Our memory is less like a video camera and more like a film editor, splicing together just the highlights. Our brains only have a limited ability to store data. Therefore, we tend to remember experiences not as they were, but as a few powerful memories. For hotels, these memorable moments make all the difference for repeat business.
Hoteliers covet repeat business. Repeat guests typically generate two to three times the profit by costing five to seven times less in marketing-related costs and promotions than a new customer, and they typically spend more during each additional visit.
During a stay, a hotel guest will have dozens of unique service interactions, but, typically, only two specific instances will have an outsized influence on how they remember it. Renowned psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman demonstrated that the primary influences on people’s future decision-making are the most emotionally intense moment of an experience and the conclusion of an experience. He called this pattern the “peak-end rule.”
Hoteliers should harness this principle and place a greater emphasis on how guests remember their stay. Let’s call this practice “winning the future.” By breaking the repeat guest's journey into five phases and comparing them to a moviegoer’s journey, a savvy hotelier can provide hotel teams with a clear blueprint to win the future.
A hotel guest’s journey can be tracked in five phases: 1) the pre-arrival; 2) the arrival; 3) the hotel experience; 4) the departure; and 5) the post-stay. This journey is similar to that of a moviegoer: 1) the movie trailer; 2) the opening scene; 3) the story; 4) the ending; and 5) the (optional) post-credit scene. By offering “surprise & delight” moments during the most impactful intervals in a guest’s journey (the arrival and the departure), popular behavioral psychology can be utilized to positively shape how guests remember their hotel visit.
1. The pre-arrival: The movie trailer
A good movie trailer invites intrigue with interesting visuals and a memorable score. The pre-arrival email should be doing the same and should do so succinctly. Don’t overthink it. Set the tone, shape expectations and enable upselling opportunities.
Does anyone honestly remember any details from a hotel’s pre-arrival email? This strategy is frequently over-emphasized by top executives at prominent hotel brands. A successful pre-arrival email will have a future visitor visualizing the destination whilst packing for their trip to maximize their respective visit.
2. Arrival: The opening scene
A movie’s success often depends on capturing the audience’s attention upfront. Stumbles here are harder to overcome. The same goes for a hotel stay.
Hospitality-focused behavioral science research, including Kahneman’s work, shows that the most emotionally intense part of a hotel stay is the guest’s arrival. Imagine after hours and hours of traveling with his family, Mr. Smith finally arrives at the hotel. He is tired, disheveled and hungry. He may even be a little annoyed but also very ready to turn on “vacation mode.” Statistically speaking, this welcome moment will be an emotional peak.
We can break arrival down into three moments: arrival on property, check-in and opening the guestroom door for the first time to see the room.
To maximize the lasting positive impact of a guest’s arrival, associates should put themselves in the guest’s position during each of these moments and anticipate how to surpass expectations.
3. The hotel experience: The story
Without a good plot, all the best marketing strategies in the world are not going to save a movie from the wrath of critics and potentially a movie’s box office performance. The same goes for a hotel stay. There is no number of warm welcomes and fond farewells that can save a hotel from providing its guests with subpar service and amenities.
As mentioned earlier, it is most likely that the arrival phase of the guest’s journey will yield the emotional peak for a hotel guest. But a well-executed “surprise and delight” interaction during the hotel stay phase can surpass the initial encounter in a guest’s long-term memory.
4. The departure: The movie's ending
The goal of a movie ending is to provide emotional resolution, reinforce the central theme and leave a lasting impression on the audience. Ideally, the conclusion of a hotel stay should do that, too. According to Kahneman, the end of an experience is an “anchor memory” that one’s future self will look back on with a disproportionate amount of value assigned for future decision making.
Most often, this process has neither a positive nor negative effect on future decision making. Hotel stays officially end with a check-out, which guests now accomplish with zero human interaction. Digital checkouts, while convenient, are often underwhelming, missing a prime opportunity to leave a lasting impression.
Hotels can and should redefine aspects of the end of stay encounters to help remind travelers why they should return to a property. By doing so with intention, a hotel can influence its narrative and put an emotional capstone to the end of their stay.
Examples include a complimentary beverage, snack or token souvenir while delivering an expedited in-person service. Focus on how those surprise and delight moments can be intentional and emphasize the hotel’s specific story. Ensure that any guests desiring a formal checkout avoid disengaged staff members, surprise expenses and a lengthy process. These encounters, while sometimes inevitable and often not representative of the hotel as a whole, undoubtedly will have an outsized negative impact on the guest.
5. The post-stay: The post-credit scene
The post-credit scene has become a staple of animated movies and big blockbusters. Traditionally, it is a scene that occurs after all the credits have finished rolling. It is meant to surprise and delight dedicated viewers by teasing future stories or adding a final twist or a memorable touch. Some critics (read: purists) of a post-credit scene find it to be superfluous, arguing that a film’s ending should be its final narrative conclusion before the credits roll. Hotels, like movie studios, can choose whether to include this kind of strategy.
To advocate for a hotel’s “post credit scene,” imagine a guest coming back from a trip and a few days afterwards receiving a short handwritten note from that hotel’s staff or a small amenity reminder of the trip? Hotels typically reserve these powerful touchpoints for VIP guests upon check-in, but why not extend the emotional arc of a hotel stay? Instead of a guest’s final memory being the physical departure from the hotel, a “post credit” hospitality moment could allow for a guest’s final memory to occur within their own home. If executed correctly, it would encourage referrals and increase the likelihood of a return visit.
By emphasizing a memory-first strategy, a hotelier’s thinking evolves from “How can I monetize this guest again quickly?” to “How can I leave an impression that they’ll tell their families, friends or colleagues about — or return for — in a year?” By doing so, the focus of a hotel’s brand identity becomes more about emotional storytelling and belonging – just like that favorite movie rewatched again and again to capture a feeling. The hotels that win the future will not just maximize revenue per stay. They will master the art of memory, turning ordinary trips into stories guests can’t stop telling.
Sources:
- Gallo, Amy. "The Value of Keeping the Right Customers." Harvard Business Review, 29 Oct. 2014.
- Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Brandon Stoller is a principal at Current Lodging Advisors, LLC.
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