Five leaders in the Middle Easts mid-market hospitality industry convened at Rove Trade Centre, Dubai to discuss relevant issues facing the sector, helping to set the agenda for the Hotelier Express Summit 2017.
Five leaders in the Middle East’s mid-market hospitality industry convened at the Rove Trade Centre in Dubai to discuss relevant issues facing the sector, with the hoteliers’ insights helping to set the 2017 Hotelier Express Summit agenda.
Demographics vs psychographics: what to deploy in targeting today’s travelLers? how vital is a customisable digital strategy for mid-market hotels?
Paul Bridger: You just cannot put people into boxes anymore. We say we are digital natives, a digitally connected brand. We see people from 18 to 80 years old. You need to understand that when people are travelling for business and the company is paying and they’re staying for a week, they’ll choose a very different hotel from when they go on a staycation with their wife.
Ghada Mahgoub: I think you need to combine both. You need to base on preferences. You have to target these customer preferences and adapt your hotel services
Remmie De Graaf: People also don’t like the feeling of being put into boxes. They want things customised especially for them. That changes even for one guest, because they travel all the time and for different purposes. They come for business but also with the family and will have different needs for each trip. Hilton has been very active in catering to that new generation of travellers, changing the Hilton Honors programme and booking channels, implementing digital key and online check-in. In the US, this is already implemented and is due to come to the Middle East. As for online bookings, you need to have a user-friendly app.
Pawel Guminski: I think this is the future. We have no choice. We have to explore and embrace the digital world, starting from mobile-friendly applications and websites. Google announced recently that they will be downgrading content that is not mobile-friendly and rewarding mobile-friendly websites by putting them higher in search engine results. According to research, conversion from a mobile-friendly website is 88% higher. Another thing they are looking at is the type of content – it’s no longer just about pretty pictures – now the content these days is about video and real time. Look at the popularity of Facebook Live, Insta Stories and Snapchat. It’s endless. Hoteliers can use this for their ‘now or never’ promotions, using a limited time promotion code where you only have a short time to use that code and then it’s gone. And virtual reality – this is something to watch out. At the moment, it has 50 million users and in a year’s time, will have 100 million users. It’s limitless. Soon we will be living in a world where people will be visiting a hotel room from their chair and this is how they will decide to book.
Bridger: Funny you should mention that – we just launched a 360 viewing app for our hotels and it does allow you to come and visit our lobby, our rooms. The feedback has been great. I think the journey for a lot of people starts and ends with social media. You want to see what your friends recommend, which brands are talking to you. You might look at TripAdvisor. And it finishes on social media because you want to share the time you’ve had, where you stayed, so it relates back to that branding.
Guminski: And it’s all happening on your mobile. The trend these days is to get mobile or get left behind. It’s not just hospitality, it’s across the board. We have to plug into it or we get left behind.
Mahgoub: We are looking at doing a mobile app. And virtual 360 is also something that we are looking to do at Time Hotels.
| Advertisement |
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
