The Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort, in Cascais, Lisbon, is celebrating in these days its 30th position in Golf World‘s inaugural Top 100 Golf Resorts in Continental Europe ranking. This is a nice achievement for a niche operator like the Onyria Golf Resorts group (founded in 1985).
How could the Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort break through the sameness?
I was happy to read on their website that they have a desire for more personalized services. However, in their presentation, we cannot find any clue how they intend to provide personalized services for their guests. What they are highlighting is the environment and design change of the hotel. I don’t underestimate the importance of design, but tourism today is dominated by digital channels (social media & mobile). This is changing how we are conducting business (including customer journeys).
The differentiating factor is the level of understanding of our customer needs and preferences. Do you know how do you want to provide intimacy for your guests? Therefore, as personalized is your service as satisfied will be your guest. Personalization can result in lower costs and higher revenues + development of specialized services.
When you know what and how to personalize then you can standardize these processes to save costs and time.
Personally, I do not believe that physical loyalty cards are still relevant today. What is more important is the perceived customer experience. As part of designing our hotel’s customer experience, we cannot neglect two major trends:
- Aging population of Europe: in 2014, 23% of Europe’s population is 60+ (similar problem in North America: 20%);
- Millennials: for them technology (social media + mobile: SoMo), design and value that really matter. I really miss the mobile technology solutions (e.g. mobile check-in, room selection, food and drink order, etc.) that could facilitate a more relaxed atmosphere (e.g. Hilton’s Digital Keys; James Hotels’ James Pocket Assistant) for the guests. Let’s empower guests so they can personalize their own stay and communicate their preferences with the hotel.
Besides, guest interaction optimization and empowerment, hotels like the Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort have to be in every moment unique.
