Why hoteliers must maintain the personal touch in a world of automation

Data published recently by Knight Frank shows that £2bn of UK hotel transactions were recorded in 2023, with the healthy increase in investor activity at the end of the year likely to build momentum through 2024.

This is of course encouraging news, but in a world of growing automation, hoteliers must not lose sight of the importance of personal interaction to ensure trading figures continue to improve once more favourable market conditions return.

We’ve all experienced the benefits of smart-phone check-ins, digital key fobs and food delivery apps, with person-less hotel lobbies, AI, ChatGPT and other robot assistance supporting the hotel sector through the pandemic and its immediate aftermath. However, now that we have returned to a safer, more social era, hoteliers that want to supercharge their growth must now refocus on what has always been at the heart of the hospitality industry: building lasting, memorable personal relationships with their guests.

Staypineapple Hotels Inc is just one of many US owner-operators whose brand is continuously shaped by feedback from staff and guests. To maximise returns, the group tailors its operations around guest satisfaction, its staff often deriving insights by listening to customers in lobbies and through personal guest interactions.

As with all international operator brands, data is pored over so that Staypineapple has an accurate picture of guests – from the names of their dogs to their favourite meals and the fluffiness of bath robe they prefer – so that their business is guaranteed whenever guests are in town. This is a message we hear time and again from both our hotel owner and operator clients: the more detailed a picture they have of their guests, the more focused their marketing messages can be, the better they can service their guests’ needs, and consequently the more entrenched guests become with their favourite brands.

Asset managers also recognise the value of tailored, personal interactions. Acting on behalf of their owner investor clients, they will regularly correspond with staff at clients’ hotels, asking questions such as: ‘If you could change one thing about the way we do business, what would it be?’ The staff, after all, are one step closer to guests than they are, and some of their ideas may well lead to greater operational efficiencies, as well as new revenue streams.

These new income streams often become more apparent the more a hotel engages in personal interactions with its competitors, the local community, its regular guests and staff. Through such engagements, our clients tell us that they have been able to convert guest rooms into flexi-working spaces and to partner with local community initiatives and become part of the neighbourhood fabric – hosting farmers’ markets, offering crèche facilities and establishing micro-movie theatres that enable guests to watch new releases in the cosy surroundings of a luxury lifestyle hotel rather than the bustle of a multiplex.

Our clients also report their delight when staff book the hotel for personal celebrations, wedding receptions, graduation parties and religious services. Some hotels have also inserted EV charging points in carparks and cross sell the café and restaurant facilities to waiting drivers.

To maintain an upward growth trajectory, UK hoteliers must embrace the personal touch and get out there to see how they can be a focal point in the local community, offering new and additional services, and most importantly, continuing to build close personal relationships with staff and guests.