As millennials take over 75% of the workforce by 2025, they will also represent 50% of all travelers that visit hotel properties by the same year. Millennials are tech savvy and expect a high-tech experience when staying at your hotel. They are socially connected unlike any other generation and will be the first to tell the world about how bad or how great an experience they had while staying at a property.
Over half of Millennials stayed at independent hotels last year, 20% more than baby boomers, and they are expecting a different experience from booking to checkout. I remember a time when I had a negative hotel experience and my frustration grew beyond my return home. Like many before me, I wrote a strongly worded letter and mailed it to the hotel’s manager. Thankfully, technology has changed how we share experiences, and with review platforms readily available, and instantaneous, we can post our experience on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and many other travel sites. Additionally, with new competition coming into the market like AirBnB, VRBO, and other potential market entrants into the hospitality market, it is more important now than ever to ensure your properties meet both your branding standards and industry regulations to prevent one of those negative reviews. Reviews are not only weighed heavily to attract Millennial travelers, but also to keep them coming back.
Below are three areas where Millennials will have high expectations from your properties:
1. Critical Consistency
How many of your properties across the country or globe have their customer service presence on social media? How many are actively monitoring these social channels to respond immediately to negative reviews and comments? Have you implemented standard quality standards across your properties when it comes to social customer service? What does on-property customer service involve? Is the experience the same from one property to the next? Millennials expect consistency, and it is critical that you have a way to ensure that your customer service procedures are consistent from one property to the next.
2. What’s a Key?
Millennials were practically born with technology in their hand upon birth. There isn’t a time when they can’t remember the Internet or mobile phones. As Smartphones have become a commodity with this generation, they will change the way that you look at your hotel property. Access to technology like free WiFi and charging stations are important to consider because their vision is to order room service online using their phone without dialing room service, check-out from their phone, and immediately share reviews for every service. Additionally, a starting trend will have them expecting to be able to check-in on their mobile phone, and even walk to their room and open the door with their phone.
3. We’re Expecting!
From our experience, most properties have some form of brand standards, and most properties are checked to ensure compliance. Millennials will push your branding standards even further for many reasons. For example, if they visit one property and experience a comfortable bed, pleasant customer service, and enjoy a great night’s rest, they’ll expect to have that same experience the next time they stay at another of your properties. However, if the next time they stay in a comparable property and the bed is uncomfortable, the room is not as clean, or customer service is poor, your reputation can be compromised. Almost instantaneously, guests can post negative reviews, social media updates, and share photos describing the negative experience.
Influential Tracking
One main takeaway from these three items is that you need consistent processes and oversight to ensure that your properties are in line with your brand, technology, safety, and customer service standards. Millennials are shifting which services you deliver and how you deliver them. One example is how one hotel chain has removed many of its in-room desks, a new branding standard to please Millennials. Will it work? Only time will tell.
Without a centralized auditing program to keep track of these standards and a simple method of inspecting and auditing those standards, you will find that the constant change this generation expects will put your reviews at risk, which will negatively impact your bottom line.