Turn Guest Experience into a Competitive Advantage

However, capitalizing on travel experiences isn’t easy as this requires scaling without losing out on quality. Travelers want authentic experiences, providing hotels the perfect opportunity to delight their guests.

Over the years, the market has evolved from offering a cookie cutter travel experience to a more personalized and authentic experience. Despite the perceived positive impact of the tourism industry on Spain’s economy, many locals are protesting the consequences of mass tourism on their lives and living standards, leading to an increase in “tourismphobia.” With tourism in full swing, it’s important to take steps to create a more sustainable, diversified and responsible tourism. In response to the anti-tourist feeling in Spain, we at BEONx have come up with a few proposals to help balance the tourist offer and empower your hotel at its destination.

The main sales force of hotels is their ability to generate an authentic, unique and local experience.

If travelers crave authenticity, hotels must be able to deliver this experience and be the link between travelers and the destination. Here are 5 ideas to help your hotel provide a more authentic travel experience to your guests:

• Use destination brands to enhance local culture. Doing so helps you increase visibility and transmit trust. A government approval stamp has great relevance for destinations whether they’re national, regional, provincial or local and should help attract travelers and increase visibility.

• Collaborate with local social influencers to increase digital visibility. Identify social influencers in each travel destination and collaborate with them to promote the destination’s highlights and local attractions and experiences. This is key for gaining digital visibility. Taking advantage of this partnership, rewarding it and promoting it is a mission for both public and private entities.

• Tailor thematic itineraries to tourists. It’s important to highlight what makes your hotel different. Create tourist products that attract guests and increase the number of overnight stays. The longer your guests stay, the more likely they are to spend more.

• Plan around the destination. Consistency in destination aesthetics and style as well as good hotel management influences traveler perception. When these two things are done correctly, your guests are sure to have a positive travel experience. An excellent image must be transmitted when attracting guests, such as during the booking process and even after your guests conclude their trip, the latter being imperative for ensuring repeat bookings and improving your online reputation.

• Centralize distribution to reduce guest acquisition costs. One of the most important steps is automating your destination’s distribution. Despite technological and bureaucratic difficulties, there are destinations like Catalonia that are achieving this. Don’t limit yourself and distribute to increase margins. A good product is essential, but it’s also important to ensure maximum profitability for your hotel.

Applying these tips will help you increase your hotel’s occupancy significantly. For destinations that offer diversity and tradition, this won’t be an issue. It will only be a matter of organization and structure. You already have the most difficult part- cultural richness and the destination. Now, all you have to do is to make it beautiful, get coordinated and distribute in the best possible way.