Hospitality

The future looks rosy for the hospitality industry. Growth forecasts continue to be strong. Tourism numbers are booming worldwide. And as travel becomes easier, swifter and more reliant on technology, hotels are striving to keep pace.  

“What’s happened over the last three to five years, and what we expect over the next two or three, are unlike what we’ve seen in this industry before,” Heather Balsley, SVP of global marketing mainstream brands for InterContinental Hotels Group, said at the 2018 Hunter Hotels Conference. Here’s a look at some hospitality trends that promise to reshape the industry.

In some ways, travel has never been easier. You can breeze through expedited security. You can rapidly research every place you plan to visit. And you can use your phone as room key, translator and guide.

Yet travel has become even more stressful as people try to navigate a tumultuous and fast-changing globe. Skift calls this the State of Permanxiety: “a near-constant state of anxiety that exists now around the world.”  

Some hotels take a Zen approach to helping travelers relax: aromatherapy, guided meditations, even offering bags of lavender from a lobby cart at bedtime. These little touches are appreciated, but there are also some practical ways to relieve guests’ travel stress. 

What’s the one thing that can make or break guest satisfaction? It’s not the pillow menu or the fitness offerings; it’s the hotel breakfast.

Because the breakfast bar is often included in the room price, its quality factors heavily into guests’ assessment of value. Limp offerings of off-brand yogurt and underripe bananas dampen the guest experience; surprisingly good coffee and creative combinations elevate it.

How do the best hotel breakfast bars bring guests back again and again? Here are five fresh ideas.

Check out our most popular content for the year on the Hospitality blog -- here is your recap of our top posts from Hamilton Beach® Commercial.

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One of the biggest hospitality trends isn’t big at all: It’s the incredible shrinking guestroom. Five years ago, the standard room in a newly built business hotel was 350 square feet; now it’s 275. Boutique hotels that aim to attract millennials are reducing rooms even more. Vīb by Best Western has “comfortably chic” rooms measuring 200 square feet. At Tru by Hilton, they’re 225.

Smaller guestrooms are cheaper to build, easier to clean and have a better ROI per square foot. The trend fits changing guest expectations and a reimagination of hotel lobbies as places to socialize, work and play. But no guest wants to feel squished — so how can small rooms be designed to feel big?

The latest trends in guestrooms mostly involve taking things away.

Wall-to-wall carpet? Too hard to keep clean. Bathtubs are going bye-bye. Desks are getting ditched (although the outcry from business travelers may bring them back.) Even nightstand Bibles are getting harder to find.

But what about the hotel alarm clock? Some chains think it’s time to remove them from guest rooms too. Walt Disney World took the alarm clocks out of its hotel rooms in 2016, replacing them with power/USB charging hubs. Guests still want their clocks, however — they just want them to work a little better.

A few years ago, room service seemed like it was fading away. Room service rarely makes money — it represents just 1.2 percent of a hotel's average revenues, according to 2012 figures. Not only that, but room service requires increased staffing and longer kitchen hours.

But the pendulum always swings back. While many high-end hotels, such as the New York Hilton Midtown, have done away with room service entirely, others have made in-room dining a pillar of their brand. Their secret: They cater to a particular audience, whether that’s outdoorsy adventurers with dogs (at The Little Nell) or late-night partiers (at The Cosmopolitan.) These five hotels have elevated room service to an art.

If you’re loyal to everyone, you’re loyal to no one.

That’s the challenge facing the hospitality industry, as guests sign up for multiple hotel loyalty programs without pledging allegiance to one. About 27 percent of guests at branded hotels, and 21 percent of guests at independent hotels, are members of the hotel’s loyalty program, Skift’s 2017 Outlook On Hotel Direct Booking says.

And increasingly, they’re choosing the rewards programs offered by online travel agencies, because the points can be used at multiple properties.    

How can hotels convince guests to commit to their own rewards program? Here are five ways hotels are seeking to win — and keep — loyal customers.

When guests enter the Charlotte Marriott City Center, “they’re just jaw-dropped,” says General Manager Crissy Wright. It’s not only that it’s pretty, or that it’s modern — this hotel is the future of Marriott. Called M Beta, it’s the world’s first hotel innovation incubator, a working laboratory for testing new hospitality industry trends. 

Since M Beta opened in October 2016, what has this ambitious experiment revealed? Hamilton Beach Commercial spoke with Wright to find out.

In this space, we’ve talked a lot about the transformation of the hotel lobby from a static entrance space to a humming social hub. But hip décor alone won’t make the change happen; the modern lobby needs to work hard to bring in foot traffic.

While it takes a while for redesigned lobbies to pay for themselves, “activity does generate revenue. Generosity is seen and repaid,” Jason Holley, co-director of Universal Design Studio, said at a 2016 hospitality conference. How can hotels use social events to draw more people and increase ROI? Here are some ideas.