15 min
The Changing Traveler Experience: 2019 vs 2020 Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast
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- Marketing
In this episode of Suite Spot, Ryan Embree reflects on some of the post-pandemic effects of our everyday lives when it comes to travel. Ryan recounts the significant changes to the traveler experience of a hotel stay in summer 2019 versus summer 2020. He talks about how hoteliers have adapted their websites, social media, and online reputation to meet the needs and expectations of travelers in the midst of a global pandemic.
Learn about various guest touchpoints like check-in and check out and how they have been impacted by COVID-19. This episode provides perspective on all that has changed in the past several months while appreciating those things that within the hotel experience have stayed the same.
If you have any questions or need assistance during this time please feel free to reach out to us by either calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at info@travelmediagroup.com.
Suite Spot Podcast · 54 - The Changing Traveler Experience: 2019 vs 2020
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you all for listening today. You've heard us talk about over the past couple of podcast episodes about the new normal. You've probably read articles about it, you've heard industry experts talk about, what can travelers expect in this new normal? What is our world going to look like in this new normal, after the pandemic? And as we start to see recovery that new normal is going to drop that "new" part and it's just going to become normal for us. And I think one of the best ways to reflect on this "new normal" is to really take a look at where we've come from. It's been a very, very long, but also short four months into this pandemic. So what we're going to do on today's episode - and this might sting for a couple hoteliers out there - but I think it's important to do, is really walk through the entire traveler's journey and experience and compare summer 2020 to summer 2019, so just one year ago.
Ryan Embree:
I challenge you to kind of listen for all of the changes, because day to day, as we're kind of living and going through the operations, we might not see as many changes as we notice when we reflect back on just one year ago. So let's go ahead and get started. And we're going to start where a lot of travelers start, in that traveler's journey, the way that travelers and guests are looking to book and make a purchase decision, when it comes about a hotel stay. Now in summer 2019, as hoteliers we were excited, the summer, you've got the kids out of school, this means family vacations, this is our busiest time of year. We're expecting all ages to be traveling, so maybe some older generations, as well as younger and families. Events that were going on, that we paid very, very close attention to summer events, whether that be concerts, sporting events, conventions, our travel was coming from all over the world, really nationwide travel and people were flying and we had our typical walk-ins people that would go ahead and just walk through our door, kind of check what our rates were for the night without maybe doing that much research, but we were still getting those travelers.
Ryan Embree:
We fast forward to 2020. You know, all of a sudden our travelers are going to be skewed a little bit younger. We've talked about this as we start to recover those younger travelers are going to be the first ones to feel more comfortable and safe starting to get into the travel ...
In this episode of Suite Spot, Ryan Embree reflects on some of the post-pandemic effects of our everyday lives when it comes to travel. Ryan recounts the significant changes to the traveler experience of a hotel stay in summer 2019 versus summer 2020. He talks about how hoteliers have adapted their websites, social media, and online reputation to meet the needs and expectations of travelers in the midst of a global pandemic.
Learn about various guest touchpoints like check-in and check out and how they have been impacted by COVID-19. This episode provides perspective on all that has changed in the past several months while appreciating those things that within the hotel experience have stayed the same.
If you have any questions or need assistance during this time please feel free to reach out to us by either calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at info@travelmediagroup.com.
Suite Spot Podcast · 54 - The Changing Traveler Experience: 2019 vs 2020
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you all for listening today. You've heard us talk about over the past couple of podcast episodes about the new normal. You've probably read articles about it, you've heard industry experts talk about, what can travelers expect in this new normal? What is our world going to look like in this new normal, after the pandemic? And as we start to see recovery that new normal is going to drop that "new" part and it's just going to become normal for us. And I think one of the best ways to reflect on this "new normal" is to really take a look at where we've come from. It's been a very, very long, but also short four months into this pandemic. So what we're going to do on today's episode - and this might sting for a couple hoteliers out there - but I think it's important to do, is really walk through the entire traveler's journey and experience and compare summer 2020 to summer 2019, so just one year ago.
Ryan Embree:
I challenge you to kind of listen for all of the changes, because day to day, as we're kind of living and going through the operations, we might not see as many changes as we notice when we reflect back on just one year ago. So let's go ahead and get started. And we're going to start where a lot of travelers start, in that traveler's journey, the way that travelers and guests are looking to book and make a purchase decision, when it comes about a hotel stay. Now in summer 2019, as hoteliers we were excited, the summer, you've got the kids out of school, this means family vacations, this is our busiest time of year. We're expecting all ages to be traveling, so maybe some older generations, as well as younger and families. Events that were going on, that we paid very, very close attention to summer events, whether that be concerts, sporting events, conventions, our travel was coming from all over the world, really nationwide travel and people were flying and we had our typical walk-ins people that would go ahead and just walk through our door, kind of check what our rates were for the night without maybe doing that much research, but we were still getting those travelers.
Ryan Embree:
We fast forward to 2020. You know, all of a sudden our travelers are going to be skewed a little bit younger. We've talked about this as we start to recover those younger travelers are going to be the first ones to feel more comfortable and safe starting to get into the travel ...
15 min