The digital transformation in the hospitality industry has highly affected the traditional accommodation services operated by hospitality groups. The customer relationship management with the leisure segment has been highly disrupted, as it is at the heart of the digital transformation giving a dominant weight to customers that are now empowered by technology and information which make them more volatile and discerning.
The digital transformation has brought many challenges: new consumer behaviors and expectations related to technology, the rise of digital competitors and an entire new economy based on the sharing of services.
Hospitality groups have to adapt in order to cope with these challenges, to stay in the race and not be outdone by competitors. On the other hand, it is also the right opportunity for hoteliers to differentiate, offer new highly valued services and then to gain market shares.
This research focuses on the customer journey, that is to say the whole path of customers going from the preparation of the trip to the after stay relationship, during which hospitality groups interact constantly with customers and put it at the heart of the customer relationship management.
By using concrete applications and uses of technology deployed by leading hospitality groups, the research shows how they cope with the highlighted challenges and how they take advantage of it to create opportunities to enhance the guest satisfaction and to differentiate.
Hospitality groups use technologies to control and improve their online reputation, to gather and analyze data from customers in order to target them with an appropriate message and to control their ROI on marketing, to offer seamless, effective and mobile booking channels full of useful information on their websites and applications that will engage more the customer and spur him to book directly.
All along the reservation process, hospitality groups offer innovative and differentiating added value services to customers. Some actors go further and face directly the emerging digital actors by opening online platforms or acquiring smaller actors offering the same kind of services valued by customers in order to gain power and attract the customers on different channels and for different kinds of experiences.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
41
Once in the hotel, guests have access to a very mobile, digital and high-tech experience that leave them with an enjoyable experience and an impressive memory going from special devices to extra-services very tailored to each customer.
This personalization of the overall experience enabled by technology is highly valued by customers and increase then their loyalty. The loyalty programs are reshaped to match the different customers’
expectations, give them more freedom and make them feel valued by services they do need. Loyalty is highly important in this very competitive industry and locks the customer in the brands’ channels, preventing him to compare the services with the competitors’.
All along the customer journey, the digital transformation has brought mobility and a high interaction with customer that shapes today the customer relationship management.
The digital transformation has enabled leading hospitality groups to differentiate through highly personalized services and to match the customers’ expectations by knowing them better and offering them innovative services.
The challenges brought by digital transformation to the customer relationship management in the hospitality industry extend widely to numerous sectors where technology does not really affect the product in itself but the overall customer experience around the consumption. The closest industry can be the food catering and delivery, that is today highly evolving with the rise of numerous digital actors belonging to the Food Tech.
The study only deals with the customer relationship and does not show all the implications of technology improvements, especially related to infrastructure, costs, human resources and measure of ROI. Others applications of technology giving the chance to hospitality groups to increase their profitability, such as revenue management, that is the practice of using data to optimize room pricing, would also be interesting subjects to focus on.
‧
2. 2016 Lodging technology study, HT Magazine 3. Hospitality trends for 2016, EY
Websites:
1. Travel Weekly's 2016 Power List, http://www.travelweekly.com/Powerlist2016 2. Customer relationship definition, business dictionary,
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer-relationship.html 3. World Tourism Organization, http://www2.unwto.org/
4. Trends in the hospitality industry, EY, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-les- tendances-du-secteur-hotelier-pour-2016/$FILE/EY-les-tendances-du-secteur-hotelier-pour-2016.pdf
5. The top 10 hospitality groups, BFM Business TV,
http://bfmbusiness.bfmtv.com/entreprise/voici-les-10-plus-grands-groupes-hoteliers-du-monde-871527.html
6. MKG group, consulting services in the hospitality industry, http://mkg-group.com/mkg-group-expert-hotelier/
7. E-tourism, KPMG, https://home.kpmg.com/fr/fr/home/media/press-releases/2016/05/e-tourisme-2016.html
8. The Global Hotel Industry and Trends for 2016,Hospitalitynet, http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4073336.html
9. 2017 hotel trends to look out for,Hospitalitynet,
http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/global/147000329/4079563.html
10. Customer Experience Strategy for hotels and how it can Generate More Revenues, Hospitalitynet, http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4069852.html
11. The sharing economy: concepts and lessons for hospitality, Hospitalitynet, http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4076818.html
‧
12. 7 key trends emerging in the hospitality industry, Multibriefs exclusive,
http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/7-key-trends-in-the-hospitality-industry/travel-hospitality-event-management
13. Top 6 hospitality tech trends for 2014, Elevenwireless, http://www.elevenwireless.com/top-6-hospitality-tech-trends-for-2014/
14. A New Breed of Traveller: How Consumers are Driving Change in the Hotel Industry, 4hoteliers, http://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/8022
15. 7 trends that are transforming the hospitality industry, hospitality magazine,
http://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au/Management/7-technologies-that-are-transforming-the-hospitali
16. 6 Mega-Trends in Hotel Technology, Hospitality Technology,
http://hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/news/6-Mega-Trends-in-Hotel-Technology105033 17. The hospitality clientele, Coach Omnium,
http://www.coachomnium.com/bonus/la-clientele-hoteliere.html
18. Hospitality: Latin American and Asia the growth generators, Hospitality-on,
http://hospitality-on.com/actualites/2016/07/07/parc-hotelier-monde-2016-lamerique-latine-et-lasie-moteurs-de-croissance/
19. Leisure and business travel share importance in US travel expenditure, Market Realist, http://marketrealist.com/2014/12/leisure-business-travel-share-importance-us-travel-expenditure/
20. Hotel Reputation Management, Customer Alliance, http://www.customer-alliance.com/en/articles/hotel-reputation-management/
21. Revinate surpasses 25000 hotel clients signing with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Revinate, https://www.revinate.com/blog/2015/08/revinate-surpasses-25000-hotel-clients-signing-starwood-hotels-resorts/
22. Revinate and Fairmas enter into a strategic partnership to combine online reputation, social media mentions and performance data on hotel competition, Hetras,
http://www.hetras.com/blog/revinate-and-fairmas-enter-into-a-strategic-partnership-to- combine-online-reputation-social-media-mentions-and-performance-data-on-hotel-competition
‧
23. How technology has transformed the travel industry, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/feb/29/technology-internet-transformed-travel-industry-airbnb
24. Hoteliers to watch out for mobile-moments and dayparting in 2017, Hotelogix,
http://www.hotelogix.com/blog/2016/12/21/hoteliers-watch-mobile-moments-dayparting-2017/
25. AccorHotels opens a marketplace to counter Booking.com, Journal du net,
http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/commerce/1155380-accorhotels-ouvre-une-marketplace-pour-contrer-booking-com/
26. Trends on the MICE Market for 2016, mylodgeevent.com,
https://www.mylodgevent.com/marche-mice-2015-tendances-2016 27. The Newest Travel Must-Have: Starwood's SPG App, Forbes,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2012/03/27/the-newest-travel-must-have-starwoods-spg-app/#50f4a20145e2
28. Starwood on being mobile first, its social success and an Instagram flop, Eyefortravel.com, http://www.eyefortravel.com/mobile-and-technology/starwood-being-mobile-first-its-social-success-and-instagram-flop
29. The 6 most high-tech hotels in France, Room5, http://room5.trivago.fr/hotels-high-tech-france/
30. Hilton Honors app, Hilton, http://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/fr_FR/hhonors-mobile-app/index2.html
31. The Sharing Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for Hoteliers,Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne, http://blog.ehl.edu/the-sharing-economy-challenges-and-opportunites-for-hoteliers
32. Here's Proof Airbnb Is Shaking Up the Global Hospitality Industry, The Street,
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13070686/3/heres-proof-airbnb-is-shaking-up-the-global-hospitality-industry.html
33. AccorHotels, Wikipedia,
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/AccorHotels#Marques_du_groupe_AccorHotels
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
45
34. World Of Hyatt, Hyatt Loyalty Program, https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/fr/member-benefits.html
35. Hilton And IBM Pilot “Connie,” The World’s First Watson-Enabled Hotel Concierge, Newsroom.com, http://newsroom.hilton.com/index.cfm/news/hilton-and-ibm-pilot-connie-the-worlds-first-watsonenabled-hotel-concierge
36. 9 Key Stats in Hotel Online Distribution, Frederic Gonzalo,
http://fredericgonzalo.com/en/2015/11/05/9-key-stats-in-hotel-online-distribution/
37. Independent Hotels: marketing, distribution and technology for non-branded properties, Phocuswright,
http://pcwi.phocuswright.com/IndependentHotels.html?cid=external_tnooz_sa
38. A close look at Trivago business model, Market Realist, http://marketrealist.com/2016/11/a-close-look-at-trivagos-business-model/