By: R. Maurice Robinson, Principal and John J. Repas, Senior Manager, Summer 1995

Did you ever think about what services the hotel company of the future would offer? You are invited to explore leaps in the levels and types of service that will be available to the traveling public in the future. Lets look at the year 2000 and see what the future hotel company will be doing differently. First of all, what do you hate most about your relationship with the current hotel company? The person on the telephone that takes your reservation? No, that task is usually handled politely and efficiently. The doorman who greets you when you arrive? No, that person is always smiling and offering to help you out of the car, carry your bags, and direct you to the front desk.

Ah, how about that front desk? waiting in line to check in, asking about rooms available, negotiating rates with the clerk (who may not even have the authority), signing rate cards, giving a credit card for imprinting, getting the keys - all the while, you want only to go to your room and relax.

Here's an area where the hotel company of the future can improve your experience dramatically. Some chains are experimenting already with express check-in service, which is an incremental improvement but we can envision a major break- through in this area. Imagine yourself pulling up to the hotel, identifying yourself to the doorman, and receiving the keys to your room right there at the porte-cochere. No need to sign in, or even stop at the registration desk - just go directly to your room and relax. Now that’s a breakthrough!

While we're thinking "out of the box", let's imagine a higher level of service than you previously thought possible from a hotel company. What other parts of your trip are annoying to you? How about the front-end coordination of traveling to the hotel? Currently, you usually have to arrange for the air travel and ground transportation to get from your home or office to the hotel. Wouldn't it be nice if you could book all of this with one call, without relying on a travel agent?

Well, it can be done. By using data base technologies available in other industries, the hotel company of the future can re-engineer the process to make this as painless as possible. Here's how it would work:

Say you are in New York at your office when you decide to attend a meeting in Chicago next month. You call the 800 number of your Personal Travel Concierge (PTC, for short) at the future hotel company. The PTC has all of your travel preference information at his disposal-favorite airlines, frequent flier numbers, car rental identification numbers, hotel room type preferences, special requests for in-room amenities (like a printer compatible with your notebook computer).

The PTC works with you to arrange airline flights, car rental or pickup service, and assign. you a room at the hotel. And no need to haggle over the rate: based on your record of usage, a specific discounted rate is assigned to you, regardless of which hotel you choose.

Furthermore, think of the opportunity to simplify your record-keeping! A monthly statement Is sent to you, detailing your travel activities and charges for that month, formatted in exactly the form you have requested, whether it be to submit your expense report or for tax record-keeping purposes. Your miles, points, expenses - all in one place!

And for the most privileged travelers, Imagine the benefits that the hotel company of the future can bestow upon you. They know your daughter's birthday is in January, so they send a little gift to your home address---like a beach towel with her name on it---and a certificate for a free weekend night in your family's favorite Florida resort (where there happens to be a low occupancy situation on that particular weekend). Won't you come down and spend a few days? First night is on the house.

With this level of personalized service, do you think this traveler is going to go to any other chain when he has a choice? Hardly. In fact, if the traveler in this example actually called the meeting in Chicago, the PTC could get the names of everyone who would be attending, and telephone them to arrange their travel as well. The potential for goodwill--and repeat business is phenomenal.

Look at the income possibilities from the hotel company's standpoint. By making their guests' lives easier throughout the travel process, there are new revenue sources available, commissions from the airlines and ground transportation companies, the ability to shoehorn room-nights into slack periods through personalized marketing, and the opportunity to build loyalty among guests, their families, and their co-workers. Clearly a win-win situation for everyone I Who says the future has to be bleak?

The Real Estate Report is published by KPMG's National Real Estate, Hospitality, and Construction Practice. © 1996 by KPMG Peat Marwick LLP All rights reserved. For additional information email KPMG.

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