Convergence and accessibility – Make your business thrive

Although current trends in demographics, reflecting the needs of the Silver tourist versus Millennials and Generation Z, may seem conflicting for hoteliers, at first sight, these groups have a lot more in common in terms of demands.

There is a solution that will benefit both hoteliers and all groups of their clients. It is accessibility and convergence.

Keeping up with hospitality trends

Let us first have a look at the trends a hospitality provider must consider to build a successful business strategy:

• People feel a lack of time and take shorter vacations more often. Even layover between flights can be filled with active or passive rest, not to mention weekend city-breaks. Sometimes business trips may become that long-dreamt-about holiday as multitasking is not even a choice nowadays. Time-pressed clients tend to value time over money, which they also do not spend, they invest.
• The need for high-quality and enriching experience stems from the idea of investment. What can have higher ROI than education? It explains the high demand for all sorts of workshops, interactive museums, lectures, conferences, and so on, that can be combined with a vacation.
• Growing concern over ecological issues gave rise to sustainability demands in hotel design, maintenance and food trends, such as vegetarianism, clean eating, etc. People have become more conscious about health, so allergies (to food, bedding and cleaning products), as well as gluten- and lactose-intolerances should be taken into consideration when striving for excellent guest care. Database of client preferences or even their health data interacting with your offer of food would be a dream come true.
• Customized itineraries that tend to be more complex, and at the same time, managed individually. Tailor-made vacations, unique experiences, being the author of your life after all – these needs seem to be applicable to tech-savvy generations only.
• So-called “Silver Tourism”, refers to adults over 55 years old, which is approximately one-fifth of the population and continues to grow. These clients are characterized by broad experience in tourism, making them more demanding. This group often includes disabled people, with whom senior citizens share the need for accessibility.

Accessibility among biggest client demands

Accessibility shouldn’t necessarily mean and be restricted by physical access to amenities and facilities, but it can also imply easy and user-friendly “one-window” access to such services as a room reservation, car rental, dining, sightseeing, parking, room service, concierge service, etc..

Accessibility is the very first impression the customer gets interacting with your property; it may as well be the last. It also means you follow current trends of being client-focused, eliminating the hassle for your guests, creating a new level of comfort for them, meeting their requirements in a timely manner. This is where all tourists’ generations are unanimous about.

Convergence as the way to higher profits

The idea of convergence is about the integration of various existing technologies with your property to respond faster to changing trends and ensure consistency, which will benefit business from many angles, allowing hotel operations to run more smoothly and increase guests’ happiness. Some hotels even apply to VR and robots to move their service to a new level.

Overall, sales and upsells like these above will enrich customers’ experience, generate word-of-mouth advertising, and your bottom line can get a considerable boost. But instead of developing your own application, hiring experts, and waiting for the result for months, you can invest in another advantageous solution – a modern hotel management software, a good example is HotelFriend, has an app, so you can start using it just after all formalities. 

By the way, pay attention to the key features when choosing a PMS. The ideal software should contain a booking engine, channel manager, central reservation system, application, and payment processing. In other words, it should simplify as many daily tasks as possible, so that you could channel your energy to other essential things in your business.

When modern technology and lifestyle converge, the whole industry goes to a completely new level. Be open to new trends and inventions, and you will benefit from convergence and accessibility.