Imagine you go stay at a world-class hotel. It’s all there, the swanky lobby, plush rooms, excellent food and timely room service complimented by a fantastic concierge; everything. But when you leave, the hotel lies trapped somewhere deep inside your memories and the next time you’re booking a hotel in the same place, you book another one of those world-class hotels because well, you’ve already stayed at the other one. Might as well experience all the star hotels there. You begin to soon get accustomed to the same standard of luxury and service that all the hotels provide. But, imagine you had one of those ‘perfect’ experiences. The hotel and staff took care of all your needs. However, most importantly they went the extra mile. This is where personalisation comes in. Even though it is one of the latest trends in luxury hospitality, personalisation has become something which people expect rather than consider extra.

Personalisation doesn’t just mean your staff addressing the guest by name around the hotel or in emails and texts. It needs to begin the same instant the potential guest starts searching for a booking. Your hotel needs to be an experience, not just somewhere to crash while attending a business meeting.

In a survey held in 2016, more than 50% of the travellers said that they wouldn’t mind giving up personal information or preferences if it resulted in personalised deals, discounts and tailored service. Personalisation can be the key to delivering a truly unique and fulfilling experience for the guest rather than the bland “luxurious” one which all hotels standardly offer.

Personalisation can be effectively carried out in many ways. Things as simple as delivering the guests’ preferred morning newspaper to things more sophisticated such as giving them a list of potential connections they could network with who are staying with you at the same time. Its’ not that difficult either, with the advent of powerful hotel management software, the whole of your staff can be informed in real time about a specific guests’ interests and purpose of travel. Your staff should have relevant information ready at all times so that each and every guest interaction is made memorable. When you treat your guests as unique individuals rather than mere business components, you provide them something of real value which can in turn foster loyalty to your brand. There is no substitute to how a person feels. Use proper data management software to store information about a guest’s preferences so that you can further customise their next stay. Just think, if filthy service can spoil a guest’s mood, you also have the power to infinitely boost their moods. Their gratitude will go a long way; whether it is expressed or not. Remember, ripple effects are powerful. Adopting personalisation at every step of your service rendering will not just get you repeat clients but also create for you the required brand image to attract new business.

Hotels sometimes just don’t realise how powerful a role they may have in influencing the everyday life of their clients. Sure, personalisation can be expensive but, it repays itself in multitudes. Besides, any brand which doesn’t work towards personalisation are under the very real threat of running irrelevant in the near future. With the availability of plenty of affordable and quality services to help in personalisation, brands can no longer hide under excuses to not create unique and memorable experiences for their clients.