10th ITB Hospitality Day 2015: Lifestyle communication, with budget and luxury
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| Their subject attracted 550 attendees - a record at the ITB Hospitality Day 2015. From left: Emile Bootsma of the Adlon Kempinski Berlin, Dina Soliman of InterContinental Hotels Group, Michael Struck of Ruby Hotels, and moderator Claudia Roth. |
Berlin (March 27, 2015). Luxury and lifestyle and budget and lifestyle are not contradicting each other; both segments are now forming the most different of symbioses within the industry. Concepts such as those from the Adlon Kempinski in Berlin or Indigo and Ruby have something in common: That each is focussing intensely on the communication with the guest and on that which is relevant to their properties. "The lifestyle mega trend will change our world radically and in the long term." 70 percent of the listeners at the "Luxury/ Budget Lifestyle Panel" at the 10th "ITB Hospitality Day" agree with this statement. And with this, the conference visitors quite clearly gave the red card to the standardised hotels for Joe Q. Public.
An illustrious hotelier round under the moderation of luxury brand consultant, Claudia Roth with Totally Indispensable ended in a TED vote. Emile Bootsma, now the Managing Director of the Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin for the last six months and active with the Kempinski property for the past seven year, absolutely views the traditional grandhotel as a lifestyle hotel. "The Adlon lifestyle has its own history and its own tradition," he said. It is the task of the hotelier to continually re-invent their property as well as the story of their property and to additionally consider all segments and age groups. "We look from the inside out and outwardly from the history of the hotel."
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| Her structured questions made the differences visible: moderator Claudia Roth. |
Bootsma mentioned "Swinging Sundays" as a very successful campaign of the hotel in recent times, a Sunday dance and tea time with music from the twenties for which the furniture is cleared from the lobby. This "new story" is promoted through Social Media and brings the most different of age groups to the property.
His tip: Five-star hotels such as the Adlon need to position themselves more broadly toward the acquisition of the lifestyle guests. How the guest ticks is not always easy to decipher. "Some fly low cost and then ascend into the most expensive suites and some fly first class and then spend the night at a Budget hotel." The definition of what lifestyle means to the individual guest is very personal and is also dependent upon the culture. "When the guest is standing at the door, we must decide what we need to offer them as a special experience," said Bootsma. His conclusion: Grandhotels today must install an even wider individualization than ever before and offer an entire range of services and experiences.
Talking to the people also belongs among this. The individuation has long since reached the loyalty programmes. "Most luxury groups no longer have point systems," said Bootsma. "For example, we have a programme within the Global Hotel Alliance with which one can win experiences that cannot be purchased." The task of the hotel is to increase the loyalty toward the hotel (again) – and not toward the OTAs, for example.
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| Emile Bootsma: translate the Grand Hotel story new. |
Social Media influencers drive the brand
Of course, the global chains have also recognised this trend: The orientation toward the lifestyle of the customers and with this, not toward the age groups, has already been in progress for many years at the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG). Dina Soliman, Director Brand Management Europe: "It is our job to create products and services with which the customers can identify. These developments are strongly tied together with design." IHG identifies the target groups and designs the hotels around them.
"Today, it is not only about beds, but about fun and the joy of life," she said and explained this with the example of Indigo, the IHG brand for widely travelled, curious guests for whom it is a particular matter of getting into contact with the local things during their travels. Every hotel is developed around a unique history. The location influences the design as well as the staff members.
At the same time, the "Influencers" that lead their followers on the social networks are sought out. These ambassadors of the brand increase its publicity and the desirability for the product. "You can create a nice product, but it will fail without the people who create the atmosphere on site and without those who carry your product forward." Indigo was not created because the existing IHG brands had reached their limits in some locations, but rather out of the changed demand. As underlined by Dina Solimann, IHG gives their guests both: On the one hand, the bonus points (thanks to the "IHG Machine") and on the other hand, the individual story and the experience.
Facebook consciously used
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| Michael Struck: make people talk about you. |
With regard to content, Michael Struck, CEO of Ruby Hotels, has set out on a similar path. He referred to lifestyle as an empty label that means different things for different people. Lifestyle is not only functionally, but also emotionally afflicted. It is up to the industry to offer the emotional added value. With the development of Ruby, Struck set the goal of lending an individuality, character and soul to his properties and offering experiences to the guest. The soul originates with the design, for example, from the combination of vintage pieces of furniture with other style elements. "We are not uniform and also risk losing customers along the way," said Struck.
The most important question with developing the Ruby brand was what could be left out and which facilities and services are relevant. Thus, for example, the breakfast offer has been shifted toward the organic. In addition to this, Ruby particularly appeals to art lovers and music lovers and has its own radio programme and bands as partners who not only draw in additional musicians to the property, but also guests.
"We must make the people talk about us. Today, those who are talking about you are more important that how one can find you." Ruby communicates with its target group daily. Relevance is a key word over and over again. "We want to be emotionally relevant to our target group."
It is astonishing what one can discover about a person through Facebook, the Ruby CEO stated further. Those who use Facebook intensely can, for example, offer an arrangement with a concert in London to the guests are interested in special music. This means: The guest connection does not end at the hotel, it can absolutely also occur through offers in places at which the group operates no hotel."
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| Dina Soliman: look for ambassadors in the net. |
Staff members create the new culture
Five-star hotels and lifestyle hotels must have one thing: The staff members who can increase this intensive type of address and the individual service. "With us, the motto is: Hire for attitude, train for skills," said Struck. The selection of the team is very carefully pursued; the start is an online assessment, followed by a series of three interviews as well as practical training. "We refer to the staff members as 'Hosts' and they should be this to the guest as much as possible."
Emile Bootsma and Dina Solimann likewise emphasised the great importance of the hiring processes and the staff member selection. "From continuous training and the examples set from above," said the Adlon manager. Solimann explained: "The staff members must have personality and this must be integrated to create the quite special culture of the property."
Last, but not least, the hoteliers felt that all of their concepts and attempts have been confirmed: IHG had invented Indigo ten years ago and today, they are already counting 62 properties (plus 62 in the pipeline) – in a time in which other chains are only just creating their first lifestyle brand. / Susanne Stauss
You will find the YouTube video about this panel in full length under this direct link or at www.itb-convention.com !
Continuative Links:
- April 10, 2015 Hotel industry out of touch-10th ITB Hospitality Day 2015: The Sharing Economy wave making everyone sweat
- March 27, 2015 Digitised and still human-10th ITB Hospitality Day: IT and emotions create new hotel concepts
- March 20, 2015 The dark side of hotel distribution - 10th ITB Hospitality Day 2015: Only a minority believes in own distribution power
- March 13, 2015 Good base for hackers-ITB Hospitality Day 2015: revealed how to crack codes and webcams
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