Hotels 2020: Beyond Segmentation – Strategies for growth in an era of personalization and global change with an exclusive interview with the Amadeus executives beyond the research project – Jerome Destors and Fabrice Merchand.

Read some highlights from our conversation, below:

What is the purpose of this study?

Amadeus is a technology provider and as such, we are trying to forecast the future and be on top of the most recent trends, so we regularly work on these kinds of reports and imagine how the industry is evolving and is going to evolve.

How did you conduct the research?

The research was conducted by a company called The Fast Future; they did a few things: desk research – of course – and then there was a series of interviews with key executives from travel companies and from hotel companies. We also did face-to-face interviews to discuss how the industry is moving forward in the future. This was also complimented by a survey that was sent to a Fast Future contact list, and more than 600 people from the travel trade and from other industries responded to the survey.

What actions can hotels take right now to act on this?

Thanks to the technology that we're launching today, hoteliers can implement a single profile environment, which will be available for all of their hotels, all of their brands, and all of their central occupations. And in this profile information, you can store a number references that the guest is going to either provide, or the hotelier will be able to determine – thanks to listening and learning from the behavior of the customer.

Hoteliers have to monitor, they have to anticipate what's going on in the market, they have to be flexible, and they need to have the technology to be able to change a rate plan strategy, or to change a promotion in a very instant-approach.

In the many discussions that we had with hoteliers, one of the recurring themes that we heard from them was speed and agility. In the difficult times that we're going through, the ones that will be more successful are the ones that can react quickly and anticipate.

Could you share some examples of hotels embracing this now?

The ones that we see succeed are the ones that are more innovative than the others. When you talk about the big brands, you see that some are into "green" and energy saving aspects, and others are into ensuring some particular requirement of their guests when it comes to health – with the opening of non-allergic rooms, for example. You have other ones that are more tied-in when it comes to interaction with their guests through social media. So you see a whole pallet of things that are experimental. It will be interesting to monitor in the years to come.

Thank you, Jerome and Fabrice!

Follow the link to download your complimentary copy of the research:

www.amadeus.com/hotelit/beyond-segmentation.html

About the author
This blog is written by Josiah Mackenzie, who enjoys exploring the relationship between emerging technology and the hospitality industry. 

www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com

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