Modifying your Hospitality Marketing Strategy & Operations to the Extended Stay Guest
The idea of working abroad or remotely isn’t a new one, but with the advancement of fiber optic WiFi and video conferencing, it’s easier than ever to facilitate a globally connected business. With the increased ability for people to work remotely at home or in the office, there’s an opportunity for international resorts and boutique hotels to become a third room or office, where people don’t have to be confined to their homes or tiny cafes. People can now enjoy all the perks and benefits of a hotel’s amenities, local culture and community, all while working remotely.
On a global scale, customers’ expectations have changed as well. The demands for someone to successfully work remotely differ from those of short-term leisure guests and it’s critical for the hotel’s marketing strategy to reflect the needs of people interested in extended stays. An added benefit to this is that many will bring short-term leisure guests like friends, family, and colleagues to stay for a longer length of stay than normal if you provide them a great experience.
Understanding How Their Needs Differ from Short-term Leisure Guests
In order to outfit the demands of extended stay guests, hotels will need to modify their current infrastructure. Providing reliable WiFi is an obvious and essential amenity needed for remote workers and extending it to public areas throughout the resort will enable guests to work from anywhere. Although wifi is critical, the demands of digital nomads are much more extensive.
Let’s pretend you’re an online sportswear shop with a website. Customers are likely to ask you a lot of inquiries, such as about size, what materials the items are made of, shipping charges, projected delivery dates, refund requests, and so on. They may not only want to email you, but also tweet about you, post on your Facebook page, or choose to speak with one of your reps on your own website. They want you to respond to their issues, regardless of how they communicate with you. They still want you to connect the discussions and be able to answer their query if they start a chat on Twitter and then move to the phone. That’s when 24/7 Help Desk Software Solutions can come in useful
Whereas a short-term guest may anticipate eating every meal at the hotel or local restaurants, those who are staying more than a couple weeks will most likely need to be supplied with a kitchenette, shared kitchen, and/or food storage. Because extended stay guests will need to do laundry, either shared/paid washer and dryers or an affordable dry cleaning service will need to be provided. Hotels will also need to modify or convert conference rooms into areas for guests to make private phone calls, have dedicated desks, and/or lounge areas so other guests aren’t disrupted. Even when these are supplied, it’s important to consider the number of extended-stay guests that will be sharing these spaces and to ensure these areas have enough infrastructure to accommodate everyone.
In addition to modifying current spaces, hotels should consider the walls insulated of their guest rooms, and make adjustments if they find they have very thinly insulated walls. Guests need to be able to work from their rooms without distractions like road noise and people in neighboring rooms. If you find that this is a problem for your guests and that there isn’t great soundproofing, it’s recommended that you look into additional noise insulation so that guests have a sense of privacy and comfort.
Although it’s a very exciting experience to live and work abroad, it can also be lonely for some. Planning events among guests, as well as ways to get to know the staff, can help in building a sense of community for extended stayers. Activities organized by the hotel like surfing or cooking classes each week or month will bring guests together and help them feel better connected.
Modifying Your Hospitality Marketing Strategy
Once you fully understand the extended stayer and how they differ from short-term leisure guests, the next step is to modify your hospitality marketing strategy to reflect it. The guest experience needs to be facilitated through each micro-moment – before, during, and after their stay. Just as you would through your guest services on property, you need to anticipate the needs of your guests and be two steps ahead of them, even when they’re thousands of miles away. So, taking this into consideration, your value proposition and positioning should be modified for the remote worker, keeping your short term leisure one as it stands.
When adjusting your marketing and positioning strategies, it’s always best to show, not just tell. The use of PDFs, infographics, photo and video, will reinforce that your hotel understands the needs and demands of these guests and the amenities they desire. This can be done through enhancing your website to convert better, with email campaigns leading up to the stay, or text automation to better inform and serve the guests before they even arrive.
Part of this includes amending the marketing collateral for this demographic. This means providing them with “Know Before You Go” documents to help them prepare for their extended stay. It’s important that your guests have information on local resources like transportation, currency, SIM cards, banking, health care, grocery stores, etc. It is also beneficial to provide your extended stay guests with philanthropic opportunities and popular activities for locals to fully integrate them into the community.
As this strategy is implemented and you start to attract digital nomads to your hotel, let them become your brand ambassadors and have them share their stories. Social proof from peers has much more credibility and trust. Use your social media, your video team, and your local sales and marketing director to tell stories with testimonials/interviews and capture what a day in this type of lifestyle actually looks like. Having remote workers as advocates and sharing their experiences will allow you to market more peer-to-peer rather than “top-down” and will be much more successful in conveying your message.
It is also very attractive for extended stay guests to have the ability to book in time blocks and save. Market and position your packages to be a minimum of 3-weeks and help guests clearly see what they’ll save overall, as well as on a per night basis. Offer discounts for longer durations and commitments to these travelers and the ability for them to easily renew within certain time frames. Providing unique and special offers on your website can also increase direct bookings. By having custom incentives for this demographic you’ll make them feel seen and heard, as well as attract other leisure guests to consider staying for longer with the experience you’ve already provided them online, reassuring them about an extended stay.
Promise Keepers Meet & Fulfill with your Promise Makers
Your promise maker is your marketing – it’s the promise of an experience you’re going to provide. Your promise keepers are your operational employees (housekeepers, hosts, chefs, etc,) that create those experiences for your guests. It is critical that you walk the talk and that you adjust your operations and guest services to reflect this before guests start arriving. As obstacles arise, be sure to make any adjustments to the amenities in order to satisfy guests.
To ensure promises are kept, be sure to have a long-term perspective in mind. Remember to consider wifi extenders, the infrastructure of the hotel for remote working, and the communal kitchens for extended stays. The lifetime value (LTV) of each customer is far more valuable than turning over beds. Letting your extended stay guests create social proof for you will increase the hotels referrals, reputation, and loyalty. In addition to this, ask your guests for feedback and solicit more quality reviews on how to better serve them and make appropriate adjustments.
Lasty, keep community top of mind. With a hybrid of “new” faces that rotate through the hotel and familiar ones that have been on property for some time, it is important to continue to find ways to foster a community for these remote workers. While it might seem very fun, it can be very lonely without your friends and family there. Group dinners, music, yoga, and other mindful activities to bring the remote living guests as well as the leisure guests together is exciting and stimulates a culture of collaboration and support that is valuable to both parties.
Deciding to market to and accommodate remote workers and extended stay guests is an investment that will require modifications and slightly different operations than what you’re used to. This trend isn’t going anywhere, and if you don’t do it, your competitors and other hotels in your region are going to. Your investments compared to rewards should be minimal, so if marketing to extended-stay guests sparks your interests and would fit your hotel business model, go all in and commit. Upon making this commitment, you will attract digital nomads and will see a ripple effect with both your reputation and your profits. As more and more hotels adopt this strategy, now is the time to invest that time, energy, and money to attract this next wave of clientele and consumer demand. Your hotel and operations need to modify and adapt if you want to be relevant and meaningful to this valuable customer. If this is something that you feel fits your hotel and if you need some guidance to work through this, SoCap is here to support you in that exciting transition.
Resource URL:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_work
