Trend no. 4 : customers’ search for value through
social couponing and daily deals
Value comes in all forms, but in the current economic
environment, it means special offers and discounts, which are
a form of customer engagement. The rise of the daily deal sites,
notably Groupon, melded social media with customers’ desire
to get a « deal ». This trend will continue regardless of whether
Groupon survives, because dozens of other websites are also
offering social coupons. For hoteliers, this means developing
packages that will provide value for all stakeholders, including
both customers who seek a deal and those who are « regular »
customers, as well as the hotel itself. Strategies include creating
packages that are not directly comparable to existing services
and controlling cost structures so that the social coupon is not
a money-losing proposition. Although social coupons do involve
some cannibalization of existing customers, recent research has
demonstrated that they bring in new customers and encourage
infrequent customers to return, thereby helping to offset the
revenue forgone by the large daily deal discount.
Trend no. 5 : sustainability goes mainstream
For those who thought two years ago that sustainability would
flame out as a trend (as has occurred in the past), it is now
clear that customers’ demand for sustainable hotel operations
has taken root and expanded. The hotel industry has taken
notice, as demonstrated by a push for consistent reporting
standards and industry best practices coming from our industry
roundtables in both Asia and North America. In that regard,
meeting planners and corporate planners are now requesting
that hotels provide sustainability-related information (such as
energy use or recycling policies). Third-party certification of
green claims has become an important part of sustainability
reporting, as demonstrated for instance by Travelocity’s Green
Hotel Directory, which does not recognize self-certified hotels. Source: Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne Yearbook 2012
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