Our virtual lives have grown over the last 5 years, especially due to social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. More and more people prefer to interact through social media than in real life. Some of the main reasons may be the lack of time, the convenience and simplicity that social media provide, but also the technological advances in the mobile and smart age.
The technological advances have come to support this type of interaction, and today social media has come to impact in all known fields and industries. Of course, hospitality included.
Social media has an echo in the hotel business, changing the way clients interact with the hotel. And this means new trends for the industry, with new open ways to communicate and interact with the guest. Let’s see what these trends are.
1. Experience above all
According to a study by Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, millennials (people born between 1980 and 2000) will account for 50% of the travelers in the United States by 2025. Taking into account that the generation that follows, namely “The AO Generation” or “Always ON”, ( people born between 2000 and 2020) is made up people highly influenced by the widely available connectivity and fast access to people via the internet (social media), the trend is even more obvious. These travelers do not want the traditional travel experience, but want to learn something new and more meaningful from their travels throughout the world.
2. Password: mobile
The new generation travelers are young, enthusiastic, and spontaneous and they use the mobile phone or tablet to move around. They book and shop online; this is the way they know how to do things. Tech-savvy peeps, they use the cell phone to rate the hotel but also for the hotel transactions they make. The trend is towards user-friendly mobile technologies for hotels that enable novel and customizable experiences. In this respect, we have especially created for hotels InfoStream, the mobile app that aims precisely to satisfy this growing audience.
3. Business travel sprinkled with leisure
Most often encountered on business trips, but being passionate about new experiences, they will seek to mix utility with pleasure as much as possible. More health-conscious than previous generations, they have an eye for the health, fitness and well-being facilities that the hotel offers. Eco hotels have a pole position for this growing empathetic public. If you have them gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan options available in the restaurant menu, or breakfast, they are forever loyal.
4. Impeccable online reputation
Did you know that 70% of the guests were influenced by Twitter in choosing the hotel in 2014? Same year, over 60 million tweets worldwide mentioned hotels, while only a third included the word holiday. And this says a lot.
So pay attention to your online reputation on Twitter, Facebook but especially on travel websites such as TripAdvisor or AirBnb. In the near future, the online reviews will make for the most important criterion when choosing a hotel will.
That being said, having a proactive attitude to these trends will be the life jacket for most hotels in the digital and mobile era we are in. We have the developed the necessary solutions and tools for your hotel to be successful in the social media era. For more information, do not hesitate to contact us.