 starting with sustainable travel.

Hotels of
the future must go green if they want to
attract the millennials – now the largest set of
travellers. On cue, second city travel is also on
the rise – a trend where travellers seek to visit
lesser known cities to avoid over-tourism.
Make 2020 the year where sustainable
practices are adopted and marketed to keep
your business relevant.
 Another related trend driven by the millennial
is culturally inclusive travel, the need to
soak in the life of the local community you
visit. Become the local expert and find ways
to intertwine local stories into your property’s
experience.
 The rise of millennial has also well and truly
ushered in the era of online media being the
key influencer in travel decision-making.
Modern travellers turn to online channels to
surprise and help them make travel decisions
– from where to go to best accommodation
options and best local experiences.
 Thanks for technology, guests want more
without doing much – they expect you to
know. It is left up to hoteliers to join data
points (say hello to artificial intelligence),
understand their guests and deliver an
experience that leaves them breathless –
enough to leave you a stellar online review
that will inspire the next booking.
 While online travel agents and meta agents
hold the lion’s share of travel bookings, the
importance of direct bookings is not lost to
hoteliers. In 2020 they continue to optimise
this channel through wins on
their website and a booking engine that
works smarter, supported by integrated
social and email marketing to deliver the
message.
 Airbnb and other homestay platforms are
here to stay. Instead of fighting the trend,
hoteliers are now evolving with it. So, while
Airbnb expands into hotels, hotels are
expected to continue extending into home-
sharing. For guests, it’s a win-win as they get
a homestay experience in a very regulated
environment rather than a hit or miss type of
scenario.
TECHNOLOGY AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne

 The hospitality industry has been undergoing
tremendous changes and disruptions over the
last two decades. What key trends have been
steadily reshaping the industry and where is
hospitality heading in the near future? A
study conducted among EHL personnel
provides insights on past, new challenges as
well as opportunities hospitality players need
to take into consideration
 Social networks and in
particular TripAdvisor have had a profound
impact on customers. This has led to more
transparency and, overall, to an improved
quality of the services provided by hospitality
companies.
 Airbnb represents a major disruption in the
hotel industry, making the competitive
landscape tougher than ever. This is further
reinforced by the fact that lodging properties
listed on Airbnb do not necessarily have to
comply with the same rules and regulations
than traditional hotels.
 First, they have altered distribution channels and
consequently taken value away from hoteliers.
 Second, the notoriety of brands owned
by Booking Holdings and Expedia are such that
these companies have almost replaced hotel
brands.
 Third, they have built solid relations with
travelers. Now, hoteliers have to pay to get
access to these customers, thereby leading to a
thinner profit margin for the former.
 Apps, in particular, are increasingly important
in the way hoteliers manage the services they
provide to their customers and can now
control many aspects of the guest cycle and
experience.
 Low cost carriers enable more people to
travel the world at a reasonable price.
Moreover, several emerging markets have
seen their GDP increase at a rapid pace,
thereby enabling their citizens to travel the
world. Customers from South Korea, China,
India, and others, now constitute a large body
of potential travelers. Their demand, of
course, has a big impact on the offer.
 Customers request extreme personalization,
unique experiences, and so on. This could
very well lead to the death of the travel
agent and the rise of the independent
traveller.
 The asset-light approach has become
prevalent in the industry. The separation
between the management of operations and
real-estate assets now allows hospitality
companies to focus on their core business,
thus improving efficiencies.
 It however induces additional complexity and
potential agency problems, explaining the
emergence of new types of jobs, such as
asset managers.
 As stated above, new job profiles have
emerged following the increasing complexity
of the hospitality industry. In parallel, the
need for quantitative competencies (for
forecasting, budgeting, etc.) has also
increased.
 These new generations have different
requirements and needs compared to older
generations. A respondent said “Older
generations think about hotels and car rentals.
Younger generations think about Airbnb and
Uber.”
 People are becoming increasingly sensitive to
environmental and social issues. A
respondent said that this “has to be
considered in branding, but beware of green-
washers: consumers are now well-aware that
window-dressing exists, and they will not buy
it.”
 Six dimensions for hoteliers to properly
embrace the above mentioned trends and
understand what’s at stakes
 #1 Standardization can no longer be the
norm. It is being critical to personalize and
tailor the services to the needs and
preferences of travellers.
 #2 To create value, focus on niche markets.
More customization and specialization may
enable to increase value creation; to
genuinely think about the value proposition
of the offerings and not simply branding and
rebranding.
 #3 Exploit technology as an accelerator for
business. Technology will be at the core of
the hotel experience both in room, before
and after the trip; leading to development of
new concepts and more innovation in the
industry and contribute to the emergence of
an ever more individualized offer
 #4 Social Responsibility is a moral and an
economic obligation. The impact of global
warming can today be considered a major
risk for both corporations which may lose in
revenues and profits and society as a whole.
It is thus critical for governments but even
more so for corporations to become more
sustainable: “not just green, but real
sustainable business models”.
 #5 Develop more responsive and resilient
business models. “Tourism, despite ever growing
flows of travelers, will become riskier and more
prone to crises” as the number of travelers
steadily continues to grow.
 #6 Manage talents actively. The days of long-
lasting employee retention as well as passive,
hierarchical management styles are definitely
gone. “Attracting, developing and keeping the
right talent into and within the hospitality
industry continues to remain a core challenge.”
 “Bleisure” travel – the trend of blending
business with leisure activities on business
trips – is on the rise among millennials,
providing a greater quality of life and
work/life balance to those who take
advantage of it.
 Millennials have grown up in a time of rapid change with a
constant demand for technology and their expectations of
technology are unforgiving; they are connected 24/7 and
are capable of managing an array of applications with the
ease, actively seek out ways to maximize the efficiency of
their time. Therefore, when it comes to traveling and hotel
stays, millennials are keen to use technology to make their
lives easier and their travel experience more seamless.
Think mobile technology for your hotel staff streamlines
guest requests so your employees can get them what they
need faster. Combined with digitally-savvy, informed hotel
staff, this creates a win-win for both the employee and the
guest experience.
 In recent years consumers are more
interested in food as preventative medicine
because they realize their diet is a big
component of their health. Equally important
is installing fitness centers, health spas or
saunas to hosting retreats and serving
healthy food options.
 t’s not only the food options that are driving
the health and well-being hospitality wave,
Eco-friendly options are just as much sought
after. New hotels often incorporate eco-
friendly concepts at the design stage, but
older structures can also become more eco-
friendly by researching ways to reduce waste
and reuse or recycle items.
 This year we’re seeing a shift towards more quick-
fire content, with live-streaming and social media
story-telling gaining momentum across many
popular platforms. “Instagrammability” has
become a key factor for travelers when choosing
their next destination, and in 2019 we’re noticing
more and more hotels physically creating eye-
catching Instagrammable scenes around their
property to encourage guests to take Insta-
worthy photos or videos.
 Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly
popular in hospitality. Because of the advantage
it presents, customer services levels will increase
at all stages of the guest experience.
 However, while there are many industries that
will eventually be dominated by AI, the
hospitality industry isn’t likely to go full-
automation, due to the power of the in-person
interaction and the crucial role this plays in the
guest experience.