Accor Releases 'Hospitality Ahead' Report with Insights Into the Transformations Impacting the Industry

What are travelers' new expectations? How to find the right balance between digital and human in the guest experience? How are loyalty programs transforming to better serve and engage clients? What does it take today to attract, engage, and retain talent? How can we become sustainably local? Accor takes a closer look at the transformations impacting key aspects of our industry.

Accor today released its insightful Hospitality Ahead: Transforming How We Welcome, Engage and Manage report. A part of Accor's From Change To Opportunity thought leadership series, the report explores the ongoing changes impacting the hospitality industry at large, provides insights and perspectives on how to address these shifts, and offers examples and recommendations for inventive ways to leverage these transformations into actionable and profitable business opportunities which satisfy these new needs.

The report highlights topics within three key themes: traveler’s evolving expectations, the guest relationship with regard to digital touchpoints as well as loyalty programs, and finally hospitality management which addresses the new Talent mindset as well as the growing need to thinking sustainably local by shifting focus to resources, people, and sourcing from the local community and ecosystem around the hotel. Here are the 9 key insights into transforming how we welcome, engage and manage, developed in the report:

1. Meet My Needs – An Increasingly Sophisticated Approach to Decision-Making: A consumer viewpoint reflective of intertwined rational and emotional criteria as well as new desires for the types of experiences they want from a hotel
2. The Desire to Seek & Savor– Discovering Differently and Seeking Enriching Experiences: Across generations and in different ways, travelers are looking for new ways to discover a destination and live new experiences. It is the top ranking criteria in traveler emotional needs and choice.
3. The Desire for Self-Fulfillment– Looking to Reconnect with Self, Recharge and Enjoy: Another top growing driver for why people travel, this desire to pause the pace, recharge, and indulge means people are seeking options for well-being and more life-enriching moments.
4. Cool Community– Wanting to Connect in Style and Be Social: The desire to live stylish social experiences, connect, and belong in a trendy way is a solid and growing part of the market which crosses segments and moves beyond lifestyle brands.
5. It’s All About the Tribe – The Growing Movement for Quality Moments Together: As individuals increasingly focus on seeking community and connection, there is a growing travel aspiration and need to experience special moments together with their loved ones — whether friends or extended families across generations.
6. The Right Digital-Human Balance – Seamlessly Optimizing the Client Experience: The human touch and digital interaction, when blended in the right way, empowers teams to enhance service and client experience, improve personalization, and ultimately drive client engagement and greater brand love.
7. Expanding Loyalty’s Impact – Adding Value Every Day: Loyalty programs are transforming to appeal to what guests want and need — becoming simpler, more personalized, more rewarding, and functioning as lifestyle enhancers – enabling clients to do and experience more, drive deeper engagement, and forge stronger client relationships.
   The New Talent Mindset – Fulfilling the Desire for Purpose and Self-Expression: The evolution of Talent expectations and priorities drives the need to create a more attractive and engaging workplace with greater flexibility, work/life balance, avenues for self-expression and finding purpose, and ensuring teams feel valued.
8. Thinking Sustainably Local – Shifting Focus to People, Resources and Sourcing Closer to Home: Changing perspective and focusing on the local ecosystem by managing more purposefully, locally, and efficiently is key to building a more sustainable hospitality model, while reducing risk, bringing numerous operational benefits, and offering a more authentic guest experience.

These findings draw on exclusive Accor research, interviews with experts, and examples by leading brands both within and outside of the industry to provide hospitality professionals with fresh perspectives and opportunities as we navigate the way forward in this new consumer, travel, Talent, and operations landscape.

To read and download the report visit here.