‘A lot of people would have expected the pain points to have disappeared by now or at least to have been reduced,’ says Rob IcIntyre, vice-president operations New Zealand and Fiji for Accor.
‘Guests walk into check-in and get asked their name and to show ID – even though they have already booked online. Then they have to hand over a credit card, although they’ve paid for their room and given credit card details already. I don’t think people care if the process is AI or manual or whether you are at Raffles Singapore or Ibis Invercargill. They just want a good experience – though their perception of what that is may be different’
Panelists agreed that guests travel primarily to experience a destination, not for the hotel itself.
‘Loyalty programmes are a huge part of what we do, but the members don’t just want points. They want added access to things and more experiences. A lot of our loyalty and the way people burn points is outside the hotel, for example at a local event. People don’t come to Queenstown to stay at a hotel, they come for all the attractions and activities – staying at the Novotel, for example is just a part of that.
‘I still go to trade shows and see the hotel guy showing buyers a lot of pictures of rooms – that’s not what it’s about.’
Tim Alpe, managing director of LyLo says loyalty at that brand is not about points. ‘At LyLo 70% of our guests are solo and 60% of those are female. So we think about how we can bring people together – around food or wellness and fitness. We have to create experiences that people will pay for and those initiatives in turn create loyalty.
‘It’s easy to say the customer is important, but are they? We have to really own the guest experience. There is so much data available now we should find out what they love about our properties and our competitors and design something to suit them.’
Mark Zawacki, managing director of Techne Infiniti Ventures says customers don’t want AI. ‘The idea is to make the front desk agent able to offer a genuine personal experience with the technology behind that.’
