In a recent article written for Luxury Hoteliers Magazine, author Dan Phillips and owner of Dare to Imagine, a company specializing in hotel technology, challenged hoteliers to re-think their role as simply providing hospitality and embrace the notion that they are really “lifestyle providers.”  The piece cites studies that support the concept, describing the need to glean knowledge based on guests' local behaviors to deliver personalized, timely messages and increase brand engagement. 

It goes on to introduce several location-based technology companies helping hoteliers to deliver on the personalization promise, in a privacy-friendly manner.  Some insights featured in the article that underscore hoteliers’ needs for local, behavior-based insights include a study conducted by EKN and AT&T highlighting:

Hotels that leverage in-location engagement do so 60% of the time by email and only 26% of the time by mobile app, while over two-thirds of guests carry a smartphone.

And

While more than 50% of hotels can uniquely identify guests on-site, 41% of them lack the insight as to what the guest actually wants.

The piece goes on to mention select technology companies providing hoteliers with innovative location-based services, along with quotes from company executives:

“Guests expect, if not demand, great service while traveling, and hotels are investing in more effective, efficient ways to deliver on their service commitment.”

RoamingAround – A mobile solutions provider to the hotel industry

“…we are seeing that if (guests) have direct access to a brand on their mobile devices, they tend to be more loyal.”

Gravy – A location-based behavioral analytics and marketing segmentation company

To read the article in its entirety, click here.