Whither the guest experience?

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. ~ Henry David Thoreau

The pandemic has devastated the globe, upending its very core and changing the playbook irrevocably. The Indian hospitality industry resiliently survived this unprecedented crisis through innovation, collaboration and stellar leadership. Today, the global economy appears to be on the cusp of recovery as countries reopen their borders to international travellers. In India, the economy is showing robust recovery as vaccination numbers rise, infections decelerate and states continually ease restrictions. Hearteningly, the buzz is returning to our beleaguered industry as a renaissance in domestic travel sweeps the country, driven by a burgeoning leisure segment. 

According to the hospitality leaders, resorts are thriving and achieving pre-Covid revenues while business hotels too are recording a steady growth in volumes. Clearly, the industry is in the throes of a revival which, in the absence of any further setbacks, should only gather momentum over the next six months and beyond.

As business rebounds, it is time to reboot the guest experience. Intriguingly, this appears to be receiving short shrift amid the din surrounding the resurgence in business! In the pursuit of reacquiring customers and building back occupancies, strong emphasis must be laid on quality and service excellence. This assumes added importance because there has been downsizing and a paring down of hotel amenities and services.

A September 2021 McKinsey analysis of Trip Advisor reviews between 2019 and the first seven months of 2021 covering hotels in the US, Europe and Asia reveals that while overall satisfaction ratings did not vary much and there was a 57 per cent decline in the consumer sentiment score with cleanliness, food standards and overall service garnering ‘extremely negative’ reviews. The analysis also infers that while the initial consistency of overall satisfaction ratings may be attributed to the traveller simply ‘feeling euphoric at being on the road again,’ his ‘zone of tolerance’ would progressively ebb. Also, as volumes increase and corporate travel returns, there is a potential for a wave of customer dissatisfaction.

Service reliability rather than service recovery should be the salient operations strategy if hotels are to retain guests at a time when the cost of switching is at its lowest. Commoditisation and diminishing brand loyalty will be key challenges as hotels compete in a ‘Red Ocean’. Market dynamics are also changing with international leisure destinations such as Maldives and Dubai also pursuing the affluent Indian traveller. Only brands with a strong service culture that adapt with alacrity to the changing consumer profile, and deliver rare experiences will emerge winners. The proliferating domestic leisure market has spawned several sub-segments - staycations, bleisure, wellness, reunions, celebration seekers etc – each exhibiting different behaviours and with a distinct set of attributes.

For this universe, the experience is less about what’s inside the room than what’s outside, along with expectations of personalised service and wanting ‘to be in control’ at all times. Business hotels will need to ‘think and act differently’ as the offered product and service is not oriented to the needs of the vacationer. Since the leisure segment will be the mainstay of hotels for some time, the service and employee training strategy becomes paramount. To illustrate, an Asian Uber-luxury sea resort curates unique experiences such as ‘astronomy dinner cruises’ accompanied by a resident astronomer, ‘indigenous spa therapies’ aboard a yacht and a ‘glass blowing studio’ with lessons by a team of glass specialists. Another international brand has thoughtfully introduced ‘confirmed connecting rooms’ which enables families to instantly confirm connecting/ adjoining rooms at the time of making reservations online. Closer home, a ‘responsible’ hospitality brand markets value-added offers for ‘senior citizens’ and the ‘medical fraternity’.

In the digital economy of today, an imperative for hotels is to have world-class websites. More consumers are choosing brands on the quality of digital channels and ease of doing business. Websites must be experiential, reflect a high luxury quotient and create demand. Importantly, a high degree of customer centric technology must be integrated into the channel. For example, capability of geo-targetted personalisation: When an international traveller hits a hotel’s website, can it instantly recognise it as one from overseas and also the country of origin with a message: “We welcome travellers from the US.” It needs to be reiterated that information pertaining to Covid-19 advisories and the property and destination must be current and accurate, while ensuring there are no service gaps between what is promised and what the guest actually experiences upon arrival.

In the final analysis, it can be said the pandemic caused a crisis of ‘despair and isolation’. For the returning traveller, it is no longer about ‘sightseeing’ but about ‘seeing people’ and ‘reuniting’. Our industry which so valiantly fought and survived the crisis must now rise again, this time ‘to inspire society, bring happiness to guests and be the most trusted enterprise’.