Trend 1: Improved Customer Service Delivery Essays Example

Industry trend impact report

The need to attain competitive advantage in the hospitality industry has pushed hotel businesses to employ various strategies in the delivery of services to customers. These strategies range from improved technology, enhanced customer service delivery, promotion campaign to quality enhancement in food preparation. They form the major trends that have brought impacts on the hospitality industry.

Most hotels have taken hospitality industry to the next level. A warming trend in which visitors are treated to a warm welcome has been an emerging feature in hotels. Hotels are turning towards friendlier services with the aim of winning the loyalty of customers. Responding to hospitality needs of millennials will be a key priority of most hotels (Futterman, 1). For example, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. announced that a new technology will be used to target younger travelers. The hotel plans to use smart phones and tablet computer screens to allow guests check in and out. Customers can use their smart phones to see the location of the hotel and choose their rooms. Guests that arrive at the hotel premises can use their smart phones to unlock doors to access their rooms. This would spare travelers the agony of making a line at the front office desk to pick up keys for their rooms.
Top restaurants in Manhattan have welcoming staff that offer a warm welcome and hug to visitors that arrive in the hotel. This move is seen as an attempt to lure customers so that they can become loyal to the services that the hotel offers. Waiters, hosts and bartenders at Gabriel Stulman’s restaurants in Manhattan are allowed to some degree of freedom. The management of these hotels allows them to feel happy by drinking on the job and wearing as they like. The underlying reason behind this trend is to increase the excitement and happiness of both waiters and clients that visit the hotels for services (Murphy & Alyssa, 1). The belief here is that customers would not have much fun if the people that serve them look miserable. The Marriott international hotel embarked on an initiative to create small rooms to lure millennials (Karmin, 1).

Justification of choice

This choice was made against the backdrop of the centrality of effective customer service delivery to the ultimate success and growth of a hotel industry. Customers are the backbone of the success of all hotel businesses. Without customers, hotels do not make profits. Thus, improving customer service delivery is a way of making the customers to feel that their contribution in the hotel industry is appreciated.

Impact of trend

This trend is likely to initiate a paradigm shift in the manner in which hotels treat customers. Most customers are likely to visit places where they get value for their money. Effective customer service response will tilt consumer perception towards hotels that provide better customer experience (Hudson, 1). The impact of this trend will benefit industry players that observe improved customer service delivery techniques. Hotels that do not embrace the changing times register low profits since customers depart for other hotels.

Trend 2: Lifestyle marketing trend

Lifestyle marketing trend has also featured in the hotel industry in the recent months. Most hotels invest millions of dollars to install museums of modern art to give customers a memorable feel. Deborah Dunn reported that Langham hotel group had planned a major renovation that would see the hotel incur $2million in acquiring the works of various painters. The obsession of hotel industries with the work of art is a new lifestyle marketing trend (Dunn 1). This trend is aimed at taking the hotel industry beyond provision of food to enhancing memorable stay by visitors. The fundamental reason being installation of art is to arrest the loyalty of customers so that they can revisit the experience in the hotel industry. Art plays a significant role in contributing to the emotional experience of people.

Justification of choice

The use of art in hotel industry is a strategy that most hotel developers currently to make the enterprises attractive to clients. This move aims to give clients additional feel beyond provision of food. Competition on the basis of food no longer creates a separation among players in the industry. The struggle to look for extra appeal has led to improvements in design and construction of hotel infrastructure (Karmin 1). This phenomenon has become an emerging trend which has seen most hotels around the world renovated to conform to contemporary business setup. Thus, the choice of this trend cannot be gainsaid.

Impact of trend

This trend has created a significant impact in the growth of hotel industry. For example, the inclusion of art work in the Le Meridien Chambers hotel has seen the industry increase its customer base. The increase in customers has consequently led to an increase in profit returns. 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville redesigned its infrastructure to include ultramodern art museums. The hotel guest rooms are installed with installations dubbed “Asleep in the Cyclone.” This development has increased the hotel’s profit margins significantly.

Works Cited

Dunn, Deborah. “Sleeping with Jeff Koons: Hotels that double as Art Galleries.” The Wall Street Journal. (2015, March 31). Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/sleeping-with-jeff-koons-hotels-that-double-as-art-galleries-1425673272?KEYWORDS=Hotel+Industry
Futterman, Mathew. “NFL expanding hospitality services.” The Wall Street Journal. (2015, March 29). Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/nfl-expanding-hospitality-services-1427661988
Hudson, Kris. “Generation Y prefers suburban home over city Condo.” The Wall Street Journal. (2015, January 21). Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/millennials-prefer-single-family-homes-in-the-suburbs-1421896797
Karmin, Craig. “Low-budget Motel 6 gets in on lodging growth boom.” The Wall Street Journal. (2015, March 3). Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/low-budget-motel-6-gets-in-on-lodging-growth-boom-1425410488?KEYWORDS=Hotel+Industry
Karmin, Craig. “Marriott hopes small rooms are big draw.” The Wall Street Journal. (2015, January 20). Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/marriott-hopes-small-rooms-are-big-draw-1421780131?KEYWORDS=Hotel+Industry
Murphy, Colum, and Alyssa Abkowitz. “Qunar Focuses on Hotels, Southeast Asia as it aims for profitability.” The Wall Street Journal. (2015, January 29). Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/qunar-focuses-on-hotels-southeast-asia-as-it-aims-for-profitability-1422537285?KEYWORDS=Hotel+Industry