How Sara Osias designs and delivers “bucket list” experiences at Auberge Resorts

Hello. Today we’re looking at:

• Guest experience: How Sara Osias designs and delivers exceptional “bucket list” experiences at Auberge Resorts

• Technology: How Coast Hotels designed, launched, and runs its guest feedback management program

• Marketing: Why every company is going to need a chief evangelist

• Revenue: Cost concerns creep up for travelers, forcing hoteliers to rethink rate strategies

• Investment: Interest rates weigh on hotel transactions, but capital is ready to pounce

• Photo from our community: Remington Hotels off-roading offsite

Let’s jump into it…

GUEST EXPERIENCE

How I design and deliver experiences for our guests

with Sara Osias on the Hospitality Daily Podcast

Sara Osias is Head of Experiences at Auberge Resorts Collection, and shares how her background working at technology companies guides her selection of the experiences they offer, the cultural trends driving demand for experience today, the importance of engaging all five senses - and the step-by-step process she uses to design and deliver extraordinary experiences.

Why this matters: Experience is the key to standing out and making money in hospitality today. As we learned from Samantha Hardcastle in a prior episode, providing memorable experiences is not only vital for differentiating your brand and building loyalty, it's especially important today to make guests feel they're getting value for the money they're paying to stay at your properties and ensuring they return and tell others about you as well.

In their words: “There's power in using experience design in your guest journey to create magic in all of your touchpoints.”

Listen now

TECHNOLOGY (SPONSORED BY SHIJI GROUP)

How Coast Hotels designed, launched, and runs its guest feedback management program

with Brigitte Diem-Guy, Nooshi Akhavan, Linda Hagen, Emma McDonald & Dan Reid from Coast Hotels at HotelOperations.com

What’s going on:

• Coast Hotels needed a better way to collect and process guest feedback to improve satisfaction, redesign brand standards, and drive revenue growth

• To do this, they hired an internal project lead, bought and onboarded Shiji ReviewPro, and drove internal adoption through healthy competition

• The results included going from sporadic responses to a near-total response rate (50% to ~100%); Time savings (~30/minutes a day for GMs); Competitive intelligence (“We can see what guests are saying”); Increased pricing power (“If you create a better than average guest experience, you can also earn higher rates for doing that”); and higher staff motivation (“The feedback makes my staff feel good, and it’s been great for engagement”)

In their words: “A happy guest is a repeat guest, but a super happy guest is someone that will talk to their friends, families, and colleagues about your hotel. Customer advocacy leads to faster organic growth, lower customer acquisition cost, and higher customer lifetime value. Ultimately, it leads to long-term sustainable revenue growth for every hotel.” - Brigitte Diem-Guy

Read now

MARKETING

Why every company is going to need a chief evangelist

with Scott Albro on LinkedIn

What’s going on: Growth strategy leader Scott Albro believes every company engaged in B2B sales and marketing needs to find a Chief Evangelist right now.

Why this matters: Content supply is grossly outpacing demand for it. Getting a buyer's attention is already hard and it's about to get harder.

In their words: “Uniquely human skills that will stand out in the ever-expanding content wilderness we're about to see.”

Read now

REVENUE

Cost concerns creep up for travelers, forcing hoteliers to rethink rate strategies

by Dana Miller for Hotel News Now

What’s going on: After a period when consumers were prioritizing spending on travel and experiences regardless of the expense, hotels in some markets are now beginning to see that trend slow down as inflation persists.

In their words: “And we’re going to continue to focus on personalizing the guest experience just to see what we can do in terms of value-add to hopefully increase revenue capture throughout the guests’ stay.” - Isaac Rodriguez, senior vice president of revenue strategy and distribution at Twenty Four Seven Hotels

Read now

INVESTING

Interest rates weigh on hotel transactions, but capital is ready to pounce

by David Eisen for Hotels Magazine

What’s going on: Higher interest rates make it tougher to buy or build hotels, but as the Federal Reserve signals that it could remove its heavy foot from the pedal, buyers and developers could be in a position to have their checkbooks ready.

In their words: “The tick up of interest rates has slowed down sales, but people have cash to spend. There may be slower transactions over next few months but could then pick up into Q4 and into the next year.” - Marc Magazine, executive managing director, Savills Hospitality Group

Read now

PHOTO FROM OUR COMMUNITY

Remington Hotels off-roading offsite

See more