We recently highlighted a new study from HVS London called “A New Breed of Traveler,” which explained how next-generation travelers want to feel ‘connected,’ as opposed to experiencing traditional hotel luxuries.
As a result, the more progressive hoteliers are creating larger lobbies to serve as collaboration spaces, and smaller guest rooms since more time is spent socializing outside of the room. This audience of traveler brings its own mobile technologies with them, and is less interested in the in-room entertainment.
Rather, the new cable-cutting persona is more interested in crowd-sourcing information and feels more connected to the brand in a more social- and collaborative-based environment. In fact, all signs are pointing to travelers watching less TV in their rooms.
As this generation of personalized media consumers matures and travels more often, hoteliers will decrease the investment in cable and will increase available bandwidth. It’s a win-win for both the hoteliers and the travelers. The complexity of guest-facing technology and the associated support costs will be significantly reduced, while the traveler will get more bandwidth to stream their content.
In addition, when it comes to media consumption, this new generation of traveler wants to be completely in control of when, how and where they consume media. This signals a major shift from when all media was consumed through an in-room television hooked to a cable box.
Today hoteliers are presented with the opportunity of investing in more bandwidth and collaborative spaces outside of the guest room. When this is achieved and implemented correctly, it will be possible to gain the ever-elusive brand loyalty from the younger and upwardly mobile demographic.
Furthermore, these next-generation travelers are the early adopters, so it will be an investment that will eventually appeal to the mainstream traveler as well.