EP Perspective March 2017
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INNOVATION: CHANGE AGENDA<br />
There have been two common<br />
conversational themes over the last<br />
six months. Firstly, how will hospitality<br />
companies respond to the shortage of labour<br />
that will inevitably come with Brexit and<br />
secondly, how to be competitive and offer<br />
new engaging service lines in a market<br />
that is both under pressure and saturated<br />
with competition.<br />
It is true, the market is saturated with<br />
choice and options. The consumer’s<br />
expectations are constantly on the rise<br />
and skilled labour will be at a premium.<br />
However, it is an opportunity to not just<br />
follow the traditional routes but perhaps<br />
throw everything in the air and review<br />
all the fundamentals so that new and old<br />
solutions are found. Rather than these<br />
problems being a major negative, it could<br />
be that these problems offer the opportunity<br />
for positive change and growth. There<br />
is a view that many operations have<br />
become lazy in the basics. Or have moved<br />
so far from their starting point that they<br />
have lost sight of how best to action their<br />
core business activities, caught up in the<br />
noise and distraction that now surrounds<br />
business practice.<br />
UPSIDE DOWN,<br />
INSIDE OUT<br />
Re-engineering Hospitality<br />
Really? Lazy? Is this fair? Some thoughts<br />
to consider:<br />
n In the modern era, should five star<br />
hotels really charge for Wi-Fi access in<br />
their operations? It is now resented by<br />
consumers who understand the cost of the<br />
service and know they can likely access<br />
Wi-Fi freely outside of the building. Does<br />
this build customer faith and goodwill or<br />
destroy the potential relationships to be<br />
created? Is it a fair revenue line or is it a last<br />
possibly desperate way to increase revenue?<br />
Estonia now offers free Wi-Fi across the<br />
NDUL | 123RF.COM<br />
whole country and even many of the train<br />
lines in the UK offer free Wi-Fi and yet<br />
leading, expensive hotel operations do not?<br />
Why do they not see the benefit that small<br />
improvements in customer service and the<br />
customer journey can have on dwell time,<br />
loyalty and ultimately customer spend?<br />
n Airbnb is a business model that very few<br />
would have ever considered or invented – in<br />
fact most would have dismissed the model<br />
as being very unlikely to succeed and yet it<br />
has not only been successful, it has offered<br />
the consumer an excellent new service that<br />
really has challenged the mid hotel market.<br />
How has the hotel market responded in<br />
terms of innovation?<br />
32 | <strong>Perspective</strong> | <strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong>
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