by Osvaldo Torres Cruz,
December 2010

The emotional - emotions: combination of words located in the Top Words of the world current business. The Hotel Industry is not running behind, and we are now focusing in a new way to understand our business, which needs to reevaluate their mission, because to the world of the hotel product and services a new element must be added: the emotional factor i.e. the opening towards a new world of emotions aiming at the generation of unique experiences.

New strategies oriented to the emotional factor, must be designed, because it has been demonstrated that nowadays the tourist travels searching for personal experiences that become fully gratifying and add value to his most priced investment: his leisure time. Let us analyze how the effects of this new element are already influencing the reorientation of the definition of some key concepts in the Hotel Industry.
 
1- THE GUEST:
The human behavior is the result of the joint action of twin horses: reason and emotion. ( Plato).
The guest is slowly beginning to be assessed not only as a rational being but also as an emotional one, arriving at the Hotel with emotional wants and needs. The guest’ choice involves his expectations for having chosen the place that is going to meet those needs that he is bringing along. His lifestyle that marks his emotional patterns is today the most important luggage carried by the guest on arrival, so that ¨unpacking ¨ is one of the greatest challenges for hoteliers.
 
2- HUMAN RESOURCES:
The hoteliers face the great huge challenge of finding out the emotional world of guests. That's why nowadays, the staff is required to have a broader degree of emotional intelligence development, which is reflected in a high level of emotional expertise as to the service they offer. This will result in establishing the bonds and relations necessary to enter, understand and master the guest’s emotions and feelings.
 
3- SERVICES:
In this new vision services are used as a trigger for emotions and feelings of the guests thus adding a new value and meaning: the emotional. Aspects such as the detail and the timing in the service are personalized to achieve linking them to the guest own stimuli comprising his emotional world, thus achieving genuine emotions. The attributes of each service must be matched with the tastes of each guest in particular, so that the service is lived as a unique experience unrepeatable outside the context and circumstances in which it was generated.  
 
4- QUALITY:
The technical and functional quality of the services welcomes a new parameter of measure: the emotional quality, so the guest is emotionally contained and understood by the service offered. The emotional factor is a plus in the quality of services, it is a step higher accomplished when there is a consciousness of what a guest is seeking in a service and therefore his expectations are satisfied.  
 
5- LOYALTY:
This level is aimed not only to ensure that the guest returns because we offer the best rates, it now means mastering the guest memory and activating his recollections that make loyalty the power of choice and recommendations of the Hotel. Therefore the emotional loyalty is directed to leave imprints in the minds of the guests to act as the activator of everlasting memories. In other words it means to be able to place the hotel in the Top of Mind.
 
6- ECONOMY:
At this level we are talking about an emotional economy, which is associated with the management and control of the guest emotions, as these will determine how he makes his decisions such as election, return or recommendation. The design of new strategies oriented to the emotional factor as a generator of new differential values, is a must.
 
Summing up, THE EMOTIONAL is a concept that should not be overlooked if we want to achieve the differentiation and positioning of the Hotel, so that, we need to start working on the inclusion of this new element in the rules and strategies of the Hotel as a company, getting ourselves ready as it is evidently a new battle front in the Hotel Market.