As with most B2C industries, hospitality is strongly influenced by the digital, mobile era we’re in. This reflects in the needs of hotel guests today, but mostly in the reasoning behind choosing a hotel over another and returning. It’s clear that hotel guests today are more and more accustomed with mobile technology, because it comes in handy and it’s easy to use.
In other words, travel planning is mostly done using a smartphone.
Stats show that Millennials, who make the great majority of hotel guests today, who we all know are notorious tech-savvy consumers, come in first when it comes to downloading mobile hotel apps, according to Deloitte. They account for 64% of all the travellers who download and use hotel mobile apps. Hence, now more than ever, it is crucial for hoteliers to come up with digital loyalty programs for this raising segment.
How can we make hotel guests loyal in the digital era?
Travels are the best definition for the term „on-the-go”, literally. Thus, hotel loyalty programs need to follow the same line. They are a key element to the whole travel experience so they need to be adapted to the digital age needs and demands.
Acknowledging and understanding them is the starting point for creating loyalty programs in the digital age. We’ve talked about the needs of hotel guests of the digital age in a previous article. As a summary, they are the need to socialize and thus create new and personal experiences, the need of mobile technologies and easy access to information.
The best solution? A mobile app that will make available all these facilities to the hotel guests.
Hotel guest loyalty programs with mobile apps
Apart from the moments of basking in new travel experiencing, guests basically spend the rest of their time using their mobile devices.
From plane ticket reservations to ticket scanning and staying up to date with gate info to checking the route from the airport to the hotel and searching for a local pub or dinning place at the end of their travel, digital era guests use their mobile devices for basically everything they need. In other words, the mobile experience is of huge importance for guests these days. I’m sure you fit in here as well.
Big hotel brands have already launched mobile apps for client loyalty „on the go”. As an example, the new loyalty program app from Marriott includes an enhanced mobile check-in as well as room alerts and other features like room upgrade and late check-out for loyal customers.
The digital era hotel guests want to pay for „memories”
A study by Harris in sponsorship with Evenbrite has found that American Millennials don’t put so much importance on acquiring property, but rather on experiences. We’re talking about everything from concerts to social or sports events, to cultural experiences or other kind of events. Moreover, they spend a whole lot on these „experiences”. In short, they want to live new and personal experiences that they can cherish for a lifetime.
As a solution for enhancing hotel guest loyalty in the digital era, we have specially designed InfoStream, a mobile app for hotels. With this app, the guest has custom content streaming directly on their mobile phone or tablet, real time notifications regardin hotel offers or events and a fully mobile concierge and room service.
Moreover, with this app the guest can opt for fast check-in and check-out simply using their mobil phone, no hassle. For more information about InfoStream, please contact us. How do you try to boost guest loyalty in the digital era? Drop us a line and let’s have a chat.