How a focus on providing a better User Experience can improve the hotel industry. Written by UX Architect Joseph Dickerson http://www.josephdickerson.com Presented at UPA 2012

1. Hotels 2.0
How a focus on users can
improve the hotel experience
Joseph Dickerson

2. Introduction
• As a UX professional who
travels a lot I stay at a lot of
hotels
• Some good, some bad
• In my travels I have seen many
things that could be g much
better if we applied some UX
principles and focus

3. Core principle
• A key principle I would bring to this design is
personalization
• If you stay at a hotel that's part of a chain, or
one you have been at before, they should
know your preferences

4. Examples of
Personalization
• Ordered smoked salmon the last two times you stayed?
• The hotel should provide a complimentary serving
your next stay
• Requested a high floor near the elevator?
• The hotel should ALWAYS put you in a room like that
unless you request otherwise
• Asked for a king size bed and feather pillows? Ditto...

5. Be smart, not just helpful
• Hotel staff should be trained in providing
intelligent services proactively, not just
responding to complaints and requests
• Look to how personal stewards are trained
on cruise ships

6. Be smart, not just helpful
• Just traveled in on an international trip?
• Staff should provide you with a humidifier, fresh
fruit and juices to help you acclimate, as well as
a hints and tips sheet on jet-lag
• Traveling with young children?
• Staff should provide complimentary pool toys
along with a note giving the hours the pool is
open

7. Be smart, not just helpful
• Those signs that say "We can offer you toiletries if you
forgot them" require the hotel guest to up the phone
and ask...
• Just keep a full set of toiletries in every room all the
time
• Have extra toilet paper and towels in the room, based
on the number of guests staying there
• Again, guests shouldn't have to ask for things like
that, it should just "be there"

8. "Grace notes"
• "But, all these freebies will cut into the hotel's profit
margin!"
• Yes, but let's look at it from the customer's perspective.
• Every one of these extra touches are "grace notes" that will
make the customer's experience better...
• ...And will make them far more likely to stay at the hotel
(or a hotel in the chain) again
• It's a lot cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one

9. Other ideas
• Take out all the little signs in the room that say "If you
steal X we will charge you for it."
• Treat guests like guests, not potential criminals
• Don't put catalogs in rooms that try and sell the room's
bedding and furnishings to guests via mail order
• Does anyone ever go, "Wow, I love that comforter in
our room, let's buy one just like it!"
• It's tacky and a waste of time

10. Other ideas
• Provide a REAL coffee maker with FRESHLY
GROUND coffee, thank you very much
• Provide a universal set of chargers in the room for
the most common devices (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.)
• Give Internet access away for free, for everyone
• In the 21st Century Internet access should be like
plumbing and electricity... It should be included in
the cost of the room

11. Other ideas
• Provide suggested workout sheets in the exercise
room, with simple instructions organized around goals.
• If the hotel has a concierge floor, then offer REAL
concierge service, not just lip service
• Free drinks, free snacks, advice on local attractions,
restaurant bookings... Everything
• Optimize the checking and checkout process, and staff
the front desk with extra staff to handle peak times
based on historic analytical data.

12. Closing
• You probably notice that I have described only
minimal changes to the actual "structure" of the
hotel room proper, and focused on the experience
that the hotel should provide.
• That's because there's not much you need to
change in a hotel room - it's utilitarian and
appropriately so.
• The key to a better hotel experience is exactly that:
the experience that is provided to the guest.

13. http://www.josephdickerson.com
@josephdickerson