What's the biggest threat to hotel profitability right now, and what's the biggest opportunity?
As a global hotel company, we are focused on using our scale and enterprise platforms to help our owners capture demand and achieve strong returns. In recent years, owners have had to navigate the uncertainty and volatility of challenging lending conditions and rising costs. Against these challenges, we’ll continue to apply our resources and new technologies to drive the value and consumer demand that will help them grow and optimize their businesses. One example is a series of procurement programs that reduce hotel goods and services costs and work across our supply chains to identify further benefits.
What's the one thing your company is doing today to optimize operations, improve efficiency, or drive better returns?
Hospitality always will remain a people business. However, we recognize the potential of new and emerging technologies to change how we attract new guests to our hotels and help our owners operate smarter and more efficiently.
IHG has made great progress in modernizing our enterprise data and technology platforms. Earlier this year, we rolled out a new machine learning powered Revenue Management System across our global estate that delivers the advanced, data-driven insights owners need. We’re also aiming to have 4,000 global hotels enjoying the benefits of our cloud-based property management system offerings by the end of the year. Through advanced PMS, hotels can streamline front desk processes, colleague onboarding and training and devote time and resources to other priority tasks. And we’re in the early stages of a customer relationship management tool that will deepen loyalty and drive guest satisfaction by providing hotels with the information needed to deliver tailored, personal touches from booking through checkout.
What guest expectation has changed the most, and how are hotels adapting without sacrificing margins?
Younger generations especially prioritize authenticity, social connection and “once in a lifetime” experiences above material things. Experiences, a sense of community and wellness now are just as important as “traditional” elegance and decor. Just look at how travel for sporting events and concerts has brought individuals from all over the world together at hotels in recent months!
As travel and travelers evolve, our brands also are evolving to deliver the broad choice that meets their needs. Our ability to provide the experiences guests want can involve everything from crafting tailored sleep programs for individual guests at an upper luxury Six Senses property to offering communal happy hours at our midscale Staybridge Suites brand.
Where do you see AI delivering the most tangible value in hotel operations over the next few years?
AI already has demonstrated its potential to transform hospitality, from how we deliver loyalty to guests to making it easier for them to discover, book and stay with IHG.
AI-assisted travel planning is growing rapidly, and we’re seeing more guests move beyond traditional keyword searches and use more intuitive language to inspire and plan their trips. We recently embedded a beta conversational search feature across our website and IHG One Rewards app that allows guests to more easily describe what they are looking for and quickly receive customized property recommendations.
Conversational search is just one way we’re driving more bookings to our hotels. We’re rolling out a new content platform to make properties more discoverable across both IHG channels and third-party, AI-powered discovery platforms. Using AI optimization, the platform will showcase richer property content, including amenities, meeting spaces, local attractions, videos and specific experiences.
Why is The Hospitality Show valuable to you personally, and how does it benefit your company?
Our industry stretches far and wide, and events such as the Hospitality Show gather the best and most innovative minds from across our industry. The Hospitality Show is a valuable forum to bring the industry together and make connections, learn, and share insights and experiences.