Customization & Consistency: How Hospitality Brands Can Win at Mobile

And for brands, the end goal is the same: to form a seamless guest experience that drives satisfaction, revenue, and loyalty. Yet they have a more complex set of needs that can put them at a disadvantage when it comes to rapid change. Different properties have different needs—all of which have to be met by one overarching brand strategy. To form a winning mobile strategy, brands need to keep two core principles front and center: consistency and customization.

First, consistency. If every property buys or builds their own mobile app, the results can be disastrous. Guests will be forced to download a new app for every new property—a messy experience at best. Capabilities will likely vary as well. And loyalty customers will suffer the most. A trifecta of frustration.

But if you try to build one brand app that’s perfect for every property in every scenario, you’ll undoubtedly fail. A successful mobile hospitality app is customized to a property: its amenities, services, location, and most importantly, its guests. If your brand’s offering can’t provide that, it’s ultimately doomed to fail.

So, what can you do to achieve both the consistency and the customization you need to be successful? Take The Leading Hotels of the World as a perfect example.

Earlier this year, The Leading Hotels of the World and INTELITY struck a deal to work together on an ambitious new offering for the brand: an overall brand app that serves guests and Leaders Club loyalty members by catering to their needs at Leading Hotels’ more than 400 properties across 80 countries.

But there’s a twist. Member properties also then have the ability to work with INTELITY individually and take the offering a step further, building in the personalization they need to truly satisfy guests. As properties implement their own custom functionality into the brand app, they get brand consistency combined with an app built just for them.

This is the future of brand mobile experiences—an approach that combines all of the benefits of a well-planned brand strategy with the flexibility of the boutique approach, so no property is left behind. That’s how you can form a winning mobile strategy for the post-pandemic world.