In 2030, steep competition for hotel guests will mean that hotels will go a very long way to ensure that their customers are happy. Hotels will focus on the guests’ entire travel experience, instead of just their stay at your hotel. 24/7 service for a guest’s entire stay is now possible because of mobile and location-based technologies. Drone (remote controlled flying devices) delivery services even let the hotel send lunch cooked in their kitchen to visitors wherever they are in the city.
As a hotelier, you will provide services such as transportation, shopping advice and restaurant recommendations to guests whether they are in the hotel or out in the city. You’ll arrange to deliver a dry-cleaned suit by drone to a businessman who’s staying at the hotel, but currently is across town at a meeting; or, you might suggest through a digital concierge app the best nearby restaurant to another guest who is downtown with friends. The hospitality experience does not end when the guest steps out your door; you’ll take care of them from when they step off the plane until they pass through airport security on their way home again.
As specialists in visitor relations, hotels have gone beyond merely being places to sleep, and can even provide their services to guests who never set foot in the building. This is truly the new frontier of service design.
Successful candidates are expected to have a community-college level certificate in Hospitality Services, and to be familiar with mobile services, drone-based delivery and ideally foreign languages. Since this is a hospitality role, it goes without saying that interpersonal skills are a must.