GLOBAL REPORT—Travelers often fall into the trap of expectations. Rolling their suitcase into a guestroom, they immediately check and identify that everything is in place: They test the bed for comfort, count the pillows, scope out the bathroom products, seek the complimentary robe, turn on the high-definition TV—all before trying to connect to Wi-Fi.
While each is an important part of the guest experience, these expectations can limit hoteliers who want to be the driving force of change in the industry.
Staying in a hotel, after all, is supposed to make life easier. But for hoteliers, maintaining the status quo often means celebrating stagnancy instead of evolution.
But things are (slowly) changing.
With innovation as the current buzzword for hotels, it’s the technology industry that has benefited the most from continual advancement, following a path paved by Steve Jobs. The hotel industry, meanwhile, has been slower to adapt to this ever-changing world.
“We’re all stuck in the past,” lamented Kevin Holt, a HotelNewsNow.com columnist and founder and president of Co.Innovation Consulting. “We’re basically in the tourist industry opposed to high-tech industry that’s just emerging.”
More and more businesses are adopting a systematic innovation program, Holt said, but only during the past five years has the hotel industry truly embraced the idea.
Jeffrey Phillips, senior consultant for innovation consulting firm Ovo Innovation, was intrigued by the length of time it took to get anything off the ground at some hotel chains. “By the time it reached the market, it was almost status quo.” There was no differentiation in the market, no distinction among products and no beneficial value proposition, he said.
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Mike Tiedy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide |
Mike Tiedy, Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ senior VP of global brand design and innovation has found that innovation is often “invisible to the consumer.” With a Starwood Experience laboratory recently completed in the company’s Stamford, Connecticut, headquarters, the space is used to “develop new solutions, have working critiques and brainstorming sessions,” he said. Additionally, there are eight full-size model rooms showing schemes and options for the Starwood brands.
Embracing digital tools has mitigated some of the sluggishness with innovating, Tiedy said. Using rapid prototyping—a technique that fabricates a scale model using 3-D computer design data—helps “increase our speed to market.”
But, he said, the most important aspect of innovation for Starwood “is building aspirational products and emotional connections for our guests. To do this, we have completely rebuilt our processes, creating storytelling foundations that frame our creation process.”
Innovation’s flexibility
Misconceptions lie with assuming innovation is flying a kite in a storm and discovering electricity. “We always think of innovation as the new light bulb or coming up with the next big thing,” said Dave Horton, global head of Hilton Hotels & Resorts, “but it’s not exactly that. Innovation does not need to be cutting edge and it is not necessarily something people haven’t seen before. Innovation involves constant improvements and streamlining ideas to make something better for team members, owners and consumers.”
Hilton, for its part, is looking for innovative owner solutions that offer value to hotels and “allows us to effectively communicate our distinct brand DNA,” Horton said. This runs the gamut and includes: Hilton’s Design Studio, a robust online platform that breeds creativity and flexibility; Hilton Valet, a multifunctional guestroom armoire with built-in ironing board, unfolding closet, refrigerator door, etc.; and the Hilton Connectivity Stations, a complimentary Internet access portal in the lobby that allows guests to conduct meetings or simply print boarding passes.
The next big change is always the smallest one, Phillips said.
“Probably the biggest misconception is that a group sits together in a room with white boards and innovates,” Tiedy said. “Innovation comes everyday and is an opportunity with every problem. Most innovations are very small and result in continuous improvement, driving efficiency and a new fresh solution.”
Tiedy’s background in marine biology allows him to view the hotel industry through a different lens—to become a more thorough storyteller of the Starwood products. Questioning the problem and creating insight out of research and observation builds a better story than those designers who create “solid solutions for a problem.”
The right process
Brainstorming in the early goings is easy enough in any industry. Create better beds, offer a food-and-beverage component, hire a celebrity chef, add a bar concept with a famous mixologist at the helm, make an interactive meeting space, etc. But there is a framework for implementing innovations.
“Instead of sitting around waiting for the brilliant idea to hit, you have a framework and a process that you’re following to substantially increase the probability of coming up with the innovative idea,” Holt said.
Inspiration, ideation and implementation are part of the three-step process. “Inspiration is about going out and looking and searching for in-depth opportunities to innovate … that means going out to customers and doing graphic research, applying various methods to look for opportunities.”
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Michel van Hove Strategos |
Curiosity is also important, said Michel van Hove, partner at Strategos*, a global innovation consultancy. “I always tell people on innovation teams to be a bit of a journalist.”
A lot of what innovation is involves asking questions to help people see things in a different light. “You can’t rely on the ad hoc way of coming with ideas. You need to stimulate people; you need to involve them,” he said.
The Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts team looks at innovation as a continual practice that improves the brand. It’s not all ideation, noted Chris Hunsberger, executive VP of product and innovation. It’s the execution of those ideas that matters.
For example, Hunsberger said guests at Four Seasons Hotel Boston wanted to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off to a meeting or jetting to the airport, but room service took too long to accommodate them. Because of that, the 15-minute room service was created.
“We immediately recognized 15-minute room service as a best-in-class idea and explored ways to (operate) this amenity immediately for global application,” he said. “We challenged our properties to develop a menu that would fit the time restraints yet still highlight local flavors and our world class (F&B) offerings.”
For Tiedy, Starwood tries “to stay away from industry standards at the beginning.”
Often, those conventional approaches hinder real innovation, he said. “We tackle a lot of new ideas using cross-discipline design teams to push thinking outside of the box. We look to industries outside hospitality such as retail, entertainment or even health care to see what is new and different.”
Starwood’s objective is to “challenge and push at the edges of a problem to see what might be possible.” This landscape of open communication and technology has led to some of the chain’s most important innovations, such as the design narrative created at each W Hotels—a unique driver that influences the design and guest experience.
The innovation backdrop is wrought with many landmarks for Starwood: an Aid to Artisans partnership that allows the company to work with artisans around the world to develop custom products; the Starwood Preferred Guest app that contains native booking and integrated brand content; and a strong focus on sustainability going in the future. The Element brand’s first “volume-build” prototype package facilities the owner and developer’s pursuit toward Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.
“All of our work revolves around the consumer,” said Matthew Von Ertfelda, Marriott International’s VP of creative strategy for insight, strategy and innovation. The constant studying, observing and learning about consumer trends plus working with third-party companies helped Marriott launch its Workspring at Marriott small meetings program.
Partnering with office furniture supply company Steelcase, Workspring is “probably the biggest innovation,” for the company right now, he said.
Working with a third party, he said, can “trigger and accelerate the upfront creative.”
Failure is an option
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Chris Hunsberger Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts |
Seeing successful innovations makes it seem as if failure does not exist. But failure is OK, Hunsberger of Four Seasons reassured, “as long as you get to learn from it and share the insight. Innovation fails when it’s hidden from sight and not even tested.”
Managers will share with Hunsberger failed innovation projects, but ultimately it helps re-focus the group, he said. “A culture that celebrates success and at the same time learns how to fail successfully provides more robust innovation.”
Consumer insight is important to avoid failed innovations, but it’s a hotel’s staff that can exponentially enhance the guest experience with their innovation ideas. Hunsberger calls this an environment of trust and autonomy, which cultivates a work setting that breeds innovation.
It’s this staff-focused atmosphere that provides the difference. It’s almost impossible for others to see 1,000 great ideas suggested by employees but that adds up to a considerable competitive advantage, Holt said.
According to Holt: “What you want is a sustainable advantage—one that your competitor can’t copy. It’s much easier to see someone implement some big idea like the iPhone or iPad and now everyone is trying to copy it. Or extended-stay brands—how many do you now have? It’s easy to see, and it’s easy to copy.”
A Clarion Hotel in Sweden is serious about innovation, he said. Employees suggest more than 35,000 implementable ideas per year—or 65 ideas per person. This is bigger than a suggestion box, he said, it’s an example of putting a framework in place for distinguishing a brand against its competitors.
“We need divergent thinkers,” van Hove said. “We need people that have no problem going all over the place (with ideas).” In the hotel business, after all, “innovation is about small things and big things mixed together.”
Correction, 3 December 2012: In the original version of this story, the company's name was spelled incorrectly.