The new luxury is really all about experience versus statement. The way that a hotel can differentiate themselves from other hotels is by being able to articulate and communicate the experience that one would have at that hotel as opposed to another hotel.
“There are degrees, aspects, and attributes of luxury that would be experienced in very different ways. The way that hotels are able to use experiential branding can set them miles apart from their competition,” says Michelle Storey from Tradeway.
A hotel needs to first move away from seeing themselves as a product or a service provider. As a hotel owner, manager, or the marketing manager of a hotel, you need to understand that your hotel is only a part of a broader set of events that a customer is planning. It is also crucial to understand all of the touchpoints that a guest will have with the hotel that will contribute to their overall experience.
Doing this means stepping out of yourself and into the brains of your consumers. Walk a mile in the brain of your guest and try to understand everything the guest is seeing and feeling as they go through the entire process that involves the hotel. Measure it all the way from the airport and try to relate the way that guests are feeling all the way to the hotel and how their experience within the hotel plays out.
You may come to realise that the physical attributes of the hotel or the luxury that the hotel provides comes second to the experience. If the majority of your guests are business travelers, for example, this exercise can help you realise that your hotel needs to focus on helping guests accomplish their business objectives as opposed to creating a fun and trendy experience. The experience that guests may be judging their stay on can be largely dependent on how successful their business trip is, so consider ways that you can make their work life, transport and meeting preparation easier.
“The way to differentiate your hotel is by really understanding the experience that your travel guests are looking for. The best way to prepare yourself is to look at yourself less as a product that can be ‘booked’ and ‘consumed’, but rather at the guest’s experience of their entire trip,” says Greg Martin from Tradeway.
Need help with your experiential marketing campaign? Then contact Tradeway today.