As I think about what to get excited about at HSMAI's Digital Marketing Strategy Conference 2019 taking place later this month in New York, the fast-evolving guest experience comes to mind. And, of course, hotel guest experience in 2019 will be enabled by more and better technologies. Here's what I see trending:The Impact of Voice-Enabled Intelligent AssistantsSmartphones already come with voice-activated assistance built-in. Amazon recently revealed it had sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices. Google announced that 1 Billion devices support its Assistant product. This news validates that people are not only getting used to giving voice commands to their phones but that they want to control everything with their voice. "By 2022, Juniper Research predicts that Americans will be using nearly 900 million voice-assistant-enabled devices across smartphones, tablets, PCs, speakers, TVs and cars, a 95% increase over today," writes NPR's CMO Meg Goldthwaite in Ad Age.Think about the implications of this. Consumer adoption of AI has finally reached a tipping point. People's behaviors and expectations of technology-enablement are changing once again, especially when the technology - voice-activation -- is so easy to use that it doesn't feel "techie" at all. Google's data shows that 70% of Google Assistant requests are expressed in natural language and that one in three people globally will use digital assistants to search for and book travel. In fact, just this week, Google announced that it had added hotel booking and flight check-in for U.S. users of Google Assistant. According to Phocuswright, as many as 35% of those age 18 - 34 and 28% of 35 - 54-year-olds are already using smartphone digital assistants to book their hotels.What guests are already doing with their smartphones and in-home devices, they also want to do in their hotel rooms. As early as 2016, Aloft hotels started integrating Siri voice-activation into their rooms. By May 2018, Microsoft's voice assistant Cortana had a working integration with Alexa-enabled devices, and in June 2018, Amazon launched Alexa for Hospitality with Marriott onboard -- guests can use their in-room Alexa to personalize their experiences and request hotel services. Hyatt and Google also just teamed up to bring Assistant to more hotel rooms. And at this month's massive CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, voice tech was everywhere: from trash disposals and other household appliances to cars, televisions, and shower systems to name a few. Voice is where it's at: when a trend proliferates at CES, we all better pay attention.Innovative Technologies Will Continue to Disrupt HospitalityWhen I think of hospitality disruption, my Top Three are artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), the Internet of Things, and voice. I just covered voice, so let's discuss the other two. I recently wrote a piece, "A Guest-Centric Future Powered by AI," in which I described how AI works and how it can be used to automate and simplify many of the rote volume tasks that hotels have to contend with every day. These days, guests value their experience above all else. AI can also be used to improve guest experiences by anticipating and delivering useful content, extracting useful guest feedback, and drastically expediting service.Because the programs informed by AI are capable of improving over time, they can continue to improve the speed, quality, and relevancy of guest communications. This learning power makes AI an incredible tool for accelerating predictive analysis and decision-making. Think of all the various decisions hotel management contends with on a routine basis. Decisions about pricing and revenue optimization, inventory management, marketing, staffing, guest services and more. Then imagine having the hard, predictive work already done. Management can make decisions faster, or, in some cases, have decisions fully automated and already put into action. AI even learns from and avoids the repeating of bad decisions, something that's sometimes hard to teach to its human counterparts.When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) and its application in hospitality, I've already referenced the emerging appearance of intelligent assistants in hotels. Connected devices guests already use at home and in their own lives -- smart thermostats and room lighting, smartwatches and fitness monitors, mobile-activated keyless entry, wireless headsets, smart TVs, even medical and safety alert devices - are also beginning to be offered at hotels. Hotels are also concepting useful IoT that guests might want but which they do not find at home -- things that will further surprise and delight them: A wall-length smart mirror in front of which they can do their morning core-toning regime and on which their vital signs appear. A projected keyboard that turns the in-room smart TV into a fully-functioning work station without the guest having to lug a laptop on vacation. A smart wine dispenser that pours a perfect glass of wine that's ready by the time the guest merely opens the door. This is the kind of enhanced hotel stay future we can expect with IoT.Advancing personalization while managing consumer trust and GDPR Personalization has been an elusive holy grail for the travel industry. What guest wouldn't want an experience that wasn't completely and perfectly customized for them, right? The problem is that this kind of perfect personalization is still nearly impossible to pull off. There are too many disparate data sources, too many duplicative guest records, and guests are not yet ready to willingly part with all of their data in order to get the kind of personalization that we all imagine they want. Layer on top of this the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and very public data breaches like the one Marriott revealed late last year and delivering this kind of optimized personalization becomes even more of a challenge. The industry has to contend with both technical and consumer trust issues. Look for this to be a hot topic for both marketing and hotel operations.As we look at the year ahead, it's clear to see that the mounting pressure to provide extraordinary guest experiences will continue to force hospitality marketing and operations closer and closer together. As hoteliers continue to adopt and adapt to new technologies, they'll be challenged to do so at an ever-faster pace. It makes for an interesting landscape, with a select few players having actually elevated the guest experience for tens of millions of guests. The interesting question to ponder at HSMAI may be, who will deliver a fully-connected and seamless guest experience to one billion guests first?

Websites and apps were once supplementary to the experience. They gave a guest more information than she would get over the phone and via brochure (remember those?), but the digital pieces of the pathway weren't considered a part of the guest experience. The tech experience was a precursor, a conduit, to the actual hotel experience. As such, it didn't have to "wow" the guest; it just had to be attractive enough and, hopefully, representative of reality in as much as it could be. Technology was mostly at the service of marketing, and it quickly evolved into a way to drive direct bookings in the fierce competition with OTAs. This is still true. But what is different is that the guest expects the tech experience to be a part of the overall experience. The digital presentation can't be separated from the property; it is, instead, an extension of the guest experience. The website and app and social media form the pre-trip. The technology during the stay--mobile access, texting, social media, again--make the stay more convenient and fluid. And, we all know, everything goes up on Instagram and Facebook afterward. Post-stay surveys can be served via app or email or text. And guests follow up on the trip via all manner of feedback platforms, telling the world what they did or did not like, perhaps airing the latter most loudly.What hotels need to know in order to appeal to the modern guest is this: the digital experience is the experience. Ironically, the more it stays in the background, the better the guest experience is. What travelers are looking for is "experiences." Every single survey about what guests want will tell you this. They want to dig in, get local, and create singular memories that are hard to replicate. Nothing cookie cutter. When the technology doesn't deliver at any stage, it interrupts the depth of the guest experience.An honest representation of your property is critical--and this applies to not just imagery and content, but also to how you convey your property through technology. The digital piece should be in line with what you can offer once they've arrived. Further, if the technology doesn't deliver, this is a signal to the guest. A problem with booking, either via website or app and as simple as a slow loading speed, and you might as well give them the phone number to your competitor down the street because they aren't going to stay. We live in a world where no one has time to waste on inconveniences in the process, and a hotel's booking engine capabilities, the ability to book with ease on a user-friendly system that gives guests' choices that they feel confident will be delivered upon, is now a deciding factor. The proof? The travel industry has one of the highest cart abandonment rates of any industry at 81.8% (Statista). Problems with mobile check-in and checkout interfere with those golden memories, and standing in line to do one or the other is a death knell. Google will deliver groceries in two hours and services like Instacart will shop at virtually any big store and bring it to your door--and every step of the consumer path is completed online. However, we continue to ask guests to look at a menu in a book and walk across the room to use a landline to place an order from a restaurant that's a few floors down. The point is that guests should be able given the tools to do everything at their fingertips so that the nuts and bolts of decisions and processes fade away into the background and the trip itself, the memories the guest came to create, rise to the surface.There is a thin veil between the experienced world and the digital world; they seep into one another so that the two sometimes cannot be separated readily. Unless your hotel is in the country that intentionally does not have Internet access or televisions in the rooms, it is not your role to have an opinion on this modern condition but, instead, to lean into it, budget as much as possible for it, and deliver on the parts that you can control, which is quite a bit.The words seamless guest experience have been jammed together so much they hardly have meaning anymore. So let's just say that we're looking for harmony. Flawlessness. A lack of interruption. To deliver on this, hotels must think in terms of this thin veil, specifically the mobile device in the hands of the guest, that conduit between the digital and the tactile world. Instead of trying to "wow" the guest with bells and whistles, consider what capabilities will create the kind of fluidity that allows the "must-dos" to slip into the background of the guest's experience and the "want-tos" to move to the foreground.Two-way chat, for instance. Guests really should never have to pick up the hotel phone again when they already have a device in their hands most of the time. All manner of guest's requests can and should work through an app, whether on an in-room device or the guest's own. This includes mobile concierge, housekeeping, in-room dining, and front desk. Multiple languages should be no sweat. Some of these things may seem like givens. However, a 2017 survey of hotel apps showed that only 34% of the apps had been updated in 2016 and 20% hadn't been updated since 2015 (Skift). A strategist at L2 Inc., which conducted the survey, called the latter of these "left for dead." Leaving any part of the digital path behind, at this point, has dire consequences. The hotel that does will go the way of the outdated app--left for dead.An ideal tech experience allows guests to focus only on the travel experiences they are hoping to take home, the moments they want to treasure unburdened from inconveniences and problems in the hotel stay. Much of a hotel's ability to deliver on the modern guest experiences lies in technology that puts the humdrum in their hands and executes in a way that they hardly have to think about the process of getting whatever it is they want.It's surprising where our capabilities are as we start in 2019. It's been almost a quarter of a century since the first hotel websites, and now a guest can walk into a hotel and check-in to a room without ever speaking with a human. Other times, I believe we could be further along in adoption. But it's all part of the messy process of creating something new. Part of this thing we're building is a new way of living--one that allows us to do so much in such a short period. Hotels are tasked with helping guests live their best moments, giving them the backdrop for trips they can talk about for years to come. As such, hotels must also extend their experience flawlessly to the digital world, because this is how we live.

If sales haven't been as strong as you'd hoped in 2018, there are probably as many reasons for that as there are ads on the Internet...But over the past 6 years, as a copywriter and marketing strategist for hospitality tech companies, I've found that a lack in sales generally comes down to one key problem: sending the right message, but at the wrong time.The big problem with this is - if you don't address that issue first, you're going to keep struggling.Because even if you have the best thing since sliced bread, if you're not getting any traction - then you don't have a chance of bringing in well-qualified leads for your sales process. And that means you're starved for sales.So, let me help you get that right.First, by demonstrating where things are most likely going wrong in your current 'market-to-message match'...And second, by helping you dial that in, with some key questions to ask hoteliers at each stage, so you can create more win-win partnerships moving forward.And I think it would help if we had a simple example to keep referring back to, so let me BORE you with a story about my little backyard paradise, to show you why you SHOULDN'T be talking about how great your technology is all the time: My backyard paradise is a little deck I built, deep inside the Tecolote Canyon. Looking south, I'm surrounded by nearly a mile of green scenery, and I have almost complete privacy. In fact, I'm the only one down here, except all birds that call this valley home; doves, sparrows... humming birds... There's even a family of hawks. And, even though I live smack dab in the middle of San Diego, for all intents and purposes... ... this little hideaway makes me feel like I'm right in the middle of the country. I'm sure you can see why this is one of my favorite places in the world.At this point, you're probably asking: Hey, Jeremiah. Why should I care about any of this?You shouldn't! And that's the point.I'm leading with what's important to me... but unless you were in the market for a new house in San Diego, this messaging is all wrong.Do you see how the timing's off?Unfortunately, this is the fundamental mistake that most companies are making every dayAnd this is why most hospitality tech salespeople aren't getting much traction.They're going on and on about how great their solutions is... thinking they're addressing a prospective client's needs...... but they're not. Because they're not meeting hoteliers where they're at, and that's why they're missing their sales targets.People aren't getting a real sense of 'What's in it for me'...... or how their lives and their businesses might be better with your solution in place...... and that's why it's hard for them to see WHY they should invest a bunch of time and effort, just to try it out.Let's dive in a little deeper for clarification on the right way to set things up.How to 'sync up' with your market'Syncing up' with your market is all about creating the right context for a productive conversation.Say I were selling my house (which I am not!)...... how do you think I should go about catching potential home-buyers' attention and developing those leads into red-hot leads?Most hotel tech companies do this sort of work by making cold calls, putting out PPC ads, buying leads, or good ol' fashioned networking... and I'm not saying any of these things are wrong...These are all proven ways of putting names on a list.Where they're falling down is in the next step; when it comes to using the right messaging, to turn those contacts into opt-in subscribers.This is why, even large, established brands are having an extremely difficult time producing high-quality leads with any consistency, these days.Let's not fall into that trapBefore spending any time... money or effort in generating a list of contacts, the first thing we need to do is sit down and map out the 3 stages that every buyer needs to go through before we can call them an actual, qualified lead.This starts by reminding ourselves that: it doesn't matter who you are, and what you're selling (it could be room nights, management services or technology), your prospects are always at some point along a spectrum of awareness; between being relatively unaware of solutions, focusing in on a few solutions, or desperately in need of any solution.And, because of that, we should never talk to these 3 different groups in the same way, right?That would be out of sync.Each one of these groups needs to know different things to make different decisions, at each stage - before they're ever going to feel comfortable moving ahead.So the real question we need to ask is: how can we make sure we're never 'out of sync' with our messaging, ever again?Sometimes you should NEVER ask for commitmentLet's answer this fundamental question by first putting ourselves in our prospect's shoes.If you're targeting someone who is relatively unaware of your solution (which is the most common situation, when it comes to selling technologies) you'll rarely ever win if you go directly for the sale.Why's that?Going back to my house example, let's say you just happen to be in the market...You'd never start your search by randomly booking flights and randomly visiting open houses all across the US, would you?The first thing you'd do would be to start figuring out which state you wanted to live in. Then you'd start narrowing it down my region, city, and then eventually pick a neighborhood and focus in from there, right?In other words, you'd go from big decisions to small decisions. It's only natural.So it would be ridiculous for me to invest in cold calling, sending you direct mail or pestering you with any other social media stalking tactic, at this stage, right?And even if I convinced you to visit my open house, what are the chances that you'd ever sign on the dotted line? One in a thousand?So it would be a complete waste of my efforts, to go for the sale at this point - because the timing's all wrong!Even if I had the best house and the best price, the sheer volume of options out there would almost always scuttle the sale.And it's the same story in selling hospitality technology.You can have the most amazing technology with stunning case studies and tremendous support, but all the other options out there are going to make it nearly impossible for people to reach a final decision.That's why your goal at this point SHOULDN'T be to sell, it should be to influence buying criteria.Creating a tactical advantageSome of my favorite media options to create that tactical advantage include; side by side comparisons, flow charts and quizzes.I like these options because each one of these media types are quick and easy to use.And as potential buyers walk through these high-level, SWAT type analysis of their options, they come away with a much better understanding of their needs - so they appreciate your efforts.And that, in turn, gives them confidence, which is key to working with you, down the road.Going back to house example, again, this where I'd like people to realize, yes, San Diego is expensive, but the weather lets you enjoy nearly every day of the year outside, so you don't really need such a big house.Because if I could just help people realize that...... and I could get them thinking, "Hey, if I don't need a big house, then I don't have to spend so much. So maybe San Diego isn't as expensive as I thought...,"... then voila! I'd have an actual chance closing a deal.So what kinds of questions could I use in my media to help buyers reach this all-important conclusion?Maybe something like this: Hey, if you can only enjoy the outdoors for one or two seasons a year, doesn't that mean you spend a lot more time doing things you DON'T like doing, like shoveling the driveway... and warming up the car every morning...etc.? Doesn't all that time, stuck indoors kind of drive you crazy, making it harder to get enough exercise, or see friends and family? And if you didn't have to spend so much time inside, wouldn't that also mean you wouldn't need such a big house? In fact, if your house WAS smaller, that be better... because you wouldn't have to clean as much... and that means you could spend even MORE time outdoors, doing more of what you love, right?These are just a few examples, but I think you get the picture.The right questions at the right time can help set critical buying criteria for your prospects and that can give YOU a big leg up over all the other options out there.The second stage of awarenessAfter transitioning away from the first stage of awareness, which is called divergent thinking, BTW... our prospects are now actively converging on a much smaller group of possibilities. That's why this stage is aptly titled: convergent thinking.Prospects at this stage are much more qualified for your sales process... so your demos have a higher chance of success...But that DOES NOT mean you can rush into things with any kind of blatant, feature and functionality dump.In fact, I've very, very rarely seen a sale made at this stage by talking about how great any one solution might be, which far too many inexperienced sales people are prone to do...Because, unless you're talking with someone who has already gone through YOUR marketing...... and, because of YOUR marketing, they've gone from the divergent to the convergent mindset - then you might NOT be working with buying criteria that's favorable to your offer. i.e. they might already have 2 or 3 other 'suitors' in mind.So if you spend all your time talking about how amazing your solution is, in that context, you're probably going to get a fairly tepid response. Again, it's not you. It's not them. It's because you're not meeting them where they're at.So how should you engage prospects at this point?At this stage, meeting your audience where they're at means engaging in an open and honest problem-solving conversation. You need to provide genuine consulting here.You can do that by using special reports, articles and webinars with titles that give your prospects:Ideas to overcome known problemsExamples of cost saving strategiesOr checklists that help quantify and break problems down into manageable action stepsAs before, you're going to want to embed questions throughout your media that will help move your prospects forward in their decision-making process.For example, if I were trying to sell my home, I'd include questions such as: Would you like it if you could be 20 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes from the beach, but feel like you were living in the country? Would it make your life easier if you never had to worry about parking, so it was always easy for friends to come over, and, because of a weird quirk of urban development, there was never any traffic in your neighborhood, either? And don't you think it would help you buy with confidence if you knew that houses in this area have appreciated at least $10k every year, over the last 20 years, and now that they're putting a train station at the foot of the hill, land values were projected to go up by another 10%?Yes, these are leading questions, so they're a little more-heavy handed.But that's welcome at this stage, because each one of these questions helps paint a picture of what life will be like after making a buying decision, and that helps people understand how your solution fits in with their needs.Because success is all about the win-winRemember, I'm using these examples, here, because this is where I see most hospitality technology companies striking out these days. And that's an absolute cryin' shame!Because most technology platforms deliver an enormous ROI these days...5X, 10X, even 50X are not unheard of.So fewer sales isn't just hurting your bottom line...... it also means hotels aren't earning as much as they could.And that means, when you look at economic forecasts for 2019...... with THE chief Japan rates strategist at Nomura predicting that we're in for more volatility...... "signs of a slowdown strengthen through the first half of 2019..."... and even going so far to say that we're now on "an irreversible path to an economic downturn"... as you can see in the chart, below...There's ample cause for concern.Especially since, downturns have always hit the travel industry first, just like we saw with sliding ADR and occupancy rates in 2008.So the bottom line is: if you aren't doing everything you can to meet hoteliers where they are on the strategic decision-making spectrum - right now - and helping them smoothly transition towards a place where they CAN make an informed decision, then you're putting yourself, and the industry at large, in a much weaker position.Fortunately, there's a silver lining...The good news is that human nature is nothing, if not resilient.And so it's only natural that, as the industry start to shimmy and shake... either because of volatility... or falling consumer confidence... more and more hoteliers are going to start taking bigger and bolder moves to modernize their operations.Most people remember what happened in 2008, after all.That's why I predict that hoteliers are going to be the #1 driving factor in your sales process over the next 12 months.In other words, 'the writing on the wall' will help more and more people to step out of the comfort zone and get them into the cognition stage; where a marked departure from the standard operating behaviors is finally possible... as long as you can show 'em the ROI, of course.They're going to have to.Because 'the writing's been on the wall' for some time now.In fact, way back in January 2017, Michael Dominguez, Chief Marketing Officer for MGM, raised the 'clarion call of warning', at HEDNA's digital distribution conference in San Diego, declaring, point blank, "40% of the people in this room will be irrelevant in 5 years... because you can't change."There was absolutely no way to misunderstand what Mr. Dominguez was saying here.Shape up or ship out!And while this message might signal good news for your company, because that's going to help facilitate change, and make it much easier for you to sell your solutions...If this is the only thing holding up your revenues, then you need to realize that Michael Dominguez was speaking to you, too.Because if you're only going after the 1 or 2% of the market that are in a true, do-or-die cognition state of mind, then you're always going head-to-head against every one of your competitors. That means it's incredibly easy to burn through your marketing resources trying to compete for attention. And,Where happens when times change... and prospects stop doing all the heavy lifting, for you, just like we saw in 2009-12, when quick and easy distribution solutions became the preferred methods of driving revenue. We need to remember that whenever there's a crisis, selling solutions that require any time or capital investment becomes exponentially more and more difficult...So, let me be frankYou have something incredibly valuable to offer, and you know it can generate a substantial ROI for a wide range of hotels out there...... but if your demos are always getting 'wrapped around the axel' of how you go about generating that ROI, then you're probably losing a majority of those demos. And those numbers can quickly deteriorate if Nomura's credit crunch forecast comes to bear.So why not stop going after the minority...... and turn your eyes to that 95-97% the market that still hasn't heard the warning bells...... so you can start helping them go from distracted and divergent to confident and convergent...... and develop some much needed familiarity and trust along the way?Because if you do that well... and if you're the only one that's in-sync with your target audience, just think about how much better... and how much stronger is your businesses chances are going to be in this, uncertain economy.People buy from people they know, like and trust, as the old axiom goes.The key to accomplishing that is to put your marketing system together in a way that's in the greatest alignment with where your prospects are, mentally.That's how you start relationships off, the right way.That's how you prove you deserve their business - because you've already DEMONSTRATED that you speak their language.And THAT'S how you convince people you'll continue to caring for and nurturing those relationships, long after a hotelier signs on the dotted line.And isn't this is one of the most important, and powerful marketing messages there is?So let me give you a little vignette...... to help you remember that success in selling is all about being in-step with your prospects.Imagine you only had 2 choices between equal 'suitors', and you just one dance to decide who you were going to marry...Would you rather go with the one who who's light on their feet, and knows how to dance with you cheek-to-cheek?Or the one who keeps stepping on your toes and talking about him or herself all the time?It's pretty obvious, isn't it?But we forget about these simple truths sometimes when there are so many whiz-bang features involved...So just remember, it's just the same in love and relationships... as it is in business.You have to meet your prospects where they are and build from there.Do that the right way, and you won't have to 'sell' your solutions anymore.The relationship will naturally make the sale, for you.About the author:Over the past 6 years, Jeremiah has worked as a direct response copywriter for a wide range of hospitality technology companies, helping them elevate their marketing game, from the typical transactional, race-to-the-bottom approach, to value-based selling that results in high-margin repeat sales.