Hello everyone and welcome to another webinar from Booking Ninjas. My name is David, I’m coming to you from Miami, Florida, 1 p.m., Friday, May 13th.
And today we’re going to talk about a topic that probably a lot of people think about, and whether it’s on the guest side or the operator/owner/manager side, it’s the topic of getting into the guest’s head, getting into the psyche of what make guests want to travel on a certain time, on a certain date, motivate him or her to click that button and book, pay the deposit and get excited about the upcoming trip.
So, we did our little research and we came up with some presentation for you, so you could understand more about the psyche of the guest and, you know, take the actions that could lead to a better result for your guest’s satisfaction and for your business.
Alright, so let’s get into the content.
Ok, my name is David Harroch and we’re going to be talking about “Tapping into the traveler’s psyche. What your guests want to see.”
Booking Ninjas is a property management technology solution for the hospitality business. I recommend to check our website bookingninjas.com and see more about what we do. What will be discussed today is how hospitality companies could stay ahead of the pack, some trends that we’re seeing and which innovations are built to last for this kind of situation, the convergence that will continue to shape the industry.
Alright, so who is the webinar for? It’s for you guys, the ones that are dealing with guests, managing properties, owning properties or just general… Or people just in generally in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Ok, so, traveler’s mind. From the hotels, vacation rentals, villas, hospitality industry, the traveler's mind is still not back to how it was or will it ever be there? Probably not. The way people think about travel, the way people make decisions and purchases on travel, it’s a little bit different these days, because not all cities are the same, everything, you know, has some kind of string attached now, even after this post-pandemic era. In addition, not everything is fully up and running still. Here in Miami, it seems like things are definitely fully up and running, market is surging, but at the same time there are other destinations, people have more time, people are thinking more carefully about their decisions and how they make them.
So, the traveler… The three things that we came up with are: a more personalized experience, contactless, ease of use kind of interactions and transactions. So what this means is like, you know, knowing that, ok, I could just get into my room, I could just get something done without having to be in front of somebody, you know, more streamline, more easy. So, this is what people want to make sure they have in place. I talked with another colleague of mine and he was telling me that when he was making his decision he went to Latvia, and he also went to Estonia and Finland. And when he was making his decision he decided not to book certain accommodations because they didn’t have this kind of like low touch option or contactless option. So, that is an important part of the decision because people don’t want to even be there anymore. They just want to go, get what they need, check-in, enjoy their stay, and not have to deal with multiple layers of people checking different things and getting into different steps, confirmations, things like that, it’s just more streamline. If you could just email them the key at the time of the booking, that’s probably the best.
So, yes, especially with the Gen Z, people are… You know, they want to extend their stay, they want to be able to leverage amenities, they want to be able to do it now, from their phones, in an easy way, without much phone calls or other types of hoops that they have to jump through.
Ok, so, people are willing to prolong their vacation if they can get a discount, if they can get free breakfast, upgrade their rooms, get other types of food, promotions or drink promotions, or if there’s an upcoming event. So, if you could reduce this procrastination by giving them this incentive upfront, they’re going to prolong less and book now, book immediately. So, creating those kinds of triggers in the guest’s mind is something that all marketing departments, all owners, managers should start to think about with a lot of detail because these types of things we could, you know, test and see how the market reacts. And then get to stay, get the occupancy, make the action convince the guest to take action sooner.
Ok, so, how are hospitality companies staying ahead of the game? So maintain the website, of course, and the reviews. For us we have the integration with the reviews, so you could even maintain and see the review at a snapshot within the system, have different options like a portal, mobile app, guest app where people can, you know, make orders, see their confirmations, see their history, similar to like an Amazon account where they could see their order history, see what’s next and provide a multi-option check-in experience. So, if I want I could pre check-in through my phone, pre check-in through the portal of the website, I could also check-in, you know, at the actual property, on a kiosk or on the tablet. So, you know, just making sure you have this kind of available tools for your customers, for your guests to leave reviews, read things in languages of their choice, you know, and be attentive and responsive.
Ok, so, these are some of the trends in contactless technology and increased automation: real-time customer insights, Artificial Intelligence, personalization, digital concierge, automated accommodation, keyless entry and contactless payments. So, I want everyone if you don’t have this right now, please contact us right away, at bookingninjas.com and we could get you up to date. So, you know, look at these trends, make sure that you’re taking some kind of action to have them available for your business, for your guests, and you’re going to see better results, that I’ll show you.
Ok, so, these are some new innovations that are coming and that will definitely benefit your business and start thinking about that: 5G Networks, blockchain apps, more AI enabled platforms, optimized communication, virtual and augmented reality. One thing that we could be doing now is optimizing communication. So, we need that bedrock, we need that foundation before anything else. So, let’s make sure that your company, organization is thinking about these things, optimizing these things, and if not there are solutions out there and we could definitely get things rolling.
Alright, so the tech convergence is real and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is real, real thing. So, guys get ready, it’s happening as we speak, it’s happening every single day, it’s something that’s happening gradually. So, be prepared to take action every single day on something to make yourself better because that’s going to compound, and when that compounds you’re going to be in a much better situation to actually utilize and capitalize on these opportunities.
So, I’ll leave it with this quote…
Have surveys, guys. Let’s learn from our guests, what technology things they might want, and everything will be in a great place.
Ok, we are Booking Ninjas, located in Miami, Florida. This is our contact information. Contact us for more information about digital transformation, contactless guest check-in, modern PMS. This is all right in our wheelhouse, guys.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone. See you on the next webinar. Thank you so much.
Check out our other hospitality webinars.
