Customer Experience Management: New Technology Leads to New Benefits

Summary

Hospitality and tourism are about creating a welcoming environment for travelers. However, the ways in which tourism and hospitality operators go about creating this environment have changed dramatically in the recent past. Guests are increasingly tech-savvy, time-starved, impatient global travelers. They have embraced the Internet and can be found conducting research on TripAdvisor, shopping on Hipmunk, booking online at Orbitz, and writing reviews on Booking.com or Expedia from their mobile devices right after checking out of their hotel rooms. Phocuswright's research shows that modern travelers shop on multiple channels prior to booking. The changing nature of the hospitality business is critically important for all travel suppliers, but perhaps even more so for independent hotels that lack strong brand recognition. While a major brand like Hilton has historically received a sizable portion of its revenue through direct channels, many independent hotels rely on third-party electronic distributions as primary sources of revenue.