When it comes to bringing technology into the hotel experience, there seems to be a fear among hoteliers that human connectivity will be lost. Striking the right balance between technology that will elevate the guest experience and keeping that personal touch is a delicate game.
In the latest Hotel Business Hot Topics session, “Empowering Guest Experience: How hotel tech shapes loyalty and human connections,” in partnership with DirecTV Hospitality, moderator Glenn Haussman, founder/host, No Vacancy Live Podcast, was joined by Kim Twiggs, associate VP, market development, DirecTV Hospitality; Matt Schwartz, chief technology officer, Sage Hospitality; Dina Belon, president, Staypineapple Hotels; and Dorothy Dowling, managing director, Horwath HTL; to discuss how to strike that balance.
To open the session, Twiggs shared data that DirecTV Hospitality gathered for its guest media research survey. “We are seeing that hotel guests are increasing their amount of time on the road,” she said. “In 2023, there was an average of 13.4 nights in hotels per year versus 9.8 nights on average in 2022. So we see that propensity to get back out and spend more nights in hotels.”
She also shared that business travel was up 30% from 2022, while leisure was up 40%. Following the “revenge travel” trend coming out of the pandemic, “now things seem to be taking on a more normal cadence, and we are seeing everyone back on the road just enjoying their time,” she added.
With travelers spending more time away from home again, Schwartz said that Sage is making sure that the experiences the company offers are like home—or better. “At home, you don’t worry about check-in, TV, WiFi, hot water or noise coming from your neighbor,” he said. “At Sage, we don’t want the bar to be as good at home. We want it to be better. That’s the whole point of the experience, so we look at lots of different ways to enrich the guests’ stay while they’re there.’”
For Belon, technology is “100% an employee-based methodology,“ adding that her company will never have kiosks in its lobbies. She shared that one of her general managers offered the perfect reason why. “I was asking her about the idea, and she said to me, ‘Dina, that would be horrific if people can come in and check in at the kiosk. I’ll have no opportunity to engage with them and get to know them, so I can figure out a curated experience for them.’”
In order to have that great interaction, both Belon and Schwartz said they hire front desk employees based on their EQ, or emotional IQ, and their personality.
Haussman pointed out that many of Gen Z employees have knowledge of technology but lack the social and interpersonal skills needed.
Dowling said that the industry must go beyond hiring for interpersonal skills. “I think there’s got to be this leveling up in terms of these social skill competencies,” she said. “There has got to be some intentionality from an employer perspective in terms of understanding that gap and building out the right kind of development programs for employees. I don’t think it is an issue of willingness, but an issue of lack of development.”
For more insights from this Hot Topics session, make sure to check out the November issue of Hotel Business.