We recently attended EyeforTravel Europe, a London travel conference that promised to help ‘win the digital and data war to drive distribution, revenue and loyalty’.
During 2 days of fast-paced learning we heard from a range of travel industry professionals within a multitude of hospitality, car rental, aviation, OTA and trip planning businesses.
The conference opened by polling attendees with the question ‘what’s the biggest issue facing your digital strategy?’ to which the two front running responses were ‘having the right systems and technology’ and ‘understanding customers’.
Certainly, from those we spoke to at the event, there was a real excitement at the pace of advancing technology within the hospitality and travel sector but, as the poll suggests, the real challenge is the selection of partners with which to better understand, and communicate with, a constantly evolving digital consumer.
Like many at the event, we struggled to choose from a range of fantastic speakers, but below are 3 common themes from those we attended;
1. Mobile is not just ‘mobile web’
When we discuss ‘mobile’ we often focus on the performance of responsive websites.
Paul Barnes, App Annie’s Northern Europe and Middle East Territory Director, gave an insightful presentation on the increasing usage of mobile apps with some standout statistics;
- In 2016, we spent a total of 900 billion hours in apps
- In key markets (UK, US, Germany and France) the average user spends 2 hours per day in apps
- On average we use around 10 different apps every day
- Nearly 3 billion travel apps were downloaded in 2016
Paul continued to discuss how apps are being used at all stages within the travel experience; from the initial inspiration to travel, right through to transit, the experience itself and sharing memories afterwards.
Paul also made a very pertinent point, that it’s a privilege to be one of the 6-8 travel apps that a user typically retains on their phone, reminding us that app presence “…is a tremendous opportunity to engage with your customers better than ever before”
This is certainly true for the hotel industry. As Paul touched on during his presentation, hotel chain Marriott International generated an impressive $1.7bn annual gross bookings through their app last year, with their CIO Bruce Hoffmeister claiming that mobile has given Marriott more opportunities to interact with customers before, during and after a stay. It’s important to note that Marriott’s motivations for having their app aren’t just revenue-based, as their International SVP of Digital, George Corbin notes;
“We want our app to be open while they’re travelling, not just when they’re booking, and we want to meet more of our customers’ needs when they’re on the go.”
Jumio showcased some smart ways in which they’ve helped travel providers streamline purchase on mobile through credit card scanning technology, alongside passport scanning technology that has helped to speed up online check in for airlines. However, even they admitted that “delivering a seamless, frictionless experience on mobile is still an industry challenge”.
2. New partnerships
The evolving role of partnerships was also a hot topic during the event, with questions raised as to whether there’s an emerging responsibility for hotels to extend their area of digital influence, offering guests the opportunity to book ancillary services like local restaurants, activities, tours and even flights through their own websites.
Obviously there’s benefit to the guest, but the lines between direct hotel website and OTA/metasearch channels start to blur when you consider the addition of these types of services.
Fernando Vives, CCO at NH Hotel Group, suggested that some properties have been experimenting in this field already, but that (quite rightly) the data would answer whether this is the right decision for the guest and of course, the hotelier.
Certainly the opportunity for new technology partnerships has never been greater and various examples were presented including Marriott partnering with Expedia and Lastminute partnering with Spotify.
Suzie Thompson, VP of Marketing, Distribution and Revenue at Red Carnation Hotelsalso highlighted an innovative way to leverage longstanding partnerships that The Travel Corporation has invested in – they use eLearning to help educate travel agent partners on their products.
Finally, as Intent Media’s CEO, Richard Harris noted “…success isn’t going to come from building your own solutions, it’ll come from partnerships”.
3. Owning the customer relationship is your responsibility
From a hoteliers perspective, there’s been continuous debate over who should ‘own’ the guest relationship – hotels, OTAs, Google? First and foremost, the question itself was challenged at EyeforTravel – does a customer really want to be ‘owned’?
After much debate, the onus of responsibility for starting the relationship was placed firmly with the hotelier – they benefit from face to face interaction with their guests and can build upon that accordingly. As Richard Lewis of what3words (and formerly Best Western and Landmark Hotels) reminded us, “travellers rarely meet an OTA”.
Our takeaway was that hotels should capture the data at check in, but most importantly capture their guest’s interest to start building that long term guest relationship. Loyalty, and those all important direct bookings, should be a natural by-product of a fantastic guest experience.
So, what is the next big thing?
Contradictory to the above, Rome2Rio (and Viator) founder Rod Cuthbert countered the discussion around ‘the next big thing in travel’ suggesting that technology and new platforms are all great facilitators, but ultimately there is no “next big thing, no silver bullet” and that the key is “doing what your customer wants and doing it well”.
In closing, Fernando Vives , CCO of NH Hotel Group made an excellent point – there is only one direction for the future of hospitality;
“There is no way back, digital transformation [for hotels] is a must.”