by Osvaldo Torres Cruz
February 2013

Success for a company depends not only on the amount of assiduous customers, but also the ability to add new users, achieving increased sales and consequently expanding hence getting a better position in the market segment where the products and / or services are offered.

According to Kotler, Camara, Grande y Cruz authors of the book "Marketing Management" (Millennium Edition), companies have to spend considerable time and resources to gain new customers.

The market globalization causes that consumers are in constant search for something different within the ever-growing pool of generic services and products. This implies that one of the most important and significant challenge for enterprises is finding new strategies to attract the attention of prospective customers.

Fortunately, the Hotel companies have a tool of great value to attract new customers, the Experiential Hospitality, using products and associated services as emotional stimuli generators to design experiences such as:

• The situation lived by Mrs. Martinez who arrived to the Hotel on a business trip and upon entering the room is pleasantly impressed to notice that they have placed a lovely bouquet of flowers, the type and color of her choice, as well as a photo of her and her husband, who could not join her in this occasion.
• Or the case of the Robinsons, a young couple arriving to the Hotel on their honeymoon trip, surprised by the romantic dinner placed by the sea, specially prepared for them on their first night.
• Another good example is the case of Miss Palazzo, who, on account of her birthday was gratified with a soothing hydrotherapy treatment at the Spa Hotel, prepared with aromas, salts and quiet melodies, all of her choice.

We will agree that experiences like the previous ones are generators of positive emotions and feelings, causing in the guests the instant desire to share them with other people, thus capturing the attention of potential customers.

The guests receive an emotional weight that stimulates the behavior described above. Feelings of greater emotional load reinforce the need to share the event with other people i.e. potential guests. It also increases the emotional influence that the story triggers on them. This will be essential for the prospective guests feel a strong desire to talk about the episode to someone else and so on ... the experience will eventually acquire a new character, the viral.

Like all viruses, the experiential  needs a transmitter agent that allows it to spread. Without a doubt, this is Internet, since the viral click (a click generated by the need to share something lived which was transmitted to us) allows a replication of the event faster and more effective.

One of the most significant effects of the viral click on a receiver is that it raises his interest in knowing the context in which the conveyed experience was lived.

The Hotel should pay special attention to guarantee  all  Web access facilities  in every corner of the property and at all times, since it has been demonstrated that the Experiential Hospitality turns your Hotel into a great sensitive stage where the guests constantly have their emotions to skin flower. Furthermore, the transmission of the experience exerts a greater emotional impact on the guest at the very moment when the incident happens.

So that let the virus spreads throughout your Hotel and reaches to the guests. They will activate the click bringing a cascade of exponential growth. One of the most significant symptoms of infection is that the viral click generates on the receiver an instant desire of knowing all about circumstances in which the episode occurred.

This will undoubtedly develop greater attraction of new customers, differentiating and placing your Hotel even better in the current hyper-competitive Hospitality Market.