By Joe Vargas
When booking hotels, guest journeys look very different now than they did just a few years ago. Mobile-centric consumers and ever-evolving expectations for more options transform linear touchpoints into more dynamic experiences. Guest values and social influence also play a greater role, with social media outpacing agents, publications, and entertainment as the main source of travel inspiration.
Hotels still relying on outdated solutions and infrastructure designed for linear journeys of the past don’t just risk losing satisfaction and loyalty. They also miss out on accessing key guest insights—information that will help you create more personalized experiences that differentiate your hotel and promote return business.
What exactly do these nonlinear pathways look like, and how can technologies help your hotel optimize the modern guest experience?
Complex guest journeys are the new normal
Today, guests are exposed to an abundance of touchpoints with your hotel, thanks to social media, mobile options, and other online resources. Here’s a closer look at each stage of the modern guest journey:
Awareness and booking: Guests have more ways to enter the hotel stay journey than ever before. On average, people interact with at least six touchpoints before making a purchasing decision. Influencers, blogs, hotel websites, metasearch engines, travel agencies, email marketing, newsletters, and social media are some of the main ways your customers first become aware of your offering. Guests may also learn about your hotel and book on different devices, like their mobile devices, desktops, or tablets.
Mid-stay: During their stay, guests make touchpoints through your front desk and concierge services, room service, and other amenities. Guests may also interact with your hotel’s app or other connected devices, depending on your mobile support.
Post-stay: Guests may have the option to fill out surveys, respond to follow-up emails, write online reviews, or take advantage of loyalty programs. They may also provide feedback on external channels like social media or in-person networks.
Remember that these processes are often nonlinear. Guests may repeat various steps and make purchasing decisions at any point. For example, a guest may find your hotel through an influencer, review your website, and then compare prices and reviews on Expedia. Instead of immediately booking, they might return to the awareness stage to explore other options, sign up for your mailing list, and wait for an enticing deal.
Some guests also skip steps entirely. For instance, a repeat customer may book without any prior research. Alternatively, a guest with a negative experience may avoid leaving feedback and simply choose not to book again. Regardless of their path, factors such as trust, emotion, social influence, price, and amenities will influence how guests choose to navigate the journey.
Optimizing guest journey through innovation
It’s possible to make these journeys easier for guests to navigate while also treating them as opportunities to deeply understand and cater to guest preferences. At scale, this is best accomplished through the use of sophisticated technologies. Here are some solutions to consider if your hotel is adapting to the modern guest journey.
As more people interact with businesses publicly online, surveys and personal emails are no longer enough to engage with guests. Social media provides a wealth of customer feedback, much of which may be hard for your customer service and marketing teams to access efficiently. Specialized social media monitoring and listening tools make it easier for you to monitor this feedback on popular platforms like Instagram and low-profile sources like Reddit. This strategy allows you to follow up with unsatisfied guests personally, retrieve more feedback than would otherwise be accessible, and identify larger trends in customer sentiment.
Innovative hotels are adapting to guest journeys with omnichannel solutions. Omnichannel describes sales, marketing, and customer support strategies that provide seamless and user-friendly guest experiences wherever they engage with your brand. For example, property management system (PMS) software can ensure that a guest receives consistent information when they call the front desk to book, even if they researched your hotel on a metasearch site. Later, if the guest connects with customer service, the agent or chatbot would have access to previous interactions, enabling a more efficient, personalized experience.
Mobile app and digital platform support help guests conveniently engage with your hotel’s touchpoints. Many guests now expect mobile support tinforo access contactless check-in and check-out, room service requests, reservations, and information about hotel amenities. Apps can also use artificial intelligence (AI) to power chatbots and virtual assistants. This gives guests easy access to the help they need while reducing wait times and relieving hotel staff.
Each of these solutions—from social listening to omnichannel and mobile connectivity—can give hotels access to valuable guest information. Software that uses AI can help hotels unpack this data at scale, uncovering insights such as how customers typically navigate the guest journey, as well as their behaviors and preferences. At the individual level, this can help you deliver more personalized experiences and improve guest satisfaction. At a high level, this approach informs smarter service and infrastructure investments that can set you apart from competitors.
Optimize every guest touchpoint
In years past, the guest experience was fairly linear: Customers would research their options, book, complete their stay, and potentially provide reviews or feedback. Today, guests tend to have a more complex path to booking, along with numerous touchpoints both during and after their stay.
Leading hotels recognize this change not as a barrier to growth but as a valuable opportunity to deliver more personalized guest experiences. Solutions help hoteliers make the most out of evolving guest journeys, providing technologies like data analytics, automation, and mobile support to improve guest loyalty and drive revenue.
