In the early 1950s, Kemmons Wilson packed his kids in the car for a family road trip to the state of Washington. Along the way, they found themselves frustrated by the lack of safe, kid-friendly accommodation on America’s growing highway system. In response, Wilson opened the first ever Holiday Inn.
Fast-forward to 2007. Two college roommates struggled to pay their steep San Francisco rent. When they heard a major design conference was coming to town and most hotels in the city were fully booked, they thought of renting their loft to conference attendees as a way to make ends meet. That simple idea grew to become Airbnb and, subsequently, an entirely new industry.
These two stories not only help illustrate the ingenuity of hospitality entrepreneurs, but also how much the travel industry has changed in the last several decades. As society, technology and travel continues to adapt, each new generation brings their own preferences and expectations. For hotels, navigating these can feel like a challenge, but appealing to younger generations — particularly millennials, the largest living generation today — represents a major opportunity, and doesn’t have to come at the cost of older travelers.
Here are four tips to help hotels understand changing demographics and better attract today’s millennial travelers.
See also:
- 5 ways to compete with AirBnB and build hotel loyalty with millennials in a post-COVID landscape
- Ever heard of an 'amenity compass'? Here's how this Orlando resort personalizes the guest experience
- Personalization and quality are the keys to winning over on me-first travelers
1. Get to know your guests
Traditionally, getting to know guests on a first-name basis was a feature of local B&Bs and luxury boutiques, but access to technology makes it increasingly possible for hotels of any size to personalize their guest experience at scale. And learning the individual preferences of your guests, regardless of age, can be a helpful starting point in understanding — and catering to — generational differences.
One common tactic hotels use to understand their guests is with market segments, like business, leisure or family travel. Each of these groups has specific needs that hotels can cater to, from the length of their stay to the types of amenities they prefer. With increased access to customer data, hotel market segmentation is becoming even more sophisticated, with microsegments like ecotourism, business-leisure (or “bleisure”) and wellness travel emerging. These allow hotels to better meet the specific needs of their travelers, rather than generalizing across a broad group.
The same goes for generational segments, like millennials or Boomers, which can be too big to accurately define, even with access to data. We know, for example, that climate change is among millennials’ top five biggest concerns, that travel is very important to them (this generation was 80% more likely than Baby Boomers to travel by spring of 2021) and that authentic cultural experiences are key, with 60 percent of millennials ranking that as the most vital part of travel. But with more than seven billion millennials around the world, ranging in age from 27 to 41, there are as many differences as there are similarities.
Rather than trying to appeal to entire generations or segments, hotels can use data to create microsegments and build a more nuanced understanding of their guests, no matter their age.
2. Make it personal
With well-defined segmentation and a clearer understanding of individual guests, hotels can begin to offer the kinds of personalized amenities and experiences millennials — and other generations — tend to look for.
Effective personalization allows brands to provide experiences that feel tailor-made. Gatorade, for example, tracks customers’ sweat to offer personalized recommendations on how best to refuel post-workout. Netflix has long offered personalized homepages, serving viewers the programming they’re most likely to enjoy. And in Switzerland, Hotel Lugano Dante offers guests an online portal called “My Page” to customize their experiences with over 150 potential amenities and options, including baby cribs, air purifiers, yoga mats and specific minibar contents to meet their specific needs.
Not only is personalization a nice differentiator, it’s now becoming table-stakes across industries: a recent study found that up to 80% of customers expect some level of personalization from retailers; another found that millennial brand loyalty increased by 28% if they received personalized communication.
At PressReader, we see huge value in personalization and making guests feel like their experience is unique. With our platform, hotel guests can curate their own reading list and tailor their dashboard to meet their needs rather than choosing from a select few publications. Not to mention, that they can still access stories from home while they’re away. Hotels can also use the Self-Pub feature to customize messages to their guests, offering one more touchpoint.
3. Embrace generational differences
Hilton Hotels recently launched a brand for work-focused millennials — a segment they’re calling “modern achievers”. By making their spaces more digitally enabled and focusing on sustainability, they’re hitting many millennial must-haves. They’re also offering novel amenities tailored to the millennial workforce, like “curated assortments of morning and bedtime rituals” including in-room mindfulness and meditation, which they’ve built in partnership with Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global. Called Tempo, this new Hilton brand pairs their hotel experience with the kinds of unique offerings millennials and Gen Z crave.
Rather than trying to re-market traditional business travel to a changing demographic, Hilton Hotels found a way to differentiate themselves in a new segment by offering something new and purpose-built. For Millennials and Gen Z, travel experiences don’t have to be one-of-a-kind to feel like they’re once-in-a-lifetime. Even the world’s biggest chains can offer something unique, while maintaining the consistency and reliability their older guests look for.
4. Prioritize shifts over trends
Millennial pink gives way to Gen Z yellow; skinny jeans are out; butterfly clips and baguette bags are in: trends may come and go (and come again), but some generational shifts are here to stay. When looking for ways to appeal to younger generations, hotels can prioritize those more universal and long-term changes, while still appealing to shorter-term trends.
Climate change, for example, represents a fundamental change in how we do business across all industries. And studies show that climate change is increasingly top-of-mind for millennials and Gen Z. Offering more climate-friendly options is meaningful than a way for brands to appeal to younger customers, while creating a more sustainable business and industry long-term.
Find opportunity in change
From ancient Roman gathering places to stopovers for Medieval travelers on horseback, to elite continental destinations and family-friendly resorts, the history of the hotel industry tells a rich story of economic and cultural shifts over many centuries.
Today’s hospitality industry continues its long tradition of adapting to guests’ preferences and needs, now with the help — and challenge — of technology and data. In the midst of so much change, hotels have an opportunity to stand out among new generations by getting to know their preferences and finding new ways to authentically engage.
