Hotel Sales Execs Key In to Often Overlooked Customer Bases, Patterns

Hotel company chief commercial officers across Europe have used the past two years to analyze their brands, focusing on how to attract locals and put in place strategies for welcoming back events and corporate business.

Speaking at the recent Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International Europe event, Amanda Elder, chief commercial officer and board member at Kempinski Hotels, said one thing that has become apparent is hoteliers have overlooked that many of their most loyal customers live within a few kilometers of their hotels.

“We were so busy considering international borders and even domestic borders that we were not necessarily talking to [these guests], packaging for them, messaging to them and their needs,” she said. “How can we use our spaces best, repurpose them if [hotels] simply are not going to have that occupancy that we had seen in the past? How can we use spaces for corporate travel in a very different way?”

Paul Proctor, vice president, commercial, Europe, at IHG Hotels & Resorts, said it's critical to understand how the process of booking hotels has changed for customers.

“There is this absolute craze around contactless, but actually underpinning that is the need for personalization, so that they buy the product they want, as opposed to having an off-the-shelf product,” he said.

He added environmental consciousness is playing a major role in guest purchasing patterns.

“Customers are now thinking about that individual product but also the effect, particularly in the carbon agenda," he said. "From a corporate point of view, we are seeing supply-chain pressure because of carbon targets set by the end user."