AIC Hotel Group

Oscar Serrano

Guest-Centered Brand Strategy

The Evolution of Modern Hospitality

I have spent more than 30 years in hospitality. And our industry has changed enormously.

Hotels became resorts. Resorts became destinations. Brands became global platforms. Technology made us faster. Data made us smarter. Loyalty programs became huge businesses. We have become very good at hospitality. Or have we?

Sometimes I wonder whether we have become better at operating hotels, but not necessarily better at hospitality. Look at the size of some resorts today. They are extraordinary, with thousands of rooms, restaurants, pools, spas, entertainment, retail, apps, and experiences—almost a city of their own. There is nothing wrong with being big.

But the greatest risk of scale is not that a hotel becomes too big. It is that the guest begins to feel small.

When Loyalty Becomes the Objective

Then there is loyalty. When did loyalty stop being the consequence of great hospitality and become a business objective in itself?  Think about airlines. Have you noticed that being a frequent flyer sometimes seems to have less and less to do with actually flying?

You can spend half your life on planes, accumulate thousands of miles and patiently wait for that complimentary upgrade. Then someone jumps ahead of you because they spent more on a co-branded credit card.

Maybe they bought a sofa. Good for them. I hope it is a very comfortable sofa. It also makes perfect commercial sense. But what exactly are we rewarding? Loyalty to the experience, loyalty to the brand or simply economic value to an ecosystem.

Hospitality is moving in a similar direction. Our loyalty platforms are incredibly sophisticated. Points, tiers, credit cards, member rates, partnerships and experiences are all valuable. But repeat business and true loyalty are not always the same thing.

A guest returning because they love how we make them feel is very different from a guest returning because they need seven more nights to maintain their status. On a dashboard, they may look exactly the same. They are not.

Keeping Technology in Its Place

We have also never known more about our guests. We know what room they prefer, what they eat, when they travel, what they spend and what they click. But knowing more about someone does not necessarily mean knowing them better. That is where I think hospitality needs to be careful.

Technology is not the enemy. Scale is not the enemy. Loyalty programs certainly aren't the enemy. They are tools. They cannot become the purpose. The purpose is still the person standing in front of us. People travel to celebrate, to reconnect, to discover, to escape, to rest and sometimes simply to feel taken care of.

And perhaps that is what we need to get back to. True loyalty was never supposed to be a program. It was supposed to be an outcome, because guests may forget the size of our lobby. They may forget how many restaurants we had. They may even forget their room. But they rarely forget how we made them feel.

I have always believed that, ultimately, we are in the business of selling happiness. And maybe true hospitality, and true loyalty, really is as simple as that.