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| 5 mega developments for the hotel industry: this is the new reality. |
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| Hotel Industry |
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Social media are the new concierge. In 2010/2011, our guests will come to our hotels, heavily armed with information. They will challenge our advise on “the best spots in town”. They will check the concierge’s “legendary advise” (and, boy, will he be insulted). Before they leave home, they will Tweet (send a Twitter message to) their followers to know if anyone has ever stayed in the hotel they have chosen. They will take the return tweets with advise very seriously. Finally, they will check Tripadvisor for the latest hotel reviews. This is the new reality, and it is here to stay: consumers trust their peers more than they trust us and our brands.  The lobby is the new bar, restaurant and lounge,all in one. A hotel is a place where our clients want to eat, relax, have a drink and work. Only, today they have to work in their room, drink in the bar, relax in the lounge and eat in the restaurant. In 2010/2011, the clients will throw off the chains that confine them to one specific area for one specific activity. Hotels will have to rethink the lobb. We will have to tear down the walls between Front Office thinking, F&B thinking, M&E thinking. We will have to see the hotel lobby like one big living room, except that every single individual will want to live a separate, different life in this living room. But at the end of our thinking process, we might finally be able to put these unproductive square meters into use and create one big multi-purpose space. A place where every client feels comfortable to do exactly what comes to his/her mind at that very moment: working, reading, phoning, talking, socializing, flirting, eating, drinking, meeting or a bit of all these. The 2010/2011 lobby will look more like a 21th century airport business lounge than like an old fashioned hotel lobby. Owners will love the idea of actually starting to use all these square meters, and future developments will probably come up with dramatically different lobby lay outs that today.  Augmented Reality is the new city guide Forget the little sponsored-to-death books, forget the printed and stapled cityguides: the guest will walk around town with his sophisticated, intelligent phone. Our guests will use their phone as a GPS, as a city guide adding “augmented reality” to their experience. They will use mash ups of maps, reviews, historic and cultural information and even replica’s of how the city must have looked like hundreds years ago. They will stroll through the city,they will give directions to taxi drivers, they will definitely not need cityguides and they will have a fantastic time. Location of the hotel becomes even more relevant than before.  Reviews are the new star system Let us face it: the star system is outdated. Who needs stars in the age of boutique hotels, unique bed & breakfast experiences, pop up hotels and all suite concepts? Forget stars, long live review stardom. A hotel can no longer claim status based on self-invented parameters. In 2010/2011, the consumer decides on the status of our hotel. The consumer tests, perceives and judges our product, and he informs the world about the final judgment. And that’s it, no excuses or arguments accepted. The hotel reviews in social media, in blogs (never underestimate the influence of a good personal blog generating a couple of hundred readers) or in 140 Twittercharacters: this is the new star system.
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The hotel industry is changing as we speak. Yet we still think that we can decide on the star ranking of a hotel, yet we still think that we can send clients to the restaurants that pay us a bit of commission, yet we still think that we can get away with outrageous prices in “black out” dates. Read our 5 “This is the new reality” mega developments and think again.This is not about the future: this is about 2010 and 2011. The trends that we have identified are hard, solid truths. All five items are part of today's reality, and the trends are getting stronger every day. If you think that this is far fetched, think again. Read on to have an idea of our new reality, as from yesterday onwards. 
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