3rd ITB Hospitality Day: How does service design increase turnover?
Berlin (February 8, 2008). How can service be redefined to open up new revenue sources? At the "ITB Hospitality Day" in Berlin, the participants of the "Hotels und Service Design" ("Hotels and Service Design") panel discussion have some suggestions at hand. This will be the topic on Thursday, March 6, 2008, between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. in hall 7.1a, room "New York 3" at the third hotel conference of ITB, and the topic is not only restricted to the luxury segment. hospitalityInside.com will be acting as media partner of this event and is responsible for the content offered on this day.
A personal butler is only an indicator for a development that is going towards even more "personification": in future, hoteliers will create their services more and more according to the needs of their guests - and not vice versa as usual. In order to distinguish itself from competition, service needs to be "redesigned".
Peter O'Connor, Director of the international hotel management institute IMHI/Essec Business School located in Paris is convinced that guests - similar to the airline business - only want to pay for services they take advantage of in future. "But hoteliers are lousy sellers," he says provocatively in a preliminary talk with hospitalityInside.com. "Why don't they ask me during check-in whether I want to eat in the hotel restaurant or if I want a spa treatment?" That would already generate new turnover.
This sounds like basic knowledge, but is exactly how this issue should be addressed. Added value in service can only be recognised if you know what your guests want. Only then will a hotelier get a feeling for what guests would be prepared to spend more money on. It might be a premium coffee or an Italian designer coffee machine in the guest room, or a TV programme with 1,000 channels or an individually filled minibar.
Is service design just an invention or merely a new term for an old service? An exciting panel discussion awaits the visitors of the Hospitality Day. Apart from Peter O'Connor, the following top-level experts will contribute their experience and opinions: Dr. Christoph Juen, Chief Executive Officer of the hotelleriesuisse, the former Swiss hotelier association; Christopher Norton, Regional Vice President and General Manager of the legendary Grand Hotel Four Seasons George V in Paris, as well as Andreas Pflaum, one of the most visionary German hoteliers, who picked up the "service design" term here.
The discussion will be led by a well-known host whose institute can make some valuable contributions about service from the field of research: Joseph Strodel, Director of Corporate Relations at Cornell University/CHR in Ithaca, New York.
Please find the entire day programme at http://www1.messe-berlin.de/vip8_1/website/MesseBerlin/htdocs/www.itb-kongress/de/Kongressprogramm/EDB-ProgrammDetails/index.jsp?amp;fairID=50201&
eventDateId=51528&eventBundleId=51531&lang=de. / kn
To print this article you have to be registered and logged in for newsletter, visitor or subscription.
Print Article