LE Miami conference experts predict the future of hotels - 5 top trends to watch

The top five trends shaping the future of hotels were revealed by travel industry gurus who participated at the annual LE Miami Conference, as news.com.au reports:

The hotel industry has been forced to get creative to stay relevant and it is good news for travellers.

Hotels are desperately looking at ways to impress millennials, who will be the highest-spenders on travel, they will cater to longer stays and will ensure that working from the hotel is the new working from home.

And in a bold move, hotels are also becoming more communal, with guests and staff eating meals together.

At their core, hotels have offered the same thing to travellers for thousands of years — a roof over your head and a bed for the night.

But with Airbnb and similar shared-economy companies on the rise, the hotel industry has been forced to change the way it does things.

Here are five top trends to watch, as predicted by a panel of the coolest-of-the-cool travel industry gurus who gather for the annual LE Miami conference to talk about what’s new and next in hotels.

EXTENDED STAY EXPERIENCES

The first trend discussed at this year’s “unconference,” as the LE Miami organisers billed the show, was a bold one: Hotel extinction.

Will hotels as we know them cease to exist in the future? Yes, says Parker Stanberry of vacation rental company Oasis Collections. As the demand for authentic experiences grows, he says traditional hotels must evolve into something in between the old model and that of Airbnb.

By this, he means hotels will cater to longer stays and encourage guests to go out into the local community. Accor Hotels for one, has already gotten hip on this trend with the acquisition of Onefinestay, a London-based high-end spin on Airbnb.

DOING GOOD

By 2017, millennials will be the highest-spenders on travel. But hotels are still scratching their heads over how to reach them.

“The key to the millennial traveller’s heart is impact,” says Gilad Goren, the chair of not-for-profit Travel+SocialGood and a millennial himself. He predicts that hotels’ loyalty programs will become gateways for guests to experience the local community and that hotels will become “impact hubs.”

Contrary to their reputation as entitled, Goren says his peers would much rather spend money on experiences than material goods. “For me, it’s scaling Kilimanjaro rather than buying a Beemer.” Which is why hotels who are community-minded and promote sustainable travel will win. Or, as Goren puts it, “A little more Tom’s shoes, a little less Tom Ford.”

CO-WORKING, HOTEL-STYLE

Co-working spaces are the Uber of commercial real estate. Which is why working from hotels is the new working from home, says Ron Shah, CEO of Bizly, a startup that lets people instantly book private meeting space at the world’s leading hotels.

“Working nine to five, Monday to Friday, with your pantsuit? That’s yesterday,” he says. Working remotely is no longer taboo and we’re now working from everywhere. “We’re grabbing our teams and getting out of the office and looking for inspiration and new environments,” says Shah.

Hotels often have empty meeting rooms or other nooks; Bizly will rent those spaces to people who can feel at home — or “at work” there. The similarity to WeWork, Uber and Airbnb is intentional, he says. “It’s about values of independence, collectivity, connectivity and experience.”

HOLIDAY LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Aussies need no instruction on how to have a good holiday, but Americans, with their measly two weeks off a year, need a bit of help. A shocking 41 per cent of Americans didn’t take their paid time off in 2015, and those that did worked anyway, felt guilty, or came back to an inbox from hell.

Two speakers at this year’s LE Miami conference addressed this tragedy, starting with Fatima Hawkins of air cargo company dnata, who advocated for employers offering “experiential leave”— one month per year spent out of the office, in a new country where you do your job but also immerse yourself in a new destination.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline Gifford of Travel + Leisure magazine, described her vision of a souped-up spa holiday, one including services to help you pack and plan before a trip and assistance with re-entry and hanging on to the holiday mindset when you return to work.

If hotels can harness this desire for a better work-life balance and create a more holistic holiday experience, they’ll have an easier time filling rooms was the overarching message.

SERVICE WITH A SMILE

Hotels have tried check-in kiosks, mobile check-outs, room service ordering via an app and even robot butlers and concierges. But nothing beats a genuine welcome.

“The future is going back to the past,” says Aldo Melpignano of posh Puglia hotel Borgo Egnazia. “To serve in the most noble meaning of the word; to love and care.”

He envisions the line between staff and guests blurring, and for hotel employees to help guests become locals and experience the community.

“Hotels are becoming more communal,” he says, however his vision takes it a step further, with guests and staff eating meals together, in a combination of hotel restaurant and cafeteria. “My view for the future is a pool party where it’s guests and staff, sharing and mingling together,” says Melpignano. “Boundaries divide, travel unites.”

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report