The 10 Biggest Ways Hotels as We Know Them Are Changing

Technology, habits and generations have all changed the way hotels deliver and even build there rooms. Here are ten ways how.

Author:: Eric Reed
Publish date:: Jul 5, 2017 9:30 PM EDT

The last decade has turned the hospitality industry inside out, and not just because of technology (although that's certainly played a part). Who travels, how we travel, even what we bring on the go -- it's all changing pretty fast.

Hotels are working hard to keep up. Here are ten ways that's happening.

People love Millennial portmanteaus like nerdjacking and the youniverse or heck. To that add " bleisure" travel, the practice of taking a business trip and adding a few days of vacation on the end. The mixed work and play trip has impacted the travel community as a whole, and hotels no less than any other segment. As travelers, chiefly younger, want to spend some time sightseeing after their meetings they want to stay in places that can accommodate that.The former era of business travel was dominated by airport adjacent properties that made life convenient for the road warrior. Having a room five minutes from the gate allowed travelers to avoid unnecessary time spent getting to and from an airport that they'd return to as soon as possible. Now the focus has shifted downtown, because that trip into the city is a feature, not a bug.

Focused service has allowed hotels to expand enormously, often into markets that had few (if any) options before. "They are cheaper hotels to build and operate," he said. "When you think about the cost of putting up an 800 room full service hotel somewhere… you're probably looking at north of $50 million to open the doors. A 500 room Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express, that's a lot cheaper to open and operate.""It has allowed hotels to go into smaller markets where a large, full service hotel might not be able to survive," he added. "[For example], there's no full kitchen, so you've eliminated all of the overhead and costs of operating a kitchen. So it's a cheaper operating model, and then they pass that savings along to the traveler in the form of a lower rate."Today it seems like you can find a nonsmoking, queen-sized bed and beige-toned artwork just about anywhere. That's in large part due to the focused service model.

"What we're seeing from younger travelers is, it's a little bit of demand for sharing economy, alternative accommodations," Brennan said. "That's probably the biggest impact they've hard on our business, is pushing companies to allow for alternative hospitality options when they go around their trips." "And we're definitely seeing a trend around leisure," he said. "Anyone around 25 or 30 is far more likely to tack on a day at the end when they go on a business trip just because the company has eaten the cost of putting them on an airplane."It has been reported time and again that Millennials have changed travel, and that's true up to a point.As a generation, Millennials want different features from their hotels. As discussed earlier in this piece, they like to sightsee while on business trips and want a hotel that can accommodate that. A more tech savvy generation, they are inspiring hotels to start pushing more smartphone-enabled amenities like keyless entry and text message check-ins.But as Brennan noted, it's also important not to overstate this difference. Millennials do some things differently from past generations but most things the same. Hotels are working to keep up.

10. Less surge pricing

Uber introduced us all to the term "surge pricing," and it may well be the most hated feature of the overwhelmingly popular app. Yet while Uber may have become the face of dynamic pricing, it really just put front and center a long-standing hospitality and service practice. When rooms and seats sell out, prices go through the roof.

At least, it's been a previously long-standing practice.

According to Scott Brennan, the president of hotel business for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, expanding competition from homestays and inexpensive hotels has made it harder for properties to charge those egregious prices when Kanye comes to town.

"I do think where Airbnb has really impacted the brand is when a city is in a sellout situation for an event," he said. "In the past a hotel would have gone to the highest rate it could charge. You would see something like a budget brand selling a room for $400 or $600 a night during the Super Bowl."

Now, those customers just rent somebody's spare bedroom.