Tapping into Your Clients’ Style Sense Can Improve Your Hotel Bookings
by Richard D’Ambrosio /
Travelers are increasingly creating connections between their homes and their vacation accommodations, a survey shows, becoming inspired by hotel interior designs and opening new sales opportunities for savvy travel agents.
Earlier this year, Booking.com released a survey that showed one in three Americans (32 percent) feel “the interior design of their accommodation is the most important factor when choosing where to stay,” while 43 percent of Americans “are inspired to undertake interior design work when they return to their own home.”
“The experiences we have while on holiday can last for a lifetime; whether that’s the memories we create, the purchases we make or the inspiration we come home with,” said Pepijn Rijvers, Booking.com’s chief marketing officer. “Passion for interior design is one that spans all continents, and what better way to get new ideas and fresh inspiration than looking to the accommodation we stay in while on holiday."
Lila Fox Ermel, agent and owner of Lila Fox Travel Co., in New Orleans, bases a great deal of her brand and client marketing on design, because it generates new customers and helps her sell to existing loyal clients who follow her online.
“I’m hyper aware that what I’m recommending is an extension of my brand, so I spend a lot of time figuring out what my go-to hotels are in a particular city in various price points,” she said.
Fox Ermel tries to get as much information as she can from clients about their likes and dislikes, their interests, what their previous favorite hotel stays were and why, as well as their least favorite hotel stays. Then, when she is traveling and visiting hotels on fam trips, “I’ll automatically think, ‘Oh, this would work really well for Peter.’ That kind of thing.”
Booking.com’s survey also found that American travelers are inspired to bring home the “sights and sounds (colors, textiles) of their destination” (41 percent), and love “being immersed in a new culture (38 percent).”
Interior design consultant Mary Alice Palmer recently worked on the Esperanza, an Auberge Resort, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. “They have guests now asking how they can get everything from furniture pieces to the bedding, to the custom ceramic pieces in the room. ‘I want my house to look exactly like this,’ they’re telling the staff.”
Aspiration can drive hotel inspiration
But, agents shouldn’t base their lodging recommendations on the way a client currently furnishes their residence. They very likely are looking to experience something entirely different. Booking.com said 80 percent of Americans choose accommodations that don’t match the style of their own home, and 52 percent “enjoy being in a completely different setting as it helps them get the most from their vacation.”
Booking.com found the same holds true for Canadian travelers. Eight out of ten Canadians say a key motivation for choosing somewhere to stay on holiday is that “its design (look and feel) is different to their own home” allowing vacationers “to escape physically and mentally,” with more than half (52 percent) enjoying being in a completely different setting.
Slightly more than half (51 percent) of Canadian travelers look forward to embracing new experiences; 27 percent enjoy staying in accommodations more unusual than their own home; 15 percent are inspired by vacation to undertake a future home makeover; and 14 percent say vacations give them a chance to experience different styles that “they wouldn’t be brave enough to replicate in their own home.”
When it comes to hotels, Fox Ermel looks for properties that have an ambiance to them. “It's more about the feeling of the place, and as long as it's true to what it is — whether it's super traditional or ultra-contemporary — I can appreciate it,” Fox Ermel said.
Design is “the biggest driver [of guest satisfaction] today, demanding a much greater level of thought,” said Palmer, who works with both large chains and independent boutique properties. “Guests are looking for a unique experience.”
While at Ivory Lodge in South Africa last year, Fox Ermel’s husband was so inspired by the property, she said, that: “He sat one afternoon and sketched a floor plan of it for our future cabin in the woods, one day. It was exactly our style and exactly what we had always talked about wanting to build, very inspiring.”
“Hotel selection is so important, and I sort of ball up when someone says, ‘The hotel doesn’t matter, we won’t be in there much anyway.’ Yes, it does matter!, is what I gently say ... it’s where you start and end your day, and it can be an extension of your entire travel experience if you let it, and choose wisely,” Fox Ermel said.
“I’ve visited cities where I never left the hotel. The Dolder Grand in Zurich is an example. In Zurich for two nights, I never left the hotel. It was that impactful to me from a design standpoint because it was so different and special. I got a ton of creative work done while there, and left feeling super inspired, happy, and relaxed.”
“So, when you can do the same for clients, and they come home sharing stories of something similar, I mean that’s why I do what I do. That’s why you travel. To feel inspired, to learn, to come home rejuvenated. And a hotel/hotel room I know for a fact can absolutely do that on its own,” Fox Ermel said.
In a social media age, design sells
Today, Palmer and her interior design peers seek to invent not only a visual experience of the space, but also understand how design changes guest behavior — especially how it encourages travelers to share their accommodations with friends and family.
“The importance of design to consumers can be the way the traveler controls marketing through social media sharing, documenting their experience in detail with themselves in this environment,” Palmer said. “That makes their friends want to go to that place, to see what that looks like, and translate it into their own personal space.”
Some hotels are extending the look and feel of their rooms to experiences outside of the property. In Manhattan, the Chatwal, New York has extended its room design to unique experiences outside the property’s 76 rooms and suites, to “show travelers the upscale, unique side of New York City.”
For example, history buffs staying in the Chatwal’s Heritage Suite can enjoy a two-hour private tour through with an art historian offering exclusive access to the history of landmark sites including the Chrysler Building and Radio City Music Hall.
Meanwhile, large international chains are investing heavily in developing their soft brands.
“What is exciting about now is that the big brands are really understanding that the vast majority of travelers are after that unique experience. They are revamping themselves, and doing a major overhaul on all of their different brands, reevaluating, and creating differentiators that weren’t there before,” Palmer said.
For example, Marriott International, earlier this year, opened the 130-room Lido House, part of its Autograph Collection Hotels. Mingling seaside retreat elements from California and Cape Cod, the hotel includes five residential-style, three-level, 1,300-square-foot cottages, each featuring distinct and authentic designs by a different local designer. The company called it “a stylish celebration of Southern California's iconic coastal lifestyle.”