The hospitality guest of the future – Deloitte’s Crystal Ball
By Robert McGarvey
We all know that travel today is different and so is the traveler who in many cases, simply is much younger as Millennials and Gen Z elbow aside Baby Boomers. A generation that for essentially its entire life has always been catered to suddenly isn’t the prime target, not in the eyes of many businesses, hospitality very much included.
So just who is the guest of tomorrow and how do travel providers need to respond?
Remember a key fact about the two prime generational cohorts, Gen Z and Millennials: they have grown up with cell phones, which became commonplace in the US in the fading years of the 20th century, and also with smartphones (introduced in 2007) and tablets (the iPad debuted in 2010). To them, ubiquitous technology is just part of life, it’s not “technology,” but how things get done, from ordering a delivery meal to summoning a car and driver or booking a haircut.
Deloitte UK decided to dive into what’s happening and issued its findings in a report. Remember that the UK is in recession – the US isn’t, in fact the economy is the strongest among the G 7. Fallout from Brexit may also mean that there aren’t happy days ahead for the UK.
Probably the most interesting element in Deloitte’s musings is this: Technology enables the luxury experience. This is a wake up call for those in hospitality who continue to think that plush fabrics, fawning staff, and lots of golden items are integral to the luxury experience. They aren’t.
Technology has the potential to give each of us more of what we want.
Deloitte offers a sharp for instance: “using technology to tailor services to the unique demands of guests will be expected, for instance, by calculating average wait times for food delivery at airports to notify passengers who might be rushing to catch a flight.” Haven’t you walked away from a busy airport counter because a delivery delay meant the food wasn’t going to be ready on your timetable? And there is no good reason why a well run airport restaurant can’t calculate how long it will take for your order to reach you.
Multiply that idea out to hotels and the same principles apply. I still remember the single worst hotel room service meal I wished I hadn’t had – I won’t name the pricey Manhattan hotel because this was 15 years ago and similar may no longer happen there – and that’s because it took an hour for the coffee, scrambled eggs and toast to reach my room and, even more staggering, everything on the tray was cold. I pushed it all aside because I remembered there was a Starbucks a half block away. (No, I haven’t stayed in that hotel since and won’t.) Service catastrophes of this magnitude just are unacceptable today and, hey, Mr. Hotel Man, if you can’t deliver a room service breakfast within 15 minutes at least tell the guest who has the right to curse and cancel the order. You must be able to forecast with some precision delivery times. Period.
Remember, Uber and Waymo tell you how long the wait for a ride will be and they generally are pretty accurate. If they can do it, even when confronting so many variables not in their control, surely restaurants and hotels can.
Another key idea from Deloitte is this: Creat[e] agile strategies that cater to future travellers and adapt to new market trends is crucial for the industry.
New is the magic word in that. When I reflect back on a half century of business travel I don’t see much difference between what I experienced in 1975 and what I experienced in 2000. Very little had changed.
Go from 2000 to 2024 and, wow, there are innumerable changes from the death of the taxi industry to the sharp rise of Sunday as a key business travel day and of course the generational shift. New is everywhere in travel now.
Deloitte’s point is smart however: don’t take what we see today for granted as tomorrow’s reality. It probably won’t be but what will prevail remains very fuzzy. Anybody who tells you they know what travel 2025 will look like is wrong and if he/she says they know what 2035 will look like they need psychotropics.
As for where Boomers fit into all this, do you remember that phrase that popped up everywhere from 1965 to 1975, don’t trust anyone over 30? (The phrase, incidentally, is attributed to U C Berkeley student Jack Weinberg who was not in fact a Boomer and who turned 30 in 1970.)
In 2024, I‘m expecting to start regularly hearing, don’t trust anyone over 60. Why should they