Inside The Mind of Today's Traveler: How to Excel in Guest Experience in a New Era of Hospitality - Danica Smith

Josiah: Thank you for taking time to talk. We recorded at the end of last year. Since then, we've had the good fortune of having you join as a co-host and our European correspondent, our guest experience expert on this show. So really excited to chat with you again. Maybe to kick us off, what's it been like hosting Hospitality Daily?

Danica: I think I've got one of the best jobs in the industry.

Josiah: You don't have to say that.

Danica: No, I really, really do. Honestly. It's so much fun. The ability to talk to such a vast array of leaders and insiders in the industry from all walks of life, different ages, different locations, different segments that they're operating in. And it's literally the best thing to just talk to them. I'm in absolute awe with every conversation and I learn so much. So it's been really, really fun and inspirational. But it has also made me realize, okay, I need... you always self criticize yourself. I'm like, okay, I shouldn't have said this, or I need to... So I think I'm improving. So thank you very much to Eva from Numa for my first one, because I don't think I hit record for the first 10 minutes.

Josiah: We've recorded some amazing conversations and I think what you're sharing resonates with me, because I learn so much in every conversation and that's what this is. It's a conversation, we're learning, people are learning along with us. We have a great community here, a great group of people who have done incredible things in hospitality and are sharing their experiences. So I'll link in the show notes to a number of those conversations that you've led. I'll also link back to that conversation we had at the end of 2024. A lot has happened since then. I think in that conversation they'll hear you and I have had the chance to work together before. Being able to collaborate here has been a ton of fun. I really love how you've taken your life and career experiences and started MorningStar GX, a consultancy that's all in on guest experience. What's that been like for you in the months since we've spoken last? What are some of the things that you've been doing with that business?

Danica: Yeah, it's been a whirlwind because when I started it, so almost a year ago, and it's something that I've had a very clear vision and something that I wanted to do for 10 years. And it's funny, the universe, how it all works out. I feel like now it's the exact right moment for operators and I'm actually working with hotel tech vendors as well because guest experience is changing so much. It's an area for a lot of creativity. We have the use of AI, of how can we leverage some parts and it's very overwhelming even for me. And I'm very, very niche whilst I've been working in the industry for 15 years.

Guest experience in terms of what I'm doing. How can we understand the guest journey? How can we understand guest satisfaction and guest intent and enhance and improve? It's very, very niche when you think of what a hotelier has to take on board in their day-to-day life, and I'm overwhelmed with the speed and the pace of change that's happening. I love it because there's all these different micro trends that guests are wanting to experience, which allows for hoteliers to have a lot of creativity. But it is concerning that you need to have that space and time. And that's exactly why MorningStar GX is there, is to help that hotelier and guide them through that process so they can carry on hitting the ground running, which is kind of what hoteliers have been doing for the last five years.

Josiah: Certainly, and I'll include a link in the show notes where people can learn more about what you're doing there. But I want to dig into that because there's sort of a paradox we touched in our last conversation where there's fundamentals of hospitality that haven't changed. And in many regards, you and I worked for a company that was doing reputation management, for example, right? And it was all about how do you delight guests or in those positive online reviews. It's really remarkable how much of the fundamentals of that are the same at the same time. There are a lot of changes unfolding and it only feels like that's accelerating. And I wonder if you could speak a little bit more to that, to those changes, recognizing there's a lot that is the same, but what are some of the changes that are top of mind for you right now with regards to guest experience?

Danica: Yeah, I think it's a really good question, and again, I can't stress the pace of the change and it's really the way that the guests and the traveler wants to go about their day and wants to seek out new experiences. I personally think it's the rise of technology in our life. When we travel, we really want to, we are, we're craving this sense of connection, this sense of authentic stay, something that's really going to move us in our core. That wasn't the same two years ago. That's an exciting space. So I've kind of understood the guest experience and I've come up with the four Ps. I say they're my own. They probably have been around for a long time. But from all the different talks that I've had on Hospitality Daily with the different leaders, the different clients that I have the honor to work with through MorningStar GX and the conferences, I'm very lucky. I go to probably an industry conference twice a month. So I get exposed to the industry plus a lot of reports that I'm constantly digesting, and I kind of see these four pillars of the new guest experience. So if you want, I can talk you through them.

Josiah: Yeah, I, well, I'd actually like to come back to that. But I want to just bring this to life in the perspective of the personalized guest experience. And I wonder if you could share a story of a recent hospitality experience you've had that stood out to you in this regard. Just to kind of help people understand the importance and the power of this.

Danica: Yeah, and it again, is very, very varied to two extremes. So when we look at personalization, it's kind of thinking of the technology and capturing the personalization part of the guest day. So there's some hotels that do this very well. Hoxton, for example. And so Soho House, when you stay at certain properties, when you enter the room, you have a personalized Spotify list playing in your room. That's super cool. That sets the tone. So that's kind of one end of being able to know my preference, capture it, store it, and then operationally deliver that personalized experience. But then on the other end, just the sense of having emotional intelligence in the staff and being able to personalize the guest experience by looking me in the eyes and responding to what my needs are.

A really cool example and we're recording with Staypineapple soon. I'm really excited. I saw Dina speaking at a conference and she was saying how what they're doing at Staypineapple is leveraging AI back of house, where basically she will explain it a lot better. But basically when they onboard a new employee, they use AI to understand that employee's skills, experience, passions, hobbies, et cetera. And then when they have a guest, they use AI to try and match those together. So she gave an example where she had a guest come and stay at her property, and he mentioned that he was an avid cyclist, but kind of like pro level. Now the usual we have a bike package isn't going to work for somebody who's like a triathlon. And then through this AI match and tool that they had implemented, they knew that somebody in the kitchen was a triathlon or an iron man. So they connected that staff member with that guest and then via the staff member, the guest during his week's stay, was able to access his super pro bike club with the fancy gear. So that's a super cool example of personalization as well.

Josiah: I love it. I love it. I had the good fortune of speaking with the Staypineapple team a year ago and kind of before, and they were talking about kind of building some infrastructure and steps there. So I'll include some of those links to older conversations in the show notes. I'm really excited for you to reconnect and hear the latest and greatest. What a phenomenal organization. So I wonder, you mentioned the four Ps of guest experience is a riff on the four Ps of marketing, right? Which marketers will be familiar with. But you've created this new framework, I guess high level. How would you describe these four Ps of guest experience?

Danica: So I think the first one is everywhere, and we've already touched on it, is personal. You need to know me as a guest. 21% of guests are more loyal to brands that use their personal data to create relevant experiences. That's McKinsey's data. So that's really going beyond the, if your CRM knows my birthday but doesn't really understand me and my vibe, you're missing the point. So personalization, huge topic. Lots of fun things to do there. The second is purposeful. You need to grow me. And this was really interesting to me. So 79% of travelers said that they are specifically traveling to learn a new skill. And this was from Design Hotels 2024. So this is looking at, okay, travel as a vehicle of self-discovery of growth. And think wellness retreats, local community projects and workshops. On the next level. And personally, I had a trip like that as well. So that's really inspirational. The third P is playful. You need to engage me. What we all know, surprise and delight the guests. But on steroids, TripAdvisor's 2024 research tells us that surprise moments are three times more likely to be remembered than the practical services and the amenities offered. So really, how can we spark joy and inject creativity into the guest journey? And then the fourth P is participatory. So how are you going to include me again? TripAdvisor's research shows that young travelers now rank feeling part of something higher than hotel amenities. So this is really, guests don't just want to come and consume. They want to feel a belonging. They want to see something, they want to be part of your story, and that's kind of where loyalty and brand engagement is going to grow. So I think it's a real shift on, rooms, beds, clean shower, good breakfast, warm welcome, still essential. But now there's this additional level of guest expectations that we have to meet. All sense of travel, whether that's corporate, family, leisure, this is kind of what guests are seeking now. These four pillars that really evoke emotions.

Josiah: I love the framework. I'll link in the show notes to a LinkedIn post where you get into this a little bit more.