For hotel owners and operators, it makes sense to ‘outsource’ personalisation to the global hotel brands and their loyalty programmes, said Adrian Ruch, director of investment and asset management at Azure Hotels Limited.
“This is where the partnership with the brands is strong and important because they are in the driving seat and they have the power to evolve these programmes and stay close to the guests and deliver points of value,” he said.
“In today’s world I’d love guests to be able to embellish their profiles on the loyalty platform with more detail. If, as an owner, I choose to tap into that knowledge on site I can do that. I wouldn’t necessarily have the time to collect the data myself - plus there are legal ramifications, GDPR etc.”
Knowing a guest is lactose intolerant in advance allows the operator to swap out the milk in the mini bar. Such personal touches can go a long way, commented Ruch.
The success rate amongst independent hotels who manage their own loyalty programmes is mixed, said William Cotter, managing director, Net Affinity: “You might have those who are using the CRM really well and others who are struggling because they don’t have the resources or the time.”
Personalised dining
Food halls are an interesting example of personalisation. A group may choose Thai, Italian, Mexican, Japanese dishes but sit at the same table and enjoy a meal together. Steven Smit, director, Vertiq Capital, observed: “It’s the highest level of personalisation but it’s still a group experience.”
Vertiq’s investment portfolio includes Arcade Food Halls which operates two food halls in London at Centrepoint and Battersea Power Station and is launching a franchise in Saudi Arabia.
“For the consumer, food halls are great. In terms of waste and service, they are complex operations,” Smit commented.
Cheryl Sheppard, partner and chief marketing officer at TGP International, added: “We create and operate several food halls globally and the models can be very different depending on how you cut it. When we’re asset managing, we have very strict operational guidelines for our concessions. If they don’t meet their KPIs, they’re out pretty quickly.”
F&B in hotels can be a strong driver of revenue when done well, said Ruch: “The devil is in the detail. And a concept has to prove itself over and over again. Cost control is really important too.”
Local following
Following a two-year makeover, Ruch’s company Azure Hotels re-opened Brunfels Hotel in Mainz, Germany in September 2024. The hotel is part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt brand. The World of Hyatt loyalty programme has 51 million members.
“One of the focus points was to really activate the ground floor, the bar and the restaurant space. We purposefully hired a head chef with a Michelin background. It’s an excellent sustainable menu,” Ruch said.
The hotel restaurant has attracted a loyal local following, including a neighbour in her nineties who has dined with friends several times, and pilfered “one of the cute little table lamps” as a souvenir. Even theft can be an expression of loyalty, it seems.
Launching a new F&B concept or restaurant is always something of a leap into the unknown. To lessen the risk, Ruch and his partners trialled the new restaurant in a pop-up at a sister hotel and gathered as much feedback as possible.
Post-stay surveys
How can businesses maintain loyalty once the customer has left the building? Cotter argued that loyalty depends on the in-person service that guests receive when they are physically in the hotel, but added that many common causes of friction, such as guests having to repeat the same personal details, can be eliminated in the digital sphere.
Neetu Mistry, chief commercial officer, Cycas Hospitality, wondered whether hotels could do a better job with post-stay emails and customer satisfaction surveys.
Smit said: “The one that works best is a Net Promoter Score (NPS) because it’s the simplest and quickest. That’s all you need. Often, hotels give you the NPS and a whole bunch of other questions. If you travel a lot, [responding to these surveys] is simply not manageable.”
To collect and measure guest feedback, Azure Hotels uses Medallia, an enterprise software platform. Ruch said: “We find it a useful internal management system with the general managers in the hotels to improve the product.”
All quotes taken from the panel “Redefining the Experience: Creating Bespoke Journeys to Boost Loyalty and Revenue” at AHC 2024
By Ben Walker
