Hotels Make Emotion The New Brand Standard

25.08.2023 - 14:21 / skift.com / Sean Oneill

Appealing to people’s emotions is becoming a more effective way for hotel groups to woo travelers because guest needs are evolving in ways that undercut the traditional branding recipe. Many hotel executives are fine-tuning what their brands stand for and how they communicate that message to guests as they try to grab market share.

For years, chains have upheld brand standards, namely, the rules that property owners agree to live by when they enter franchise or management agreements with hotel groups. Brand standards have specified everything from which signs should be out front, what types of thread count are okay for the bedsheets, and often the price ranges that the hotels should charge. The purpose of brand standards has been to create consistency, regardless of who may own properties. The contrast with the relative unpredictability of independent hotels has helped brands grow.

Yet today, fewer guests rely on traditional brand messaging as the decisive reason to choose a hotel. In the past, travelers had less access to information, so the sign out front of a property carried more weight by conveying a promise of consistent quality. But now, every smartphone can bring up a mix of reviews and social recommendations specific to an individual property. Perhaps there’s a swimming pool, as is required by the brand standards, but it’s out of service at a particular location. Or maybe reviews fault the local staff for lack of hospitality. The spread of digital information has undermined the selling power of national brand pledges to deliver things like consistent quality pillows, carpeting, and fresh waffles for breakfast.

​​“Engaging with emotion is the next frontier in hospitality branding, especially at the upper end of the business,” said Chekitan Dev, the Singapore Tourism Distinguished Professor at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration and author of Hospitality Branding.

Emotional appeals by hospitality brands are also becoming more important to hotel branding, partly in response to societal change. Many people have become lonelier in their day-to-day lives. In the U.S., the amount of time the average American spends with friends has dropped since 2013, when it was six-and-a half hours a week, to only four hours a week in 2019, and then further down to only two hours and 45 minutes a week in the pandemic year of 2021, according to the Census Bureau. The percentage of U.S. households with a single resident has risen to 29 percent, up from only 13 percent in 1960, the Census Bureau said.

While the U.S. is only one country, data elsewhere points to a trend in many countries of digital infotainment and other social dynamics driving increased isolation among individuals. This trend