Give Your Guests the Customization They Crave
When guests arrive at your hotel, they expect to be recognized and treated as unique individuals, with their stays tailored to their wants and needs. They expect “hyper-personalization,” with 73 percent of people stating that the brands they engage with the most recognize them on a 1:1 level.
Analytical insights provide the foundation for creating truly personalized stay experiences. With smartphones, tablets and mobile app use now ubiquitous among business and leisure travelers, hoteliers must implement mobile strategies to hit the mark when it comes to improving guest satisfaction in this area.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits this loyalty-boosting solution provides.
A mobile platform helps give guests a customized experience
A survey conducted by Oracle revealed that 41 percent of guests would visit a hotel more often if they were recognized by an employee without having to give their name, and 62 percent believe having this recognition would improve their overall experience. Savvy hotel operators understand that even beyond knowing a guest’s name, understanding their individual preferences and anticipating their needs is crucial for delivering a genuinely bespoke experience. The key to achieving this lies in your data.
Through mobile devices, hotel apps let you conveniently collect and store guest data, including preferences, interests, birthdays, anniversaries and more. Mobile devices become convenient portals for guests and helpful tools for hotels. The right mobile platform lets you communicate with your guests in real time through mobile and text messaging. You can then leverage insights from those interactions. For instance, guests often have a preferred room temperature, pillow preferences or specific items they like to see in their minibar. A proprietary app lets you track this data, so that the next time a particular guest visits, they’re delighted to find that you’ve anticipated their needs, with every aspect of their guest room already set to their personal preferences.
In addition to customizing the guest room, 8 out of 10 travelers expect relevant activity recommendations based on their personal preferences. Apps can provide a curated activity guide and make recommendations based on each guest’s circumstances and interests, such as family-friendly events for families arriving with young children, or pick-up service and ideal business dinner locations for the business traveler.
Tailored promotions boost guest experience and your bottom line
You can drive new revenue streams by offering guests upgrades, upsells and ancillary services – and by partnering with local restaurants, tour companies and attractions. However, your guests are bombarded with marketing noise, and you’re more likely to get a guest to click on an offer when it’s customized content. Research from SmarterHQ shows 72 percent of consumers will only engage with marketing that is personalized to their interests. And 74 percent of marketers report a 20 percent average increase in sales when they use targeted personalization.
Based on guest interests, you can increase revenues by serving up hyper-targeted offers before, during and after their stay. For example, if a guest used your on-site spa on a previous visit, you can notify them about a spa weekend package to entice them to visit again. Or when your app lets you know that a particular guest is onsite just prior to Happy Hour in the bar, you can send a push notification, delivering the right message at the most opportune time to get a positive response.
Personalized experiences build loyalty
Your guests expect you to know who they are and what they like. By delivering hyper-personalized, seamless experiences that delight and add value for your guests, you’ll gain an advantage in a very competitive market by building loyalty. Seventy-nine percent of consumers agree that they are more loyal to brands that offer higher levels of personalization. So, if you’re a slow mover when it comes to implementing these strategies, you’re going to lose out on market share and profits.
Hotels need to innovate using smartphones as the hub of the guest experience. A mobile platform gives you the opportunity to listen to and learn about your guests at every touchpoint throughout their travel journey, helping you build lasting relationships, exceed guest expectations and earn repeat business.
Learn how a mobile platform can help you personalize your guest experiences.
[1] Brand Loyalty 2020: The Need for Hyper-Individualization. Formation, 2020, info.formation.ai/rs/435-BMS-371/images/Formation_Brandloyalty_datastudy_vFINAL.pdf. [2] Lee, Justin. “Oracle Research Reveals Biometrics Will Play Key Role in Hospitality Industry: Biometric Update.” Biometric Update |, 4 Apr. 2017, www.biometricupdate.com/201704/oracle-research-reveals-biometrics-will-play-key-role-in-hospitality-industry. [3] “Hotel Marketer's Guide to Personalization.” Cendyn, 16 Dec. 2019, www.cendyn.com/library/hotel-marketers-guide-to-personalization/. [4] “Privacy and Personalization Report.” SmarterHQ, smarterhq.com/privacy-report.