The hospitality sector has become more competitive than ever before. For hotel owners, it’s crucial to keep up with the emerging trends that have rolled out across the industry. And also acknowledge customer demand for a unique experience. Although many influential figures in the hospitality will tell you that it’s crucial to make your establishment feel like home, we disagree with that statement entirely. A night at your establishment should be an experience like no other. And you should be able to offer something that removes guests from the normality of everyday life.
Hotels
Hotel developments across the UK are soon set to take off. The Hotel Britain Report 2018 reported on key cities that were set to see more hotel rooms open during 2018 and 2019 — some major locations included London (8,185), Manchester (1,657), Belfast (1,139) and Glasgow (1,036). Nationwide however, there’s are around 21,700 rooms in total set to open.
With a greater demand for hotel rooms, which is evidently shown in the number of projects above, chains can begin to charge higher rates to their guests. Today, British hotels have grown for eight consecutive years. Daily room rates increase by 3.4% to a record-breaking high of £100.58.
If hoteliers can warrant charging guests higher prices, they need to offer them something much more than just a bed in a room. Customers want an experience that differs from the norm. There’s a variety of ways that this can be achieved.
Design
If you stay in hotels yourself, you’ll know that how a place looks is very influential when it comes to booking. When spending your hard-earned cash, you want to indulge in a little bit of luxury. And we don’t blame you. From the lobby to the restaurant, to the rooms and even the elevator — everything must look perfect. With the hotel industry showing expansion plans this year, interior design is an element that must be considered from an early stage.
It’s important that you come up with a design that reflects your brand. However, it’s important to strike a balance between a contemporary, trendy aesthetic that has the ability to always stay ‘in-date’. This means you don’t need to fork out additional cost for any redesigns.
Colour plays a very significant role for interior design. When it comes to your hotel rooms colour palette, you must always consider the 60-30-10 rule. If you haven’t heard of this before, it essentially allows you to achieve the right balance when it comes to tones in a room by taking three colours and splitting them up into percentages — the 60%, 30% and 10%. The largest percentage will become your dominating colour. This will usually be a neutral hue that doesn’t look too overwhelming in a room. Your secondary colour should be bold and take up just 30%. However, the boldest colour of them all should take up the final 10%. Remember, this is something that applies to everything featured in a room: from the walls and carpets to the curtains and even the finer details of any framed art!
Experiences
Although there are significant differences between the sectors, we’ve all heard that the high street is dying. All because they failed to keep up with the times and offer in-store experiences. Hotels could suffer too. Why? Because online booking platforms like Airbnb are becoming more popular. And if someone can pay a cheaper rate for the same experience, they will. Therefore, hotels must strive to offer something different.
We chatted with one city-breaker, Megan Johnstone, who described one of her favourite hotel encounters: “I stayed in a citizenM hotel in Glasgow, and the technology in the rooms allow you to create your own personalised ambience – it’s a totally unique kind of hotel experience.”
But this isn’t something that is just limited to the UK. In St. Lucia for instance, The Anse Chastanet Resort has its own art gallery with paintings, sculptures and other pieces created by local islanders. The art at the is there “to highlight the eco-luxury resort’s commitment to preserving the island’s culture and shunning invasive technology” which is something that is extremely topical right now and resonates with travellers around the world.
There’s a lot more hotels could be offering their guests. When they visit, you should be able to offer them everything — ensuring that they spend as much time possible in your establishment. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant to stand out, Seaton Lane Inn, a hotel in Seaham, offer a dog friendly experience to their guests to offer something you can’t get everywhere. It can be this simple. If space and budget permits, have you considered having an in-house cinema? Bowling alley? The options are endless!
This is what the future looks like for hotels, and if you’re not already ahead of the game, you’re essentially moving 10 steps back. Make sure you’re always communicating with customers and understand what they’re looking for when they visit. This will heavily depend on your audience too, are you catering to millennials or families? This will give you a great insight into what you need to implement as a business.
