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WASHINGTON — Hoteliers hoping to build more direct bookings at the expense of OTAs were urged at the inaugural Direct Booking Summit here to embrace new technologies in order to win consumers’ brand loyalty through increasingly personalized touches.
The two-day event, featuring speakers and workshops, was organized by technology provider Triptease.
“It’s not that there isn’t a really great value the OTAs bring the industry, hotels and consumers,” said Charlie Osmond, listed as Triptease’s “chief tease.” “We think they can add great value, especially in bringing incremental bookings. But the power has shifted a little too far, and the result of that is a large cost to the hotel industry, which means they can’t reinvest in guest experiences in the same way.”
The rationale for those investments in loyalty and highly personalized stays was highlighted by several executives at the Sept. 13 event, a day of panels and speakers.
Alex Pyhan, vice president of distribution, OTA and metasearch for Marriott International, said focusing on customer loyalty is not something new.
Marriott Rewards has about 58 million members, Pyhan said, and “we do find that these loyalty members, on average, give us a higher share of their wallet, they’re paying higher prices,” and their return rate is higher than non-loyalty members. But hoteliers have to invest in loyalty programs to reap those benefits.
“There’s no free lunch,” he said.
Chadi Farhat, COO of Morgans Hotel Group, addressed what independent hotels or smaller groups could do to develop loyalty. He readily admitted Morgans’ budget for loyalty will never match that of a large chain like Marriott, so Morgans looks to highlight guest experiences and create buzz around things such as nightlife and amenities to draw guests.
As an example, Farhat pointed to the Delano in Miami Beach. While it is far from the only hotel on the beach, it still commands a higher room rate, he said, because of the experiences it offers, many of which generate publicity. Additionally, when Morgans is marketing its hotels, it can say the promised experiences are all listed on its brand website.
In the past, hotels made the mistake of wanting consumers to be booking channel-loyal first, Pyhan said, but in reality, that starts with brand loyalty. Only then can hoteliers work to switch a consumer’s behavior in how they make that booking.
According to Claudia Infante, senior director of revenue and distribution at Hard Rock International, the hotelier’s loyalty guests stay 60% more often and spend about 130% more money than non-loyalty members, making loyalty guests the most profitable segment of Hard Rock’s business.
Key to gaining those loyalty members are experiences. For example, Sonesta Resorts and Hotels offers an Amazing Moments program, said Scott Weiler, vice president of marketing and communications.
The Moments are simple but memorable. For instance, Weiler said, a room attendant finding an open book on a bed might put a Sonesta bookmark inside the open page and add a note like “I love this book,” or “I’m going to go out and get this book.” The program is in early stages, but Weiler said Sonesta will enable as many moments as possible.
At Hard Rock, guests might find the TV playing music they like when they enter their room, Infante said. They can also check out guitars at the front desk to use in their rooms.
Data is all important to knowing what kind of experiences to offer guests, she said.
“You have to have the technology,” Infante said. “You have to have the tools. You have to have the ability to go back to that information to actually mine it and do something meaningful with it.”
As an example of an experience done wrong, Infante said she had recently checked into a hotel, where she holds a high level of loyalty membership, for the 37th time. An amenity waiting in her room included chocolate, which she doesn’t like; almonds, to which she’s allergic (a fact she included in her loyalty member profile); and a bottle of white wine, which she doesn’t drink.
“For me, it’s all about going back to that data and making meaningful decisions based on that,” she said. “Because it doesn’t matter how good your amenities are going to be. If they don’t qualify for your guests, they don’t add value.”
Source: travelweekly.com
