according to what I hear from certain
hotels in Province.
They have to be able to ask the right
questions because digital technology
will impose new stakes in terms of
the level of experience that the
client lives out during his stay. Is it
necessary to create reception desks
the way they were 100 years ago, or
should we completely revise our way
of welcoming clients?
Once the client reaches her room,
should she still be encouraged to
take her time to understand the
way the hotel works by reading the
hotel guide, or might it be better to
develop a completely customizable
app so that the client can take
possession of her room even before
her arrival and convey her specific
desires for its method of preparation?
Should she still use the telephone
on her nightstand to communicate
with the hotel staff, or wouldn’t it be
better for her to communicate via an
application on her smartphone in real
time, so that she can share an easier
exchange with the hotel’s services?
The smartphone is a tool that
can allow hotels to develop the
client experience and prolong this
experience beyond the walls of the
hotel. There, too, everything is up to
the hotel because that is where the
technique exists and functions.
In my opinion, there will probably
be a caesura in the luxury hotel
industry that will turn out to be
a positive force at the end of the
day. It will allow clients to be able
to differentiate between their
experiences at various hotels. This
is what the clients say, at least; it’s
becoming increasingly important for
them to know what experience they
will be able to benefit from when
visiting such and such hotel. The
more differences there are, the more
clients will be able to better choose
the hotel that best corresponds to
them. There will thus be digitized
hotels and there will be those hotels
that stay stuck in the past. These
latter hotels may be able to keep their
clientele in the first years, but they
will have trouble over the course of
the years in renewing their clientele.
About the author
Laurent Delporte, expert of French
luxury hotels and the art of welcoming.
He runs the site “Decoding the Luxury
Hotel Industry” (www.laurentdelporte.
com/en), which he designed to share his
views and experiences with high-end
(4-star) and luxury (5-star and Palace)
hotels around the world. The site serves
as a laboratory of ideas, expertise, and
inspirations. It acts as a “hub” netwo