The Rebooking Paradox: A Deep Dive into APAC’s Hospitality Challenge With Tony Marshall
A recent study by Agilysys, a leading global provider of hospitality software solutions and services, has revealed a surprising trend in the APAC hospitality industry: high guest satisfaction doesn’t necessarily translate into repeat business.
Despite positive experiences, many travellers are not returning to hotels they’ve enjoyed. This “rebooking paradox” presents a significant challenge for hoteliers in the region. To delve deeper into this issue, we spoke with Tony Marshall, VP Managing Director APAC at Agilysys.
In our exclusive interview, Marshall discusses the factors contributing to this paradox, the importance of personalisation, and the ever-growing role of technology in driving guest loyalty.
Readers can download the full study here.
Your study highlights a “rebooking paradox” where only 37% of APAC travellers rebook despite 86% expressing high satisfaction. Could you delve deeper into the key findings and the reasons for this discrepancy?
Marshall: The ‘rebooking paradox’ we identified really underscores the complexity of loyalty in hospitality. The disparity suggests that satisfaction alone isn’t enough to drive rebooking. The rise of OTAs and the ease of comparison shopping have significantly impacted guest behaviour. Having a traditional loyalty program that just give you points probably isn’t enough anymore.
To address this, hoteliers should prioritise personalised experiences and offer tangible value within their loyalty programs. By leveraging deep data analysis and a single guest profile, hotels can gain invaluable insights into guest preferences and tailor their offerings accordingly. For instance, spa staff can coordinate treatments with restaurant bookings, front desk agents can suggest targeted, personalised, upgrades, and restaurant managers can recommend specific wines based on past preferences.
This level of granular personalisation, beyond just knowing your name and how many points you have accumulated, is crucial for building strong guest relationships and fostering long-term loyalty.
Raffles Hotel, Singapore
To that end, 73% of APAC travellers highlight personalisation and loyalty programs as significant drivers of rebooking. Do you think there’s perhaps a misconception in the industry about the depth of personalisation required?
Marshall: Yes, I believe there’s a common misconception that basic personalisation, such as knowing a guest’s name and loyalty points, is enough. While this is a good starting point, it’s clear from our study that a deeper level of personalisation is necessary to truly drive rebooking and loyalty.
A prime example is Raffles. They excel at creating luxurious experiences, but their approach to personalisation often appears to rely on manual efforts. By leveraging technology, they could help streamline their processes and elevate their guest experiences to even greater heights.
It’s not just luxury brands that can benefit from advanced personalisation. Midscale hotels can also differentiate themselves in a competitive market by harnessing the power of technology to deliver tailored experiences.
Do you think driving loyalty is more challenging for independent hotels than it perhaps is for the larger groups?
Marshall: Not really, no. We’ve developed software that can work with both. We work with the large chains, Hilton and Marriott for example, but our software is flexible so that we can work with smaller boutique properties too. It would work just as well for the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, with nearly 2,000 rooms as it would for 50 room property. We can either deploy on premise, or in the cloud, so it’s a lot easier for smaller, boutique and independent hotels to use this kind of technology that it ever has been before.
“The key is to strike a balance between automation and human interaction and leverage technology to augment, not replace, the human touch”
Back to your study, it was interesting to read that 30% of APAC travellers appreciate staff remembering prior conversations. As AI and automation become more prevalent, how can hoteliers balance potentially reducing human-to-guest interaction while maintaining rebooking rates?
Marshall: Well, automation can streamline many repetitive tasks, such as night audits, predictive ordering, and yield management, but it’s essential to maintain a strong human touch. By automating these tasks, staff can focus on providing those memorable personalised experiences and building relationships with guests.
AI can play a significant role in enhancing personalisation. By analysing guest data, AI can predict preferences and tailor offerings accordingly. This enables your team to provide more relevant and valuable upsells. I think the key is to strike a balance between automation and human interaction and leverage technology to augment, not replace, the human touch.
While the study may not have specific age demographics, historically, loyalty has been more challenging among younger generations who are less brand-loyal and more price-driven. Is it reasonable to expect that you can achieve the same levels of loyalty from a younger demographic?
Marshall: The younger generations, they are so price sensitive. But they also want the luxury touch, the personalisation, the experiences. They want it all and they want it yesterday.
But I think you can still expect loyalty, you just have to speak to the individual. Personalisation is that person. It’s not about cutting and pasting every offer to everyone, it’s about knowing the individual. That’s what really helps to reach Gen Z and Millennials, to meet their expectations of instant gratification. I think it’s possible to get an extra 10% spend from a younger guest, if you’re hitting the right buttons with them. So, the right messaging and the right platforms too.
And when you get them on-property, that’s where you can hit them with the personalisation that will really impact the chances of them rebooking.
“It all comes back to the technology and that single guest profile; knowing and really deep-diving into the data that you have, to truly understand your guest”
The study emphasises the importance of shifting from RevPAR to RevPAG to gain a more holistic view of guest spending. How can hoteliers adopt this approach and what benefits can they expect from focusing on revenue per available guest?
Marshall: General Manager’s have always been measured on RevPAR. By moving to a RevPAG (Revenue Per Available Guest) approach, even just across golf and spa, you can grow the revenue per guest by 10%, per visit. It all comes back to the technology and that single guest profile; knowing and really deep-diving into the data that you have, to truly understand your guest.
All teams, marketing, F&B, golf teams etc. need to work collaboratively to use the technology and better understand upcoming guest preferences and behaviours. You can then start to tailor and personalise your packages accordingly and drive that extra incremental revenue from a much more targeted approach.
Of course, you can segment by spend too. You can even start tailoring packages for your high-net-worth guests, the top tier of your loyalty programmes.
Finally, what’s next for Agilysys in 2025?
Marshall: Well, we’re going to be out and about at a lot of trade shows, holding our own seminars and trying to educate and help the industry better understand how they can use a RevPAG approach with our products to gain at least an extra 10% of revenue.
And in terms of Agilysys, there’s a lot of things happening and a lot more to come! We’ve been spending $40m a year on our R&D, with a team of 1,500 employees, to continue improving our products over the last 5 or 6 years. The difference between us and some of the others is that we’ve really gone back and tweaked our product, through a consultative process with hoteliers, so that it’s not just another off-the-shelf product.
We’ve done the rewrites to ensure that our products are industry leading. Now it’s an ongoing process to ensure we keep reinventing and keep innovating, with a focus on RevPAG and helping hoteliers to increase their revenue.
About Agilysys
Agilysys exclusively delivers state-of-the-art software solutions and services that help organizations achieve High Return Hospitality by maximizing Return on Experience (ROE) through interactions that make ‘personal’ profitable. Customers around the world use Agilysys Property Management Systems (PMS), Point-of-Sale (POS) solutions and Inventory and Procurement (I&P) systems to consistently delight guests, retain staff and grow margins. Agilysys’ 100% hospitality customer base includes branded and independent hotels; multi-amenity resorts; casinos; property, hotel and resort management companies; cruise lines; corporate dining providers; higher education campus dining providers; food service management companies; hospitals; lifestyle communities; senior living facilities; stadiums; and theme parks. www.agilysys.com
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