A t a time when Airbnb ’ s valuation rivals Marriott and Hilton , Uber is the world ’ s largest transportation company , and hoteliers and restaurateurs are scrambling to accommodate Pokémon Go users as legitimate demand drivers , hotel investment can feel obsolete as quickly as ever . Much is written about accommodating the millennial traveler , which accounts
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for over 90 million consumers with US $ 200 billion in purchasing power . By now we ’ ve all heard that millennials are possession light and experience heavy , they choose access over ownership and minimalism over materialism . Millennials have a lower sense of privacy and see sharing as a practical virtue . They are highly educated , constantly connected , racially diverse ( 40 % minority ethnicities ), predominantly |
single ( 75 % unmarried ), and have a shifting perspective on what constitutes social currency . However , while the millennial generation spawned the “ living like a local ” and “ craft culture ” movements , are we really seeing a demographic shift or a fundamental psychographic shift in the way guests consume and utilize hospitality real estate ? Potential guests have thousands of choices and are very well-informed while |
making their decisions of where to stay . They are looking for a personalized experience that reflects their personality , just like the clothes they wear and car they drive . They are very cautious about each decision they make because it reflects their “ brand ,” which is memorialized on their social media .
As the world shrinks through the proliferation of social media and the intimate
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26 hotelsmag . com September 2016 |