Make way for the ‘me’ generation

Hotel guests are always evolving. Even in a hotel that caters to a particular demographic – say business travelers – each year will see customer expectations change. But beyond demographics, we see a generational shift that affects all traveler segments equally, from adventure travelers to budget corporate stays.

This shift is the rise of the "me" generation. This is not a generation in the typical sense – it is as much an attitudinal shift as it is a generational one. This new segment of society sees the world as a place that is interested in their needs and requirements – a world that revolves around the concept of "me". This is not selfishness, but a logical response to the growth of direct marketing and personalized offers. Surrounded by "individual recommendations" whenever they make a purchase, the "me" generation now actively expects a tailored transaction every time – and will be disappointed if one is not immediately forthcoming.

The hotel industry needs to learn how to interact with the "me" generation. While there will always be those who just want a cheap rate, we can predict that attracting "me" generation guests will be more about facilities, services, philosophies and "what can the hotel do for me" in terms of rewards.

The danger, of course, is that hotels do not adapt to the changing guest – and if they don"t, they will struggle. For example, imagine a hotel which runs a survey to discover their "typical guest". The results show that their typical guest is a 50 year old business man. Three year later, imagine the same hotel runs the survey again to see if their customer demographic has changed. The only thing that has changed is that their customers are now aged 53! Without adapting to the marketplace, this hotel is banking on a dwindling number of faithful customers rather than adapting to the changing customer landscape over time.

Adapting a hotel"s strategy to meet the demands of the "me" generation needs to become more of a science, and furthermore, it will be a science in hot demand as bellwether hotels lead the pack. In terms of technology, the integration of social media and mobile into customer interaction will be an important indicator of how successfully hotels cater to the needs of the "me" generation – there will be both early adopters and laggards, and knowing on which side of the divide each guest falls will dictate the mode of communication.

There needs to be consistency across all channels, whether it"s tweeting a guest a promotional code to a local cinema before he or she arrives, or sending a more old-fashioned email recommending nearby golf courses. Whenever a guest interacts with a hotel, regardless of how the interaction takes place, the recommendations he or she receives should be based on accurate customer data, knitted together from multiple, disparate sources. Sharing guest information via a CRM ensures that nothing is missed. Regular feedback from the customer ("I liked my cinema trip recommendation, but I don"t need any golf lesson offers as I"ve decided to try surfing instead") will help hoteliers build a real-time relationship with each guest. Amadeus" guest profile management tools can recognize guests on any channel, and because the system is centralized, all hotels in a chain have access to the same information at the same time. This means that hoteliers can meet a guest"s needs straight away – or even anticipate them.

While some hoteliers may worry that trying to anticipate a guest"s needs will result in spamming customers, the "me" generation thinks differently. A properly-tailored offer to a frequent customer would be interpreted as, "hey, I just got an offer for a room in this city that I regularly visit, and I"m going to make a note of that for future use." The hotel"s offer is not viewed as spam as it is actually useful for that person. If a "me" generation guest checks into an economy hotel with no restaurant or a swimming pool, they may want to be immediately sent a string of Groupon-style offers for local restaurants or cinemas. Guests may prefer an instantly-redeemable points system rather than a customer reward scheme that accumulates value over time. To some customers, the traditional loyalty program (silver, gold and platinum club members, for example) is still valid; for others, there is no interest in playing the long game. The ability to tailor that guest experience, based on what the hotel thinks they can offer to that particular guest, is going to feed into that me-centered approach. This is what hoteliers need to be mindful of when managing services and systems. In many ways, the hotel transaction itself is still the same: it"s still a hotel room that"s available for a certain rate, for a certain time, and the hotel"s job is still to ensure that the guest has a good time during their stay. Understanding and meeting the needs of the "me" generation will become a key competitive advantage for hoteliers. While the transaction may remain the same, the context of that transaction is different. How hotels relate to their guests must necessarily evolve – just as their guests do.