as property management software and revenue management system for hotels are increasingly adopted.
Such software helps provide a hassle-free booking experience for customers. In addition, it allows your staff to be more efficient.
Focus on improving the customer experience
Providing a great guest experience is imperative for any hotel. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to improve the guest experience, from booking a hotel room to checking out.
- Use apps that can help customers find and book hotel rooms instantly.
- Use artificial intelligence, technology and cloud-based data to better understand your customers and their preferences. This will allow you to meet their likes and dislikes.
- Offer them an automatic check-in and check-out experience that minimizes waiting time at reception. Facial recognition, registration via apps, smartphone keys or portable registration technology are some ideas that you can implement.
Links with online travel agencies
Travelers are increasingly using online travel agencies to book hotels. The trend of customers using smartphones to book hotel rooms through online travel agencies will continue.
A single customer consults many travel agency websites before booking a room. Travel agencies need to come up with innovative strategies to attract customers and ensure they book direct through them.
Hotels should partner with online travel agencies. Agencies take a reasonable percentage of commission from hotels if rooms are booked through them. At the same time, they offer great deals to customers. This helps to increase hotel bookings.
Attract guests with technology
Technology has become essential in attracting guests. You can use the technology in different ways:
- Use chatbots to handle customer inquiries and give quick responses
- Allow direct bookings through apps or even chatbots
- Use hotel booking platforms and search engines to increase hotel visibility and bookings
- Analyze Big Data to better understand the customer and identify their preferences, which you can then offer in addition. This will encourage more customers to book with you instead of your competition.
Targeting Millennials
A significant fraction of travelers include millennials – who are between the ages of 18 and 34. This demographic will continue to dominate the travel space. Therefore, hotels should target millennials and strive to provide them with a better experience.
Millennials are very active on social media and share their travel experiences in real time. If you provide them with great in-room features or unique cultural or dining experiences, they will promote your hotel on social media. It will boost your business.
Focusing on the trends mentioned above will enable a hotelier to generate profits and grow their business. Moreover, it will also help you to stand out from the crowd.
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