by Osvaldo Torres Cruz,
July 2011

In the  Experiential Hospitality  a new concept is developing regarding the guest, who is no longer seen as a person arriving at the hotel with only his luggage but is also considered as the carrier of subjective elements, so defining to the design of experiences as his lifestyle is, and comprising, in a very special way, also his habits.

On account of this, the  experience maker will find very useful to detect the habits of the guest he is assisting, thus reaping the following advantages:

1. To predict the behavior and conduct of the guest while staying at the Hotel. As one marketing axiom states: ¨ the best way to meet the customer needs is to know his behavior ¨.

Habits are considered as structured parts of the individual behavior, rooted in everyday life, so the guest will try to follow them during his stay. This will facilitate the experience maker  to learn which will be the guest behavior and to establish predictable patterns to design effective strategies based above all  on the surprise  and timing of the service effect.

Example: We detect that a guest comes down for breakfast with the newspaper, to read it at the table. From then on, instead of leaving the newspaper at the door of his room, it shall be offered at the table as soon as he arrives.

2. To diagnose which services will be tied to the actions determined by those habits.

Since habits are conducts that are systematically repeated over time, in some way they can govern our conducts and automatize our actions. The possibility to comply with the requirements determined by the guest habits is definitely a feature which will weigh in his future choice of the Hotel, since he will feel that his needs will be fulfilled.

By detecting his habits and the related requirements, we will be able to pre-establish the services tied to them and facilitate the required conditioned actions, thus adequating most effectively the attributes of those services to the guest satisfaction.

Example: while unpacking the guest luggage, the butler detects that the guest brought all the elements needed for a swim. When interacting with him, the guest comments on his habit to go for a swim after work, because he finds it useful to relax the stress of the day.
When arriving at his room every afternoon, the guest finds that his swimming trunks, towels, bathrobe and slippers are already prepared, plus a nutritious and delicious orange juice or some other power drink.

3 .To strengthen the bonds with the guest by complementary behaviors and emotions between the guest and the experience maker  through the strategy “your habit, my habit “.

One of the goals of the Experiential Hospitality is  to foster a system of relations and bonds between the guest and the Hotel where the emotional is involved, and one way to achieve this is to get to know the habits of the guests, because we could use this knowledge to encourage complementary emotions and conducts between the guest and the experience maker.

By sharing the same habits and behaviors a solid empathic connection is established that leads to an emotional feedback between the guest and the experience maker. The guest will thus get his requirements fulfilled, because he will feel better understood and the manager of experiences will be more committed to meet the guest needs, because when sharing the same habit he will learn how important his role is for the guest to reach the emotional state he achieves when following his habit.

The old saying “the habit does not make the monk”   may be right; however, I dare say that in the Experiential Hospitality  knowing the habits of the guest during his stay at the Hotel and facilitating the execution of the associated activities will result in generating a new habit for the guest: to return to the Hotel when needing to feel at home away from home.