Top 5 Hotel Guest Satisfaction Trends to Look Out For in 2017

Guest Satisfaction is the new catchphrase in hotel marketing. Did you know this? While the new year is almost here, some guest satisfaction trends will fall aside while the others will grow more rampant due to their significance. After all guest retention is the ultimate key to profitability. It is also a result of dedicated guest centric service as well as emphasize more on customer success. So in 2017, hotel guest satisfaction trends will continue to excel and drive success.

Over the past few years, guest satisfaction has become an ever evolving phenomenon, as far as its importance in the hospitality industry is concerned. The fast evolving technological landscape coupled with globalization, has made the hotel industry reactive to global guests.

A major challenge arises here. How can hotels and travel agencies satisfy their guests?

It is crucial to analyze gaps between hotel employees and the perception of guests, alongside a hotel's performance. Some truly popular methods of guest feedback collection arise at this juncture, which should be dealt with. This analysis will contribute to the knowledge pool as well as render impetus to hotel management, so that it can evolve according to the guests' needs.

Sticking to these lines, listed below are the first five trends for customer engagement and guest satisfaction, which hoteliers can look out for in 2017.

1. Omni-channel all the time:

Retailing through an omni-channel interface is the future of hospitality business. However, many experts also agree that omni-channel marketing requires more than just offering multiple channels or contact choices. – Deloitte

As hotel guests and travelers increasingly rely on digital channels like hand held devices, to make booking or purchasing decisions, they use the same channels or devices to guest service and support from hotels.

In such a scenario, hotels cannot just stick to one or two channels, but tap on multiple platforms to render all types of connectivity options with the potential market. This will be the way forward, as far as optimization of guest satisfaction scores and experience is concerned. Hence, hotels need to churn out new strategies to make the most of both availability and accessibility.

2. Millennials:

The millennials are currently having a humongous cultural influence on the global travel industry. Their new outlook has given wings to sharing economy players like shared accommodation providers (Airbnb). This is an ascendant generation which has access to huge spending powers that will accelerate in 2017.

72% of Millennials prefer to spend their hard-earned cash on experiences rather than on material goods. – Harris Group

We've also learned that successful transactions with Millennials require more than the orderly exchange of money for value; attentive customer service is key to earning their loyalty and stimulating a positive social response.

3. Self-service tools:

How-to content and knowledge base articles, FAQs on hotel websites and forums let guests to become self-sufficient while digging out answers and solutions to common travel related inquiries and issues.

These days, guests and travelers are always in the lookout for immediate assistance, instant access to tools as well as research forums where they can fix their issues or seek answers themselves, without any dependence. Therefore, hotels must start implementing such tools on their brand websites.

4. IoT or Internet of Things:

RFID-enabled devices are widespread in hotels today. Everyday applications like security tags, room keys, biometrics scanners and toll tags have them.

This simplistic yet data-centric technology broadcasts a unique identification number -to identify a person or a thing.

These IoT devices deliver data, accept instructions and take actions. IoT enabled electrical devices can report their power-consumption to central servers in hotels, to keep a tab on hourly costing. This technology will help hoteliers to check electricity usage, as well as chalk out better hotel revenue optimization strategies in 2017.

Similarly, with endless possibilities through IoT connected devices, hotels can reach new heights in the near future.

5. AI or Artificial Intelligence

AI or Artificial Intelligence and hotels will go hand in hand in the future. Robot butlers are already a hit today, and have begun to rapidly capture the public's imagination. Though research shows that human guests seek human interaction, robots still have a chance to thrive. Other areas where AI can be leveraged are as follows:

• Forecast staff skills sets
• Initiate guest-specific training program among staff
• Forecast stock and supplies
• Locate major city events
• Make the necessary orders
• Discover new revenue streams
• Uncovering unknown guest behaviors and preferences

Some Interesting Facts to further tickle your thoughts in these lines, are as follows:

• In 2016, 60% of consumers reported having higher expectations in terms of customer service than they did the previous year. – Aircall
• In the coming year, travel companies can create loyalty in travel and hospitality segments, simply by tracking their comp-set. While 74% of business travelers claim to prefer booking travel through one platform, only 34% actually do. – KDS
• 60% of Millennials feel good about themselves and the company when they are able to sort out a support issue on their own. – GenHQ
• The phone channel isn't losing relevance, but 70% of Millennial women report being comfortable solving an easy issue without talking to a human. – Aircall
• By 2020, people will own an average of twenty connected devices, each. – Intel
• AI can analyze consumer habits and patterns without human input. The North Face used Watson, IBM's natural-language processing machine learning system, to create their Expert Personal Shopper, which matches customers and leads with products. – IBM

Remember that customer expectations are fluctuating and so are consumer demographics. Coupled with ever evolving technological progresses, hotels have to deliver specialized services or at least say that they deliver specialized services. Besides, customer service is becoming more and more multifaceted, and highly crucial for the success of hotel businesses. Hence, hotels have to learn to cater to millennials, offer omni-channel support, implement self-service customer resources and self-monitor quality assurance practices with IoT. Last but not the least, they cannot overlook the possibilities of AI to dispense effective customer support. These are the few hot trends that will take the hotel industry by a storm and rule supreme, in 2017 and beyond.