A hotel stay is an intimate experience. Guests are at their most vulnerable in a hotel room because they sleep, change clothes, and bathe there. And they usually count on the hotel to provide food while they are staying. Recently, guests have also become accustomed to getting what they want in the comfort of their home, a situation which raises guests' expectations for hotel services and features.

In their study of hotel guests' needs, Ineson, ?omi?, and Kalmi? (2019) said that the hotel room may be the traveler's only sanctuary. They also found that, in addition to safety and security, control is one of the most important considerations for a guest. An essential component of control is choice, and hotels that are able to provide options to their guests are allowing them to have some control in their hotel stay.

As travelers learn about the options available for hotel amenities and services, hotels will need to be able to provide desirable and relevant choices to their guests. Some of the options that guests value most are in the categories of wellness, food and beverage, entertainment, and communication.

Wellness

Travel is stressful, and many guests seek ways to stay healthy when they travel, either with workouts or special products. Westin, for example, has had such success with their Heavenly Bed concept that they created an entire wellness brand, called Wellness at Westin. Guests can choose special juices, balms, menus (including special menus for kids), fitness equipment and even a running program, with special RunWESTIN running routes and, at some locations, running groups.

Many guests want to work out when they travel but would like to do it in the privacy and safety of their room. For those guests who would like to immerse themselves in wellness, some hotels have designed dedicated wellness rooms. Guests can work out in complete in-room gyms in Andaz's Wellness Suites in their NYC 5th Avenue and Scottsdale properties, Hilton's Five Feet to Fitness rooms, and others.

The choice to visit a fitness center or work out in a guest room gives guests control. However, planning ahead to book a special room does not work for everyone. And not every guest wants a complete gym in their room. Hotels that offer to deliver fitness equipment and workout apparel to guests in their rooms give guests the opportunity to make that workout choice on site.

In their study of Millennial travelers and how they rate wellness concepts, Lee, Lee, and Chang (2019) found that Millennial hotel guests valued rest, relaxation, and recreation more than services such as spa treatments and beauty care. Nutrition and opportunities to experience nature were important attributes, too. They recommended that hotels consider natural remedies and amenities promoting relaxation and recreation when targeting this demographic. The Beatrice in Providence, RI provides such amenities by offering its guests the full mind/body wellness experience, with luxury BeeKind amenities, in-room "fit kits" for full body workouts, and "Bea's Book Bags to work out your mind."

Food and Beverage

For some hotels and chains, free hot breakfast was a major selling feature pre-pandemic – it was an expectation, not just a nice-to-have. Even if it's not free, many guests want their breakfast back. According to Rodahl Leong-Lyons, Regional Vice President – Sales & Operations, Americas, Hyatt Hotels, a full hot breakfast buffet was one of the two major items (along with daily housekeeping) that were suspended by CDC COVID guidance early in the pandemic and that many guests missed. She said that some guests absolutely want it, and some absolutely do not, and everything in between. "Everything we do should be driven by the guest preferences." But each country, region, state, and province has its own health regulations, and those can change often during a pandemic.

Meanwhile, some guests have grown accustomed to the convenience of taking their food to-go. Therefore, grab-and-go items and to-go containers for made-to-order food are necessary. And lobby markets with round-the-clock access to fresh food, snacks, and cold drinks will continue to be popular.

Entertainment

One of the comforts of home is customized entertainment: our handpicked, curated lists of shows, movies, and music. Many of us got quite attached to our streaming services when we were stuck at home. Smart TV's give guests access to their own custom channels and shows, which can give guests control over their entertainment. Turning the TV on and going directly to the next episode of whatever they have been binge-watching is preferable to channel-surfing on a traditional hotel entertainment platform.

For guests who like to get out of their rooms in the evening, some hotels offer live entertainment on site. Aloft has made live music an essential part of its brand with Live at Aloft Hotels. To appeal to guests wanting social interaction, some hotel lobbies are designed to be large social spaces, such as the space in each Tru by Hilton, with its foosball tables and board games.

Communication

As guests are given more flexibility and choices, easy communication is essential. Guests need to be able to communicate their requests to hotel staff, and hotels must provide accurate information about services, amenities, and hours of operation.

One way to ease communication between guests and hotel staff is through a mobile app. Ms. Leong-Lyons explained that guests should be able to choose how they engage with staff from booking through checkout. Members can make requests through the World of Hyatt app, which integrates with hotel systems. If a guest staying at a hotel makes a request through the app, the request goes to a staff person who can handle the request. If it's a request for towels, for example, the request may go directly to housekeeping. With current staffing challenges, there may not be someone in those departments.

Ms. Leong-Lyons said, "Hotels have to be clever as to how they set up their communication tree." It might be easy to send all requests to the front desk, but the front desk agent could be overwhelmed with those requests when they should be dealing with guests who want face-to-face help and are standing in front of them. "Hotels have gotten creative about who answers those requests. Sometimes it's the AGM or the GM", especially at smaller properties. Larger hotels may have more staff and are better equipped to have requests sent directly to appropriate departments. Still, guests always have the option of picking up the phone and calling the front desk; it all depends on the urgency of the request and the guest's communication preference.

Nathan Goff, President of Les Clefs d'Or USA and Chef Concierge at Boston Harbor Hotel, said that some guests want a text message, and some want a phone call. Therefore, it's important to learn guest preferences and adapt.

Guests want accurate, current information, too. Mr. Goff said that some hotels which furloughed their Concierge departments have no intention of bringing them back. They think it's "an amenity, not a necessity", and Mr. Goff says that's a mistake. At a luxury hotel, the concierge is the "filter". Guests can find plenty of restaurants with excellent reviews on Yelp, but the concierge knows the real details and has experience. "We are better than the internet because we've been there."

A hotel does not have to have five stars for a guest to want up-to-date information. A quick browse on  travel review sites will show plenty of examples of statements such as, "The posted hours of the restaurant were way off," and "The hotel website says the fitness center is open, but it's not." Those errors were understandable when government health rules changed rapidly and varied by locality, but they are still frustrating to guests.

Rapidly changing information is a great reason to digitize guest information, such as the in-room compendium, that big binder full of information about the hotel and the area. According to Ms. Leong-Lyons of Hyatt, "Nearly everything came out of the guest rooms" because of the CDC's warnings about surfaces, but most guests did not miss the paper items. Now the compendium is digital, making it easier to update and more sustainable. At Boston Harbor Hotel, Mr. Goff said that their compendium is now on an in-room iPad. He also explained that their guests actually want the paper items, including magazines, which provide a "residential feel". 

A Future of Choice and Communication

Hotel guests' desire for flexibility, choice, and control is likely here to stay. Certainly in the short-term, hotels' reliance on the leisure market to drive occupancy means that they need to be aware of the preferences of leisure travelers. AHLA's 2022 State of the Hotel Industry Report describes the "new leisure traveler" as wanting more travel guidance, information about the destination, and flexibility, saying, "It's less about specifics and convenience as it is about adding services on the fly after the initial booking in the spirit of discovery and adventure."

Hotels should not be too hasty to eliminate certain features they created because of the pandemic. Staying tuned to guest feedback and evaluating each feature separately and how it fits into the greater picture will help properties make solid decisions. Just like the guests who miss their hot breakfast, many other travelers might miss the convenience and ease of mind that some of these new choices offer, if they were discontinued.

By Katie Davin Associate Professor, Johnson & Wales University