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Candida Moraes
The world traveller has a wide choice
today and this will grow in times to come. In such a scenario,
the hotel chain that remembers guest preferences and anticipates
their needs will, says Raymond Bickson, MD, Indian Hotels,
be the winner
The hotel
guest of the future will be far savvier and discerning. With
the world at his feet — and a world of information at
his fingertips - he will choose to stay at a hotel chain that
remembers his preferences and delivers an inimitable experience
every time, anywhere in the world. This means that the challenge
for hotels to sustain connections with guests will only increase.
At the Taj, we are trying to address
this through our guest tracking system, which helps us follow
our guests' needs over a lifetime. I believe that personalisation
and customisation of each guest's needs, their likes and dislikes,
is something that we have to constantly focus on. We look
at having a lifetime connection with our guests and their
families. We would like to see the children of our guests
become future customers of Taj Hotels.
For us, it will be a great challenge
not to lose the connection between the Taj guest and our hotels.
It is here that our loyalty programme will prove to be effective
in tracking the guest and his needs in the future.
Success drivers
The challenge of connecting emotionally to the guest and creating
unwavering long-term loyalty will be an essential driver in
the hospitality industry in the years to come.
In recent times, the number of hotel
brands available to travellers has increased; and these differ
depending on the reason of the stay. The line between business
and leisure travel is becoming blurred. The guest is becoming
a more and more complex person to serve. What we need to do
is to help him choose a particular hotel brand and become
its loyal customer.
A hotel brand must understand each
guest as an individual and ensure customisation of the hospitality
products and services. A hotel experience that has been created
for mass consumption will not succeed.
How the hospitality industry handles
and retains its people (the heart and soul of a hotel) will
be another important issue. At one level, a hotel is really
only a brick and mortar edifice, and can be built by anyone,
anywhere. It can strive to differentiate itself through better
service offerings, delivery and efficiency, but it can succeed
in this only if its people are good.
If you look at Taj Hotels, we have
been doing well because we provide a complete experience to
guests, from room service to dining to entertainment and leisure
activities — through our people. Our people are the spirit
behind our success. The most important rule in this industry
is that if you take care of your people, they will take care
of your guests. Everything else will fall into place after
that.
In the future too, the level of soft
skills will continue to be the single most important factor
in attracting and retaining guests.
The big challenge facing the hotel
industry will be in findings ways to retain their people.
The growing travel and tourism industry, foreign hotels coming
in to India and the demand from IT companies is putting and
will continue to put a tremendous pressure on staff retention.
We must look at how we can enthuse our staff to be passionate
about working in Taj Hotels.
The value-adds
Technology will play an increasingly important role in the
future in helping brands deliver a highly personalised level
of service no matter in which segment the guest stays in.
In 2015, if you look at the life cycle
of a guest's stay at a hotel, every touch point will require
the use of technology. From making reservations on the internet,
checking-in through an interactive kiosk in the lobby, ordering
room service through an in-room entertainment system to checking
out of the hotel and checking in on a flight through the same
check-in kiosk. Technology will continue to be a critical
factor for success in the industry.
This also means that a hotel chain's
IT systems must be reliable and be able to work each and every
time without fail. The systems must be able to capture, record,
analyse and deploy important guest data in quick time to enable
speedy responses and efficient delivery. For instance, a guest's
preference for having three pillows or a particular juice
at breakfast must be captured and communicated before he reaches
another city or before his next visit to the same hotel.
The application of technology must
be enhanced by soft skills. The ability of the staff to discreetly
capture and enter information on guest preferences will determine
the success of the technology and branding initiatives. I
think that a brand is a promise and our staff will be tasked
with delivering this promise using world-class soft skills.Brands
will continue to battle to provide the most cutting edge amenities.
I think that they will also need to ensure that they set guest
expectations and meet or beat those expectations consistently.
But these must be enhanced or improved with what is perceived
as value from the viewpoint of the guest.
Future requirements
Indian Hotels is also preparing for the future by making changes
in its current brand architecture to reflect the changing
needs of guests. While the overall brand is the Taj Hotels
Resorts and Palaces, there will be sub-brands, which will
be targeted at different customers seeking different experiences.
In doing all this, we are ensuring that our technology initiatives
support and enhance the positioning of each of our brands
so that we are the leader in terms of market share in every
segment.
Another area that has a great potential
is the area of 'wellness'. It will continue to be important
to people who do not want to grow old mentally, physically
and spiritually. Today the spa business worldwide is over
US$ 40 billion, and it has become an important segment for
hotels to attract customers. In the future it will be as important
for a hotel to have a world-class spa as having a cutting
edge restaurant.
Indian Hotels has spent a great deal
of time to ensure that the best in India in terms of wellness
is represented in its Jiva Spa. The Jiva Spa experience is
woven around the Indian elements of yoga, meditation and ayurveda
to relax and rejuvenate guests. We have these spas at most
of our hotels worldwide.
At the same time, we understand
that the training and retention of our staff will provide
the biggest differentiator. So I see a robust combination
of branding, technology and training as pillars for meeting
the challenges in the future.
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Uploaded on August 28,
2006
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