Skift Take
Hotels are personalizing the guest experience through innovative amenity programs, while the free versus paid WiFi debate shifts toward bandwidth strength.
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Last week, the Wall Street Journal's business travel writer Scott McCartney moderated an hour-long webcast with senior C-suite executives at five major hotel brands about how hotel amenities are evolving. The event was based on a study conducted by SmartBrief entitled: "The Guest Experience: Innovative Trends for Creating a More Personalized Stay."
The diversity of participants was impressive, ranging from luxury boutique brands to corporate business hotels. Discussion revolved around sustainability, turndown service, meetings/events, food/fitness and tech/media. The panel consisted of:
Mike DeFrino, COO, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
Mitzi Gaskins, VP/Global Brand Manager, JW Marriott Hotels
J.P. Oliver, Regional VP, Morgans Hotel Group
Lisa Potts, Senior VP Sales/Marketing, Trump Hotel Collection
Tom Santora, CMO, Omni Hotels & Resorts
McCartney started the webcast with a poll for hoteliers listening in about which age demographics they targeted. The results: Boomers (11%), Millennials (15%) and Somewhere in Between (53%), with the rest answering none specifically.
Santora represents the majority of responses, saying that Omni Hotels appeals to a broad base of guest demographics with a wide range of hotel product. He did, however, commit that the brand is popular with Boomers due in part to hefty conference business.
“From Omni’s perspective, we do see a lot through that Boomer category, and when you think about that, they’re really the most homogenous of the generations in history, and probably the most traveled…. So when we think about amenities for them, we really want them to have this wide range.”
At that point, it would have been interesting to hear what DeFrino at Kimpton or Oliver at Morgans had to say since their brands are perceived as being especially attentive toward Millennials. Stay tuned for a future Skift story about that.
The Green Question
The SmartBrief paper begins with amenities related to the arrival experience, such as discounted parking for hybrid vehicles. The study reports that 61% of those polled either expect hotels to have green initiatives in place, or it’s a determining factor during the booking process.
McCartney asked DeFrino, “What’s the business case for discounted parking for hybrid vehicles?”
“At Kimpton, we’ve always been committed to being environmentally friendly; we really just think it’s t
