The digital transformation of the hotel guest experience will be a major competitive advantage for hoteliers in 2018, according to a new report from Sabre Corporation in cooperation with Altimeter, a leading research firm.

According to the Sabre Hospitality Solutions report, digital transformation can be challenging for hoteliers as many executives aren’t 100 per cent plugged into evolving guest behaviours, expectations, preferences, and aspirations.

"Many hospitality brands, for instance, are still burdened by legacy systems and technologies, silos, inadequate customer journeys and user experience (UX) design, outdated guest perspectives, etc.," Sabre highlights in its report.  The report outlines how brands can use digitalisation to improve the guest experience.

“Our customers who embrace modernisation are having great success, resulting in much higher guest satisfaction,” said Clinton Anderson, president of Sabre Hospitality Solutions. “In order to meet the expectations of today’s tech-savvy consumers, hoteliers must adopt flexible solutions that allow them to further personalise both the guest’s digital and physical experience. This report not only outlines trends we’ve seen in the space, but it also provides step-by-step guidelines for hotels to enhance their technology plans.”

“For digital transformation to excel, it must have a purpose. And among the most progressive hoteliers and hospitality brands, that purpose is centred on guest experience,” said Brian Solis, principal analyst and futurist at Altimeter, a Prophet company. “Modern guests are far more connected than previous generations. Their behaviours, expectations and preferences have also evolved. This is an opportunity for hoteliers to innovate and use digital transformation to introduce new levels of experiences that change the game for the entire industry.”

The Digital Transformation of the Hotel Guest Experience goes behind the scenes of the digital transformation initiatives and priorities of top hospitality brands with exclusive executive interviews. Key findings from the new report include:

Guest experience transformation is a priority
As consumers become increasingly connected, their expectations, preferences and behaviours evolve. The result is a more informed and empowered consumer base, and a higher standard for guest experience. Now more than ever, travel brands must assess how connected consumerism is changing and how the customer journey can be reimagined for an evolving, mobile, real-time world. From augmented and virtual reality to artificial intelligence and machine learning, the landscape is changing.

Digital Darwinism means constant evolution
Successful modern brands are agile and continually experiment with their technology. They intuitively cater to the on-demand nature of customer expectations and preferences in the design of products, services, and user experiences. Whether it’s on mobile, desktop, in-app or on the Web, technologies are designed with experiences in mind. These insights spill into on-property innovation and invention to blur the line between physical and digital, personalising the guest experience throughout the process.

The modern guest experience blueprint
Modern technology enables meaningful experiences at scale, adding major value for the traveller, and in turn, the hotel. To stay relevant, travel brands must place guests at the centre of all innovation and transformation strategies, leveraging technology to enable meaningful experiences at scale. In its report, Sabre outlines a strategy and technology roadmap to transform the hotel guest experience with immediate impact, with steps like reimagining the guest journey as an infinity loop, mapping the guest journey via existing data and input, and striving for seamless, cross-channel journeys that prioritise personalisation.

Innovation and transformation are not cost centres but investments in relationships. The digital transformation of GX is a human story. While the name implies a technology-centred approach, those who excel in modern engagement understand that all innovation is human-centred. Hospitality’s roots were fed by delivering human, personalised experiences that, in many ways, were impaired by enterprise technology over the years," Sabre said in its report.

"In the end, service innovation is about exceptional, personalised, and modern service. The rest is defined by how that service is delivered and how the people responsible for delivering guest experiences are empowered and rewarded to do so," it said. - TradeArabia News Service