By- Rishi Kamra, Digital Marketing Manager, Grand Mercure Vadodara Surya Palace
The hospitality industry has witnessed massive changes in the past few years. Some major hotel industry trends are responsible for reshaping the entire industry. If you are not aware of these trends or don’t respond in their favour, you may find yourself losing the race.
5 Trends Disrupting the Hospitality Space
- Increased Use of Digital Tools
The modern-age travellers are always connected to the Internet. They can plan an entire vacation or business trip using just their smartphones. It is important you make accommodation arrangements easier for them.
Allow them to book hotel rooms online and connect with them through social media When travellers can get in touch with you using different social media platforms and apps, it will help them make quicker decisions. It will also improve the overall guest experience.
- Preference of Healthy Dining Options
Gone are the days where you could just give limited, bland or unhealthy dining options to your guests. Now, travellers do not mind spending if they could have healthy food options when they travel.
Give the travellers modern dining options. It could be a vegan menu, food prepared from organic or in-season produce or carefully curated menu that has only freshly prepared healthy food items.
- Modern Talent Management
Don’t follow the age-old hiring trick of retaining all the employees even if they are not fit for your business. Having a rigid hierarchical management model is another no-no.
Your hiring strategies must include attracting the right kind of talent, developing them and retaining the right ones. Consider how you can help your employees upgrade their hospitality skills and knowledge. Make sure you have good incentives to keep the best employees and train those who can do better.
- Increased Globalisation
It is time for the hospitality industry to start thinking internationally. According to global hotel studies, the hospitality industry will see a significant increase in the market for offbeat tourism destinations.
Secondly, there is an increase in international travel due to higher incomes and reduced flight rates. It is important to keep these hospitality trends in mind so that you can respond better to globalisation. You cannot have localised management teams as it won’t help you sustain international expansion.
- Sustainability Leading the Way
More than half the global travellers are conscious about how their traveling habits affect the planet. They are more determined to choose eco-friendly and sustainable accommodation. This is the right time for the hospitality industry to go green and adopt sustainable practices.
Even small steps go a long way with travellers, especially millennials, who want to make a difference when they travel. Some ways to achieve sustainability include:
- Removing single-use plastics from the restaurant
- Implementing solar panels or windmills to generate electricity
- Monitoring how the water is being used
- Harvesting rainwater
- Sourcing food from local farms
By keeping track of trends in the hospitality industry, you can make the necessary changes in your hotel and restaurants. This will help in attracting global travellers.
