Gone are the days when hotel residents craved the luxury of the restaurant, on-demand housekeeping, butler services, limo rides, or even that Downton Abbey experience. Now, technology has redefined the amenities guests see as vital when choosing a hotel. A CNN article has reported how hotels have embraced this trend:
Imagine you’re a hotel company with a score of services that seem, well, dated. All the flash amenities of yesteryear seem irrelevant today. Times have changed and so has the customer.
Fewer people are using the minibar. Room service can be more trouble than it’s worth. Business people and younger travelers gripe that there’s no free wi-fi. What do you do? Answer: You build an entirely new product.
Around the world, a gap currently exists in the market for value for money hotel rooms designed to meet the needs of the globetrotting generation of tech-savvy individuals or “millennials”. In the UK alone, an estimated 9.7 million people belong to this generation. Only a few hotels in Britain offer high-speed Internet connection. Fewer offer just regular wi-fi access and even fewer offer it for free. This simply means that there is an opportunity for hotels in Warrington and other parts of UK to position themselves to capture the custom of this growing market.
Offering free wi-fi access has become an essential for any hospitality business that wants to gain loyalty from this growing market. ‘Millennials’ see this as a non-negotiable part of their hotel life rather than a special privilege. Free wi-fi – accessible in public places within the hotel – is essential to meet the needs of this influential group of travelers.
The provision of wi-fi has proven to be an excellent marketing tool. Hotels that offer wi-fi access as part of their amenities do attract more residents. Guests that require wi-fi also tend to stay within the hotel complex. Increased revenue from the subsequent purchase of food and drink is an additional bonus. Thriving hotels in Runcorn such as Happy Guests Lodge, who do provide free wi-fi, will continue to benefit from the increasingly important purchasing power of ‘Millennials’.
The best Hoteliers, of course, are aware of the ongoing changes in market demographics. Those that meet the technical needs of travelers and offer great value for money are sure to grow in this era. Offering free wi-fi is the first step.
(Source: Wi-fi, Instagram walls and turntables: How hotels are courting millennials, Daisy Carrington for CNN, April 11, 2014)
