Customer Journey 3: Building a Hotel Guest Journey Framework That Still Feels Local

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody, it’s your hospitality. Friend Glenn with Andre Fornier, chief commercial officer of CoralTree Hospitality. And we’re focusing on a special series here on the customer journey. First, I want to thank our friends over at Unifocus. Unifocus, technology that drives value. Do me a favor, check them out at unifocus.com. They support me. I’d love for you to support them. All right. Customer journey. Standard of care. You want to take care of people. And you’re being very strategic about taking care of people these days. How are you thinking it through? And why do you. Why do you care?

Andre: [00:00:31] Yeah, that’s a great question, Glenn. With coral tree hospitality, obviously we have a diverse set of products, right? We have from almost five star into three star world, we have destinations that are one of a kind, right? We have urban destinations of big resorts. So it was hard to create a profile or a framework of service that would accommodate all these different sizes and asset types. So the standard of care came into place, right? We call them socks. And the fundamental framework on that is regardless of asset type. It was a consistent type of care that we wanted to deliver that was genuine, right, authentic and of the place. Right. And ultimately, we want to be known for renowned service.

Glenn: [00:01:14] Right. And that’s the thing that always everybody gets confused when you see five star, four star, three star ratings. There’s nothing wrong with being rated those hotels. As long as you’re the best version of what you are aspiring to be, and you can’t be the best three star hotel unless you’re going out of your way to take care of guests in a very special way. So that’s kind of the energy I think you’re tapping into.

Andre: [00:01:34] Yeah, absolutely. And so how do you do that? Right. So it’s not the bricks and mortar of the building. It’s the people that are inside the building. Yeah. And so think about where the guest touch points are. Right. So it starts when they hit your website or they talk to that reservations agent. Right. So what are the standards of care that we have as we Marshal Glenn, who might be doing a booking with us through the process to the point when you arrive at the desk. You come to the front. Arrival. We call it the porch. What’s that? That’s nice. What’s that look like?

Glenn: [00:02:02] I really connotes a totally different type of vibe, right?

Andre: [00:02:05] Yeah, it’s kind of an innkeeper.

Glenn: [00:02:07] Welcome.

Andre: [00:02:07] Yeah, yeah. Heart of an innkeeper. So you get to the porch, you get to the front of the house, and then throughout your stay. How are we communicating? Certain touch points. Points could be a note in your room, right? Right. It could be a card asking you to recognize great service. You know, that the players are doing for you all the way to departure and all the way to the end. So that’s kind of the guest’s journey process. So how we do that is a little bit different at every property, because you want it to be of the place like beautiful black desert we are in today. Or we could be in mammoth, California. Right? Right. Totally different feel.

Glenn: [00:02:42] And that’s great to be able to understand what a property needs to be, and then be able to connect with the customers for them to fully be able to realize what that experience ultimately can be.

Andre: [00:02:53] Right? Yeah. And you travel the world. Yeah. So you’re a connoisseur of hotels, good and bad. And so you notice the difference. Oh, yeah. When there’s that little extra touch in there throughout the process.

Glenn: [00:03:03] For sure. And I always look at hotels through the way I open this. What does the hotel want to be and is it achieving that. Right. So I’m not going to complain about like a bathroom that’s too small or looks a little old. If the building was built in the 1970s, because you can’t help that infrastructure has changed, for example. Right. But I’m not going to be forgiving if people don’t look me in the eye when I walk in the building and I want to say hello to them. You know, that sort of thing.

Andre: [00:03:30] 20 foot rule. And we look at how we measure it is three things. Is it true, is it meaningful and is it distinctive? Yeah. Right. If we meet those three criteria, then we know we can deliver on it.

Glenn: [00:03:41] Okay. So we all obviously it’s the right thing to do. Gets you closer to guests, gets them keeping back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of great stuff. But what does it really mean financially to your bottom line?

Andre: [00:03:51] Yeah. So I mean, we have surveys. Yeah. I affiliate with some of our companies that have proven that every 1 or 2 points in guest service or ranking, like on TripAdvisor or on Google, connotes to average daily rate. Right? And if you’re in the mid sector, it’s probably 4 to $5, right? If you’re in the upper upscale to luxury it’s more like 15 to $20. So people are willing to pay that extra process if they know they’re going to get taken care of.

Glenn: [00:04:21] Hey, listen most people don’t even want to have anything to do with page two of Google, for example, right? So if you’re not right up there at the top, it’s the same thing with TripAdvisor and all the other rankings. If you’re not up there at the top, you’re not even in the consideration set. And it turns into one of those situations where you don’t even know how much money you’ve lost.

Andre: [00:04:38] Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Totally agree with you.

Glenn: [00:04:40] Anything else that you want to add?

Andre: [00:04:41] I think that’s it.

Glenn: [00:04:42] Yeah.

Andre: [00:04:43] Appreciate you being.

Glenn: [00:04:43] Here. I appreciate you, and I hope you enjoy our series here on the customer journey. Stay tuned for another chapter coming soon. He’s Andre. I’m Glenn. Have a great day. See you later. Bye bye. Perfect.