The importance of personalisation for hotels

Although technology plays a vital role in the hotel industry and guest experience, what customers really want is a personalised experience, tailored to their exact needs. 

A recent study carried out by Google and Phocuswright showed that almost 6 in 10 U.S. travellers said brands should massively consider personal tastes based on past experiences. This is something that travellers feel isn’t currently evident when making choices, and if it was 76% said they would be much more likely to sign up to loyalty programmes, and 36% would pay an additional sum for a more targeted approach. 

Personalisation for hotels can come in many forms, from knowing what offers to unveil to the guest to knowing their name when they first walk in. It’s little things like this that make the customer feel like they’re receiving a more individual experience, rather than run of the mill. Creating this for the customers then leads to a more memorable experience with a highly increased possibility of them returning. Not only is this a great way for hotels to flourish from repeat business, but word of mouth is a vital marketing tool, and when people have had a good experience, they pass it on to others. 

Amazon has their personalised customer experience on point, and this is a system which hotels can really start to integrate into their approach. Starkov, the Director of HEBS Digital hotel marketing firm states “The relevancy of the offers always produces higher conversions on a website, this is what made technology companies like Amazon a global monster. They know who you are and what’s relevant to you, and that’s what they present to you”. 

The ideal future for hotels would be to offer individual rates to customers based on their lifetime value, loyalty status, browsing behaviour and more. However, for this to happen the data from hotel operations and reservation systems needs to be optimised and used to the company’s and customer’s advantage.