HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW
JANUARY FOCUS: Mobile Technology

What Hotels Can Do to Build Brand Loyalty with Millennials

By Lisa Ross President & Partner, rbb Communications | January 2019

They're young, active, travel-savvy and eager to choose experiences over physical purchases, so it's easy to see why millennials are the group to nurture when it comes to hospitality. The challenge -- building brand loyalty with them is easier said than done. These travelers, many of whom had a front-row seat to the late 2000s financial crisis, are keenly aware of their own spending, making them a tough group to capture with old-school loyalty plays such as points programs. In fact, according to one study, 80 percent of millennial travelers said they would switch their brand allegiance just to save a few dollars.

So where does that leave brands? Building loyalty with this demographic will take more than a few generic offerings, meaning brands need to think big when it comes to strategy. Experiential offerings, social media engagement, corporate social responsibility and lifestyle-based partnerships should be at the heart of forward-thinking millennial loyalty initiatives. Here are a few ways hospitality brands should aim to earn – and keep – millennial attention.

Think Alternative

Though millennials are notoriously price-conscious, they're also open to benefits beyond the dollar. A 2018 study by Visa and Bond Brand Loyalty showed that the group places high importance on alternative benefits, such as quicker check-in and check-out for members or choice of room and/or floor. In fact, 46 percent of millennials are willing to pay more for enhanced loyalty benefits, the study found.

These include, for example, Amazon Prime – which offers free two-day shipping, streaming movies, special sales and other benefits – and Restoration Hardware's RH Members Program, which offers 25 percent savings on all purchases, as well as complimentary interior design consultations and concierge services. In addition to discounts and additional services, millennials are often willing to pay for convenience, such as Instacart's two-hour delivery from local stores.

As part of your loyalty programs, offer rewards for travelers who share their experiences. Non-hospitality brands have found that this generation responds to rewards offered for actions such as sharing posts on their social media, referring friends and responding to emails or surveys. In other words, millennials are looking for an equal partnership – be loyal to them and their needs and they'll be loyal to yours.

Help Them Create and Share Experiences

Don't underestimate the power of social media. Hotels now draw travelers thanks to "Instagrammable" features, such as the Miami Beach Faena Hotel's 10-foot, 24-karat Damien Hirst wooly mammoth, and bold design, the Chicago Hotel EMC2's glassed-in showers at the center of the room. These unique elements or "Insta-opps" spawn countless images and posts on social media and drive millennial loyalty.

Hotels are also creating those experiences outside of the actual rooms, working with local partners to create on-site and off-site distinct opportunities for social-savvy guests with local festivals, food trucks and attractions. Park Plaza Hotels and Resorts earned high marks for its "London Calling" campaign, which educated guests about the city via a website and in-room magazine.

Simpler options include recruiting "in the know" staff to act as ambassadors. They may offer travelers recommendations that are off-the beaten path or host weekly mixers for young business travelers that establish the property as a place to connect to the city. Loyalty programs, too, need to take their experiences off-site. Hilton, for example, recently partnered with Live Nation for "Lawn Days," allowing their Hilton Honors members to use points to unlock lawn seat concert tickets at amphitheaters across the country.

Make it easy for your guests and potential guests to interact with your property on social media. Brands can often inspire instant loyalty by creating property-specific hashtags to help find and converse with current or previous guests. Your social media team should search these hashtags and mentions to find potential or upcoming guests, too. Millennials' own willingness to share all aspects of their lives online makes it simple for brands to find travelers, learn about them and then create customized experiences – ranging from their favorite cocktail on arrival, to framed pictures of their pets on the nightstand. Those personalized touches can both keep guests coming back and inspire them to share the experience on social channels and encourage friends to book their own stay.

Understand Their Lifestyle

According to one study, 80 percent of millennial travelers engage in health and fitness activities while on vacation, as opposed to 66 percent of baby boomers. That means offerings in those areas are a large draw for potential guests. Small adjustments, such as healthy grab-and-go food options and upgraded gym experiences, can lead the way for larger initiatives, such as organized group runs through the city or access to rentable workout gear (including clothing and sneakers).

In addition to health and fitness, millennials are also looking for workspaces in their hotels. Boston Consulting Group predicts that millennials will account for nearly half of all business travel spending by 2020, but even leisure travelers often need space to catch up on work. Lobbies are increasingly becoming more than just a place to check-in, with many offering dedicated working spaces, plenty of charging stations, high-speed Wi-Fi, snacks and beverages. Aloft, for example, sees its target guest as an independent, often solo, traveler who grew up in a generation of crowdsourcing and cafe culture. The brand designed its lobbies and extended bar areas to encourage social interaction and has piloted a program that lets guests order hot breakfasts to-go at digital kiosks, instead of offering a traditional buffet.

Another key component of millennials' lifestyles are their smartphones, which they use differently from baby boomers, and even from Gen Xers. They expect instant communication via apps and, yes, social media. The same goes for the booking process – if potential guests can't do it all on a smartphone, you're at risk of losing out on dollars, and loyalty so make sure your website has a mobile-friendly design.

Cater to Spontaneity

Millennials' are also less inclined to plan their travel far in advance and more likely to jump on spur-of-the moment opportunities. FOMO (fear of missing out) can be a great motivator, whether it's induced by influencers touting an incredible (seasonal) view, partnership or the prospect of heading to a concert or festival. Brands can take advantage of that wanderlust with pop-up experiences (the Four Seasons Beijing regularly hosts pop-up shops in its lobby), flash sales for guests and even specials on one-night-only rooms for those looking at a quick, last minute getaway.

Show Your CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be one of the most important components in millennials' brand loyalty. One study found that more than 91 percent of millennials would switch brands to one associated with a cause that was important to them, according to a 2015 Cone Communications Millennial CSR Study.

Radisson RED has paperless rooms, Hyatt boasts a 62 percent Corporate Social Responsibility rating, and the Kimpton Cares program spotlights partnerships between the chain and charitable organizations such as No Kid Hungry and The Trevor Project. For No Kid Hungry, Kimpton donates $10 per night to the anti-hunger campaign when guests book through a special link or mention the organization when booking by phone. Those guests also receive 15 percent off the brand's best flexible rate during their stays.

The company's chefs participate in the organization's signature Chefs Cycle fundraising event. Kimpton is the "Premier National Hotel Partner" for The Trevor Project, which provides 24/7 counseling and other services to assist with crises and prevent suicides among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people. Kimpton hosts fundraisers and donates room nights and catering to the organization. As with its No Kid Hungry partnership, the brand offers discounts and a $10 donation per night to guests who book through a special link or mention it when booking by phone.

Responsibility and sustainability are more important than ever when it comes to drawing a connection with millennial guests. According to Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing's 2017 Sustainable Signals report, Americans in their 20s and 30s are more likely to put their own money in "socially responsible" investments. It would reason, then, that they would do business with companies who do the same.

Tell a Story (Across Platforms)

While Gen X consumers have been known to do their own research and respond to more traditional advertising techniques, the millennial buyer is looking to emotionally connect with the brand itself. The good news: if you tell a compelling story, you can encourage trial and earn brand loyalty. To best tell your story, begin with a clear vision of your brand and its core values, then look at how you want to present it to the world. Funnel all storytelling through the lens of those values, and your content will feel authentic – rather than advertorial.

Marketing across social media, and tying it into your website and blog, remains one of the best ways to connect with the millennial audience to tell that story and establish a relationship. Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram offer brands the opportunity to tell their story to potential guests, as well as invite guests to be a part of the conversation and share their own stories, images and ideas with other brand loyalists. You'll want to identify and engage with specific influencers who are followed by your target audiences to share their stories, too. Choice Hotels, for example, invited key influencers from around the country to stay at various properties and share their experiences, resulting in a combined reach of more than 40 million. For millennials, that sense of community around a brand is key to making an emotional connection.

Social media are not the only available channels for storytelling, either. Intercontinental found a new way to tell its brand and property stories through a podcast, "Stories of the Intercontinental Life," which it launched in 2016. The interviews engage potential guests by educating them about the people and, yes, stories that surround the properties. Blogs can work, too. The Pfister hotel in Milwaukee hires a new "Narrator" each year to write blog posts about the guests who visit the hotel.

One brand outside the hospitality industry that has successfully created emotional connections across multiple channels is Chubbies. The men's clothing and accessories maker combines a strong, interactive social media presence with scores of college student ambassadors and an engaging newsletter, as well as surprise gifts it adds to customers' purchases and personal responses to customer service communications.

In the end, building brand loyalty all comes down to connection. Whether making the travel experience easier via app-enabled booking, room selection or service, or finding ways to make each guest feel valued, brands looking to gain millennial love may have to throw out the old playbook and think of creative and visually enticing ways to capture this audiences' attention.

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In the event that you have chosen to have your membership automatically rebilled, unless and until you notify HotelExecutive that you wish to cancel or terminate your membership to HotelExecutive, you hereby agree and authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to automatically renew your membership to HotelExecutive on a continuing basis and to charge your credit card (or other payment means you have selected) to pay for the ongoing cost of your membership. You hereby further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card (or other approved payment means you have selected) for any and all purchases of products, services and entertainment provided to in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive.

13. PRIVACY POLICY

The following is the Privacy Policy for HotelExecutive

We can be reached via telephone, email, or online at our contact page. When you visit our site we do not log any information regarding your domain or email address. Information Sharing: We do not share user information with any third parties other than via press release distribution as described below.

Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Cookies: Our system requires the use of cookies to enable the user to log back into our website to access information from the newswire, without having to log in each time using the required username and password.

If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

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JANUARY FOCUS: Mobile Technology