You are so much more than a bed! For every traveler stepping through your doors, there are ten more locals waiting to take advantage of what your hotel has to offer…
The rise of the sharing economy and the digital revolution are leading to new ways of thinking about what a hotel can be. By leveraging hotel assets, people and services in innovative ways, hotels have unprecedented opportunity to open new revenue streams, improve loyalty, and grow their customer base.
In early 2017, AccorHotels celebrated its 50th anniversary by announcing AccorLocal. A program designed to integrate the brand’s hotels into their surrounding communities, AccorLocal invites a new way of thinking of what a hotel can be and provides a blueprint to other hotels looking to leverage their properties and services, as well as foster community, in less traditional ways.
And it’s not only Accor that is moving towards what the brand calls “augmented hospitality.” In South London, Bermondsey Square Hotel is offering its services to neighborhood Airbnb hosts and guests. Participants in the SquAIR program – offered within a one mile radius of the hotel – can take advantage of the hotel’s concierge, housekeeping, and maintenance services, key management, luggage storage, and a reliable point of contact.
Even less formally, the concept of hotel-as-community-hub is familiar to anyone who has spent time in any of the Ace Hotels, which, as Ian Schrager likes to say, “activate” the lobby with its bars that hosts community nightly socializing activities. Indeed, for years, boutique hotels have led the charge in this regard, serving as hotspots for nightlife and entertainment. Take The NoMad Hotel here in New York, which knocked out two of their worst bedrooms to make a stage for a 40-person magic show that has been sold out for three years.
Other industries have also been augmenting their core offering and using community to help them grow revenue, improve loyalty, and draw new customers to the brand. As brick and mortar retail has been increasingly imperiled by e-commerce, “experiential retail” has become a buzzword. The idea is exemplified by Apple stores, which are some of the busiest and also highest-grossing stores in any city – with their Genius bars, group classes, in-house entertainment series, and sales people that double as educators.
IKEA, meanwhile, has become just as much a destination for meatballs as it has for hard-to-assemble furniture. Educational outfits like General Assembly have used coworking space and networking events to help them sell classes. Some restaurants that are idle during the day are realizing they can monetize their underused space for coworking space, and, finally, exercise brands like CrossFit and SoulCycle have become empires by wielding community as a competitive advantage.
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