LONG BEACH, CALIF.-Although financing and upgrading the physical assets of hotels and resorts is a principal focus of the California Lodging Investment Conference, the “Curating the Guest Experience” covered non-tangible aspects of what can make or break a hotel. While architecture and interior design play large roles in attracting target markets in all categories, a property’s appeal needs to extend to what will make a guest feel comfortable, special and cared for during a stay.
As the conversation got rolling, Mark Crisci, president of San Diego-based Azul Hospitality Group, summed this idea up perfectly: “One of the things we should talk about is you can curate any (hotel stay) experience, and it doesn't have to be a luxury. Every touch point in a hotel needs to be curated for who your guests are. Regardless of the price point, it is possible to create a great culture and experience for employees as well as guests.”
According to Mark LeBlanc, managing director of West Coast operations for the Rebel Hotel Company, the group’s The Life Hotel in New York City was a perfect example of how curating the guest experience can connect the guest to the building’s history and where it is located. While the lifestyle-focused hotel is not luxury in the traditional sense, its location inside the former “Life” editorial headquarters and magazine covers adorning the walls appeals to well-traveled people who appreciate history and global exploration.
From the architect’s perspective, Henry Wong, principal architect at Los Angeles’ AO Architects, stresses that as the building and interiors tell a story, so should the guest experience. The visual elements should provide a script which also needs to align to the owner's business plan.
“It is about creating moments in time that matter to people, and it also has to do with providing a sequence of things that comes through the guest experience, whether it's during check in, walking through one’s guestroom, or other moments during the stay,” he said. “I would tell my clients that they have got to know what they own. It’s really understanding your particular product property, where you are, who's coming to the property, and why you would create those different guest experience that are contextual to that property.”
“When my brothers and I are walking around hotels that we’re looking to acquire, we will try to find the soul of that hotel,” said moderator Matt Marquis, CEO of Pacifica Hotels. “When we’re trying to buy something that we want to reposition and make it up-market, it’s important to figure out from partners what this hotel wants to be and what they want guests to think about it when they stay there.”
Crisci and Marquis then shifted the conversation to Amy Hulbert by praising her on what she and her team has accomplished with BWH Hotels properties through curating guest experiences that differ from the mid-20th century Best Western image revolving around practicality, convenience, and moderate pricing. The vice president of boutique and upscale brands at Best Western responded by explaining the brand’s image glow-up was her passion project. New brands that were developed, implemented, and integrated into her group’s portfolio evolved from a need from different consumer segments. The partnerships with developers and owners, meanwhile, came together with a shared view on how to bring a “certain magic” to life when transforming a concept into a distinctive brand with appeal to a certain market segment.
“The boutique concept has always been part of our DNA, and we’ve always been a little less prototype-y than many other brands,” Hulbert said, highlighting the success of BW Signature Collection, one of the company’s newest. “I love leading this team, because it’s creative every day. (We have) a formula: Looking at the quality of a developer, what they're good at, and what they're looking for in terms of the market. I feel like a little bit of a matchmaker some days, trying to put all that stuff together to make the best quality product that we can. We’re a little more flexible than any other brands, and we're really keen on looking at customer satisfaction at the end of the day. I'll run a report on all of our brands and looking at what our satisfaction scores look like. Are we succeeding, or do we have to help our hotels do something differently?”
Next, Marquis turned to McKenna Luke, hospitality appraisal expert for Partner Valuation Advisors, to ask her about her perspective on the guest experience through a finance lens. Her assessment was that the current generation of travelers were focused less on figuring out where to stay in a given location and more about why he or she is traveling and specific things he or she was looking based on those reasons for traveling.
“If you’re not reaching out for what the guest is looking for and why they're traveling, you’re not going to be financially successful,” said Luke. “During appraisals and valuations, we want to see how owners are curating experiences and understand where they are coming from when figuring out what kinds of services their customers want. How do some of those services help them outperform the competition, or in other cases, why some projects are not working because of customer needs (they are not addressing).”
Wong, drawing attention to what good design does and does not reveal, suggested that to maintain a certain level of authenticity, AI technology, though increasing in popularity, needs to become more invisible and allow for the staff’s personal touch to become more visible to the guest at every level, from arrival and check-in to the food and beverage component. “Remember that curation is about creating a story that is not only executed in design, but also the food concepts, the uniforms, and so on,” he says. “You have to tell a complete story, and I think we're going to see more customer demand for that, requiring for AI and other technologies to become more invisible.”
“Whatever experience you decide to create that you feel is best for your vision is something that you are able to execute,” said Crisci. “If you want to have a great wine program, a great distillery program, a great activities program, or whatever you think that fits with market. Part of that analysis underscores that you have people on the ground to execute that. Otherwise, it is curation gone bad and it can really hurt you in profitability or on social media. Also, you want to be aspirational, but don't be so aspirational that it just is impossible to execute.”
Throughout the conversation the panelists and moderator acknowledged moments where their vision for a guest experience may not have resonated with the owners’ or a property’s target guest. There was then consensus that the guest experience far transcends the quantity of guest rooms and square feet. It's taking an honest look at how operations will work in achieving a successful guest experience which is felt with all of the guest’s five senses.