Hoteliers, find out who your real guests are! Part 3

The hospitality industry’s new challenge – satisfying Generation Z

The hospitality industry is a cut-throat business.

Aggressive OTAs are stifling any chance of building guest loyalty; customer expectations have changed; travel review sites (such as TripAdvisor) are visited more often than your own hotel website…

In short, the market is changing, and keeping up with it is quite a challenge.

Did you know that there are currently 700 hotel projects in the pipeline in France? That equates to 50,000 new rooms over the coming years.

What is driving these investments? And how can your hotel come out on top?

As always, the key lies in gaining a deeper understanding of your customer data base. And right now, the customer base you need to satisfy is Gen Z!

Understanding Generation Z and their expectations of the hospitality

Born between 1997 and 2012, these travellers are looking for adventure. They want to have unique experiences that they can share.

Have you ever been to a restaurant with a guest of that age? 

Have you ever made the ultimate “faux pas” of starting to eat as soon as your meal arrives?

That’s when a shrill cry always rings out: “No! We’re taking picture of our food first!!!”

This is why Gen Z will opt for a beautifully presented, colourful plate, artfully arranged, rather than a hearty, traditional “old-school” dish.

The fun is elsewhere.

We might decide that this generation lacks authenticity, is too superficial, or something else. But the reality is: this generation has its own ways. It’s best to adapt to them now if we want to fill our hotel in the years to come.

These young people are just starting out in their careers. Their incomes are often modest, but their openness to the world far exceeds that of previous generations.

It’s all down to social media.

Tropical beaches are just an Instagram post away.

Foreign cultures can be found in TikTok’s ‘For You’ section.

The must-see clips are listed on the right YouTube channel.

When these guests arrive at your hotel, you are likely to be dealing with the most challenging clientele imaginable.

It is these customers who will: 

• book via Booking.com,
• check out the TripAdvisor reviews,
• want to check in online in advance,
• take a critical look at your website’s design,
• look for the best room rate, and yet,
• look forward to an unforgettable lifestyle experience.

The Hotel LifeStyle experience: how can you create it for each of your guests?

Before embarking on a €100,000 refurbishment project that will involve a six-month closure, let’s start by looking at what ‘LifeStyle’ actually means.

It’s the word on everyone’s lips, but paradoxically, we often struggle to define exactly what it means.

Does that necessarily mean a huge lobby with psychedelic tiling?

Let’s take a closer look.

One of the leading hotel chains and a pioneer in the sector is Mama Shelter.

So, let’s take them as an example before looking at how any hotel can reinvent itself without spending a penny.

Welcoming common areas

If you take a look at Mama’s Hotel Paris West, you’ll see that there are plenty of spots where guests can relax, chat, work, unwind or scroll through their feeds!

That is the essence of a Lifestyle Hotel. Simply being in the hotel is a pleasure, and your stay could almost be limited to that alone.

Decor that guests will want to post on Instagram

We can almost hear you groaning at the thought of having to redecorate! Let us stop you right there. Mama knows exactly how to highlight the decorative touches that will make for the best Instagram photos. Take a look at the shots used to showcase their Paris La Défense hotel: a light fitting with a copper feather, an original bar stool, a leopard-print cushion in a lounge.

It’s actually the attention to detail in the décor that elevates you to the status of a lifestyle hotel.

Do you have a classic blue sofa in your lobby? Why not buy some cushions with an eye-catching printed design?

Is your breakfast room a bit on the small side? Invest in some tableware so unique that once your tables are set, photos of them will be all over social media.

A traditional reception? A beautiful rug and a few pouffes, and you’re all set!

The key? Your guest want to show off to their friends the moment they walk through the door. Give them that chance; be the source of their unique experience. Word of mouth guaranteed!

The hub of life centred around the restaurant

For those of you without a restaurant, don’t panic! Keep reading – we’ve thought of everything.

For a modern hotel, the key is to have one or more restaurants as well as at least one bar. If your bar is on the rooftop and has its own regulars – that is, people from the local area – you’ve hit the jackpot. 

Take Mama Shelter Paris East, for example. Its rooftop features a table football table and a ping-pong table, whilst its restaurant-bar offers DJ sets, Sunday brunch and home-cooked meals.

This is the epitome of what Gen Z is looking for.

So, how can you attract this clientele if you simply don’t have the space for a restaurant and don’t have the financial resources for a project of this scale?

We need to focus on the substance, not the form.

Why are Mama bars so appealing? Because they encourage socialising.

So let’s take another look at your space. What could we add to the reception area to make customers want to stay? A coffee machine, perhaps? A trolley stocked with smoothie ingredients? A table football table?

And is your breakfast room designed to make your guests want to work there? Or to invite one of their colleagues over?

Does every table have a power socket, for example? With high-speed Wi-Fi accessible via a QR code?

Nothing expensive, just a bit of reorganisation with the right mindset. The “Gen Z mindset”.

The staff aren’t aloof; they’re more like friends.

That’s almost the most important point… and the cheapest!

Gen Z shuns stuffy staff. They’re looking for interactions on an equal footing, with someone who can share their own experiences and understand their interests. 

They want to ask at reception for the best bar to have a drink, and for them to be recommended a place known only to those in the know.

No more landline phones on the bedside table! They’ll want to send you a message from their smartphone, and expect the person on the other end to be just as tech-savvy as they are.

Nothing fosters a sense of belonging quite like feeling included and understood through a shared way of life.

Local produce, nothing off the shelf

That’s the final key point. You could, of course, pull out all the stops by inviting a promising local artist to perform in your lobby. 

But small touches are all it takes! Lavender-scented welcome products if you’re in Aix-en-Provence. Postcards of Paris designed by an Instagram illustrator at reception if you’re a Parisian hotel, and so on. 

The key message is: you’re not just selling a bed for the night. You’re selling a stay and an experience.

Then it’s up to you to decide: do you go for something typically local, or do you create your own concept? There’s no wrong choice.

The only bad choice is to do nothing.

A few final words

Having said all that, you shouldn’t rush headlong into a whole host of immediate changes that will cost you money.

Start by analysing your current guest data base, or the one you’re targeting. Get to know these guests better.

What do they really want? Which of your hotel’s strengths must you absolutely retain? And conversely, what is holding back certain bookings?

And from there, you can roll out the Gen Z strategy and officially become a Lifestyle hotel!

But then… how can you get all this information without spending your days questioning customers one by one?

That’s where technology comes in. And yes, you might say I’m doing this on purpose (maybe a little 😂), but you need a hotel CRM!

Why? Because to deliver that much-talked-about personalised experience – sending the right text message at the right time, offering the digital pre-check-in that Gen Z loves, allowing your customers to chat with your team on WhatsApp, having everything accessible via the Guest App, or recommending your local products and experiences – you need your data to be centralised.

The CRM Experience collects this information for you. It enables you to find out exactly what your customers like, and to tailor your little ‘lifestyle’ touches so that you can implement points 1 to 5 above easily and as effectively as possible.

This is the only way you can increase your direct bookings by building loyalty among the customers who are most likely to become your brand ambassadors!

We look forward to hearing from you so we can embark on this adventure together! See you soon!