Should I stay or should I go?

Remember when you were trying to find some information about your future holiday? “Where am I going to stay? Is the hotel perfect?” Before the World Wide Web was invented, people were using the word-of-mouth, but that changed with the development of the internet. In special, the increase in social media selection and online bookings has made word-of-mouth much more efficient and noticeable. (Viglia et al., 2016)

Since the booming of the social media, including blogs, networks, chat rooms, online reviews, and user-generated websites, has become the major component of consumers’ marketing and communication decisions. The information social media has about their users is extensive, allowing companies to develop targeted marketing programs on social media. Many travel sites, such as TripAdvisor and Expedia, contain an impressive number of users’ ratings of travel products, made to ease the customer information searching. Even though a traveller does not personally know the users that were posting, they view these reviews as being reliable, and that is because those people have tried the product (Lodging Interactive, 2015).

Bowen (2015) talks about how millennials, people born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, have taken over the travelling market as they are the generation that lives life through social media. They shared their memories, their thoughts, and also their encounters and based on that TripAdvisor has offered the possibility for them to share their experience in a particular restaurant or hotel. In the same time, with the vast opportunity of being fully informed about an individual product comes a higher risk of misinterpretation. Burn-Callander (2016) talks about how TripAdvisor reviews, made anonymously are affecting one in five organisations, which have to pay as much as £30,000 to put right. As the majority of review are subjective, the perception of the restaurant or the hotel can be deteriorated. With almost 230 user contributions per minute, the image of a business can change in seconds (Smith, 2016). In his article, Starmer-Smith (2016), discuss the significant impact that negative reviews, which can be made using fake accounts, can affect a small business with a few visitors. From food poisoning to racist comments, many restaurants and hotels faced false complaints posted on TripAdvisor.

Reference list

Bowen, J., (2015) "Trends affecting social media: implications for practitioners and researchers", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 7 Iss: 3, pp.221 – 228

Burn-Callander, R. (2016). Bad reviews and online 'trolls' cost UK businesses up to £30,000 a year.  Available at www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/11635195/Bad-reviews-and-online-trolls-cost-UK-businesses-up-to-30000-a-year.html (Accessed 12 Dec. 2016).

Lodging Interactive (2015), “Lodging interactive expands reputation management and social media marketing to restaurants”, available at: www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4069404.html (accessed 12 December 2016).

Smith, C. (2016). 23 Amazing TripAdvisor Statistics. DMR. Available at: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/tripadvisor-statistics/ (Accessed 12 Dec. 2016).

Starmer-Smith, C. (2016). Tripadvisor reviews: can we trust them?. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotels/8050127/Tripadvisor-reviews-can-we-trust-them.html (Accessed 12 Dec. 2016).

Viglia, G., Minazzi, R., Buhalis, D., (2016),"The influence of e-word-of-mouth on hotel occupancy rate", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 28 Iss 9 pp. 2035 - 2051

twitter.com/tripadvisor

Tickets, luggage, wallet...key?

                                            

Technology is everywhere! We are using it at home, at the work place, during our journeys and even without knowing. On this statement, hotel industry decided to follow this path and started applying gadgets and softwares to help with customer management.

During my 4day trip to London, I had the chance to visit a five-star hotel that came to amaze me. One of the things that fascinated me was the fact that they no longer have a reception and replaced the imposing desk with an iPad. In reports by the Pew Research Centre (2013, 2014), a third of American adults owned a tablet in 2013, including a majority of those in higher income households. The number increased to 42 per cent by January 2014. Same as this hotel’s new approach, more hotels are embracing the benefits of technology and give their customers the opportunity to have their check-in online or even use their phone as the key’s room. “The general benefits for customers when using hotel apps include convenient access to hotel and destination information and services, entertaining content and empowerment to arrange for hotel services (e.g. ordering room service, check-out and scheduling wake-up calls)” (Kim, 2016, p. 1535-1553). Basically, customers feel more comfortable managing their holiday through their screens than through face to face interaction. A few previous studies empirically examined the consumer’s smartphone app usage intention in hospitality settings such as restaurants and air travel (Okumus and Bilgihan, 2014; Morosan, 2014).

Behind the desk and the data that the customer uses, there is a bigger, more complex approach that uses technology to manage the hotel’s rooms. One of the first hotel brands that introduced technology into their benefit was Marriott International, which had implemented MARSHA. “Marriott’s Automated Reservation System for Hotel Accommodations (MARSHA) is a reservation network and demand management tool.” (Enz, 2010, p. 176) and it is connected to the global distribution systems operated by airlines and travel organisations. In 2005, MARSHA handled 70 million reservations and US $22 billion in gross room revenue.

Reference list

Enz, C. (2010). Hospitality strategic management. 1st ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Kim, J (2016), 'An extended technology acceptance model in behavioral intention toward hotel tablet apps with moderating effects of gender and age', International Journal Of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28, 8, pp. 1535-1553, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 November 2016.

Morosan, C. (2014), “Toward an integrated model of adoption of mobile phones for purchasing ancillary services in air travel”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 246-271.

Okumus, B. and Bilgihan, A. (2014), “Proposing a model to test smartphone users’ intention to use smart applications when ordering food in restaurants”, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 31-49.

www.sinch.com/opinion/technology-transforming-hospitality

www.traveldailynews.asia/news/article/51504/pioneering-mobility-technology-gives-guests

The importance of design

                                    

Since the beginning of time hotels have known how to attract their guests with different customer experiences or different environments where the customers feel better. As (LeBoeuff, 1987) suggests that the more customers can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and feel how wonderful it is to buy what you sell, the more value they will perceive and the more likely it is they will buy. Based on this fact most hotels look forward to a good first impression when they are welcoming the customers. A good environment, where the customer feels like home will most likely make him talk about it to other people.

It’s important for a hotel to make a good first impression by investing in the hotel’s design because the value of design for budget hotels comes in the development of the room module which is, in many ways, the ultimate test of good product design. External appearance influences perceptions of product quality, and therefore has a key role to play in adding value. Refurbishment of bedrooms, for example, usually has to take place every seven years to cope with wear and tear.

As time passes customers are expecting more modern hotels where they can stay during their journey. That’s why, overtime, wooden furniture and red velvet patterns were replaced by warm colours and a more relaxed style. The use of technology also became one of the important characteristics that a customer is looking for. Customers are more likely to check-in at a hotel that can provide technology friendly services and where they can relax but in the same time be in touch with everything around them. One of items might be a laptop friendly bedside table or Bluetooth speakers besides their bed. Customers these days are looking for a more dynamic place to stay and they want to do things faster and easier.

One of the designs applied by some of the Asian hotels is the Chil-Bo, which is one of the traditional Korean designs for furniture ornamentation. The original design has been extruded into cubic forms to stand out and be mounted on the facade of the wall behind the front desk counter and in the lobby lounge. A yellow colour has been applied to the symbol at the front desk because it possesses high visibility in contrast with the reddish brown wood panelled wall. This being regarded as one of the most important philosophies in redesigning this hotel, the visual communication replaces any written or verbal advertisement.

References

“How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life” by Michael LeBoeuff, (1987)

"Hotel Design: Renovation", Chong, Hye Sue, (1998)

"Hotel Design: The Need to Develop a Strategic Approach", Amanda West Elizabeth Purvis, (1992), International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4

http://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/international-markets/vacation-leisure-real-estate/sheraton-incheon-hotel-starwood-hotels-resorts-worldwide-nysehot-songdo-city-hotels-new-luxury-hotel-openings-2009-1194.php

"What is “good” hotel design?", Josef Ransley Hadyn Ingram, (2001), Facilities, Vol. 19 pp. 79 – 87

Introduction

Hospitality can be found in many places, that sometimes we don’t even realize we experienced it. When we think about hotels, we think about a big industry based on providing the best customer experience. On this blog I’m going to present different ways the hotels changed over time to deliver a unique customer experience to their guests.