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| Rosemarie McGuire, Travel 100 Group; Ruthanne Terrero, Luxury Travel Advisor; and Robert Andrews, The Beekman Hotel, New York |
Our sister publication, Luxury Travel Advisor, in November held a roundtable discussion in Las Vegas during the Signature Annual Sales Conference. On hand were the general managers of several international hotels in the Signature network, as well as several top Signature travel advisors.
It was moderated by Ruthanne Terrero, VP/Editorial Director of Luxury Travel Advisor.
Ruthanne Terrero: Millennials in the U.S. are a huge part of the population, it’s a huge generation, larger than the Baby Boomers. Right now, they range from 18 to 35 and are having a tremendous impact on the market and it’s going to become even more tremendous, because within a few years they’ll be the main spenders in our economy, and so we have to be ready for the way they’ve grown up and their expectations, and the way that they want to experience a hotel, and the way they want to experience travel.
Maureen, can you tell the group about your clientele because you’re in such an interesting part of the U.S., representing such an interesting dynamic of the economy.
Maureen Conlin, Los Gatos Travel: We’re in Los Gatos, CA, which is dead center in the middle of Silicon Valley. The difficulty with Millennials, I have found, is that they have been taken care of by their parents or at their schools by their teachers. They helicopter them to college. They finish college, they helicopter when they get jobs. No one has ever said, ‘no,’ to these kids and they don’t like the word, ‘no.’ There’s always an alternative or there’s always another way. But sometimes, there isn’t another way.
You also have to really listen to them because it is always about one-upping someone else. That’s the new thing. How can I do something better than someone else did? If you really let them get through their whole spiel and then present them with something that really does work, I think they do listen, but you have to know what they’re looking for.
As you say, there are two types of customers. There are some who have so much money, they don’t care what anything costs. They just want what they want. Then there are others who have money but they don’t like to spend it. They’re very fussy about it and they want everything for free.
It’s a very interesting time, with houses going in our area for cash in five days for $7 million or $8 million. They live in this beautiful neighborhood and have an $8 million house but they’ll put a skateboard park in their backyard. This is the 35-year-old gamer. That’s what he wants to do. He just wants to make sure he had a yard big enough that he could put in a skateboard park. He really, doesn’t care how much he paid for the house, he could care less if he has furniture, but the skateboard park is important.
You have to listen to them. I think they’re unique, very good people and I think they’ll grow into themselves, but they’re not there yet.
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| Bruno Papaleo, Palazzo Manfredi, Rome and Rosemarie McGuire, Travel 100 Group |
Robert Andrews, The Beekman Hotel, New York: When we’re looking into developing a hotel, there are other very simple ways of keeping Millennial travelers happy. It isn’t simple as having a USB charging station next to the bedside table.
Maureen Conlin, Los Gatos Travel: It’s also all about technology. They have to be connected constantly.
Robert Andrews, The Beekman Hotel, New York: They want free Wi-Fi. You have one guest who comes in with their iPhone, with their iPad. You said it, it’s all about technology. Being able to pair your phone to your television, being able to watch your own content, directly on your television. Those are the types of things that maybe not a 35-year-old, but the 18- to 27-year-olds are looking for because, as someone said before, it’s what they have at home. You have to equal or better what they have at home. I want a USB charging station next to my bed in the hotel room I pay $800 a night for. It can be quite costly for existing hotels that retrofit those types of things. When we were developing The Beekman, that’s something that we really thought about.
Rosemarie McGuire, Travel 100 Group: In my experience, Millennials tend to think they are experts in everything, whether they’re foodies, or wine enthusiasts. One of the words Maureen used was “listen” and the other word is to research. They’ve done their research. They are connected 24/7. They know more than you in some areas, and I think we really have to do our homework, which is challenging, to create a seamless trip, which is what they’re expecting. At the end of the day, you really spend a long time on the trips you do for Millennials, but, of course, they’re worth it. They’re the future of our industry, but it’s challenging.
Ruthanne Terrero: Do you find they will take advice?
Rosemarie McGuire, Travel 100 Group: They do listen, they know you’re the expert. They’re looking a little bit for the wow factor. They’re looking for the better honeymoon than the other person had, or the better trip than the other had. They do look a little bit. They find the Signature amenities of value, so they’ll come back after they’ve done some research.
Gareth Banner, St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London: We have a big responsibility to them in terms of making sure that we engage them, not just through products and services but through research. For years, hotels in London recommended going to Harrods and Buckingham Palace. No longer is that acceptable. These guys are social discoverers. They want to know where the residents go. They want to understand what the latest pop-up restaurant might be. They want to know about that little art gallery around the corner. We have a responsibility to introduce them to the hotel and to the city as citizens rather than tourists. They don’t want to be tourists. We’ve put a lot of effort into that.
Ruthanne Terrero: They want more of a host rather than somebody who gives them a historical review of the city and show them all the churches and cathedrals and what not. They want to be taken around by someone who lives there and can actually tell them, “Here’s where I shop,” or, “Here’s where I grew up.”
My question is, how do you handle the personnel? Do you hire them or is this done on a volunteer basis? How do you vet them?
Robert Andrews, The Beekman Hotel, New York: Typically, it starts with the concierge. In New York, there seems to have been a bit of a decline of the traditional concierge, we’re seeing that this role is sometimes combined with other positions, which is very sad. The very traditional packages that you throw online, for example, “the romance package,” — I’m sure we’ve all done them at a hotel at some point — they just never get booked anymore. As Gareth said, they want an experience as if you were a resident of New York or London or Paris. They can find the Empire State Building on their own. They want to know the insider places, but for me, that starts at the concierge’s desk, and it’s such an important position. I think just as important as the general manager of the hotel.
Ruthanne Terrero: Kendra, what are you seeing from the Gen X perspective?
Kendra Thornton, Royal Travel & Tours: We have clients with young children and they are taking them to Europe, but they want their kids to have these local experiences at their age level. “I want my five-year-old to make patisseries with an authentic chef.” It’s how can you create these authentic experiences for the little ones, too?
Ruthanne Terrero: What’s your take on Millennials?
Kendra Thornton, Royal Travel & Tours: Millennials are very research-oriented, they come armed with information and they really want to feel like they are telling you all they know, they want you to validate what they’ve done the research on. You have to be extremely prepared when you are talking to Millennials. Gen X, my generation, is willing to take my advice. But with Millennials, with all this access to information, people want to feel they’re the expert and maybe we can help them figure out which to choose among these three options.
Bruce Grosbety, Enchantment Resort and Mii amo Spa: With all that information, they don’t want to wait. During our peak season, when they say, “let me help myself,” it’s not because they’re cheap, it’s because they don’t want to wait. If they see the concierge and there’s even one person there in front of them, they don’t want to wait, they’ll book it themselves. They don’t want to wait for someone to call back, they want to keep moving.
Kendra Thornton, Royal Travel & Tours: We have the Signature amenities, so if we say, “Wait, if you give me one hour to get this booking done vs. doing it yourself,” there is a lot of added value we can bring.
Marco Filippi, La Posta Vecchia and Il Pellicano: Our revenue has been growing over the past five years and 2015 was excellent, but there is a higher demand in expectations so you have to make anything possible to customize the guest experience, starting with the small things. Even the Michelin-star chefs know that they cannot impose their cuisine on anyone anymore; they need to adapt any dish to any guest.
For Millennials, we’ve been investing in broadband for Internet access. A good half of the young people coming to La Posta Vecchia is on their honeymoon, so they’ll feel like kings and queens for a day or two. Il Pellicano is a different property with a higher percentage of younger people who might not be spending a huge amount on accommodations but they can surprise you and spend quite a lot in boutique. Maybe they’ll eat a casual meal at The Pelligrill restaurant, perhaps just a simple steak, but they’ll pair that with a bottle of wine that costs 2,000 euros. They’ll book a basic room but then they’ll book the yacht for an entire day.