Guests pickier, stingier, says hotel industry - The Detroit News
Last Updated: September 03. 2011 1:00AM
Wayne Risher/ Scripps Howard News Service
Typical American hotel guests have become pickier, stingier and more technologically savvy since the recession set in.
It makes for an uphill battle to regain profit margins of four years ago, despite record demand for hotel rooms in July, industry insiders said at the Southern Lodging Summit, an annual conference of hoteliers that met in Memphis last week.
Whether the destination is a Motel 6 or a five-star hotel, "No one wants to overpay. To the consumer, value is in vogue," said Peter Yesawich, chairman and CEO of Ypartnership, a travel, leisure and entertainment marketing firm based in Orlando, Fla.
It's as if guests went to school on the nuances of bed-sheet thread counts, Egyptian cotton towels and other details of room fixtures and furnishings, Yesawich told about 175 hotel operators, investors and support professionals.
"When they check in with you, if the bed's not comfortable, if it's the fluorescent lighting in the bathroom, what happens is that's very conspicuous."
He predicted that, within five years, those in the domestic lodging industry would "have to invest more heavily in enhancing a sense of comfort for their guests, in what's increasingly a stress-induced world."
A proliferation of mobile computing and social-media applications targeting hotels provides unparalleled transparency into room rates and guest experiences.
"The way people book travel today is completely different from three years ago," said David Pepper, senior vice president for global development with Choice Hotels International in Silver Spring, Md. "People stay at your hotel and then tell you online how they felt about their stay."
"It's very important for brands that they take control of the social-media relationship," said Jerry Cataldo, executive vice president, development for Hostmark Hospitality in Chicago.
Hotel executives described the current business environment as challenging and fraught with uncertainty.
Warren Fields, principal and chief investment officer at Pyramid Hotel Group in Boston, said — until the financial market's gyrations — that 2011 would have been pronounced a good year, and companies would be looking forward to revenue growth of 8 percent to 12 percent in 2012, Fields said. "I think we'll have to wait and see ... what's going to happen," Fields said.
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