There's No Such Thing as Virtual Hospitality - David Kong, DEI Advisors

Speaker 1: 0:00

I love technology and we're coming off a big week of trade shows and conferences about technology in hospitality. But our guest today says there's no such thing as virtual hospitality, and I want you to hear why he says this and what he means, because it's an important point to keep in mind as we think about providing hospitality today.

David Kong is the director and Principal of DEI Advisors, a non-profit focused on empowering others. Previously, he was the president and CEO of BWH Hotel Group and when he retired from that role, he was the longest running CEO of any major hotel company. If anyone has the technical experience and perspective to talk about the role of technology, it's David. as you'll learn in our conversation today, I was talking with an independent hotelier here in California and he recalled you saying something to the effect of there's no such thing as virtual hospitality. I don't know if that sounds like something you said at one point, but is that still something that you think, or what are your thoughts around technology these days?

Speaker 2: 1:26

Well, first of all, i think the industry is woefully slow in adopting technology to make things more efficient and to provide better customer care. But, having said that, you have to think about the essence of hospitality, which is our industry. Our industry is called hospitality. The reason is because we provide hospitality. We want that emotional connection with our guests and you can't build an emotional connection through a machine. You think about how you check in through a kiosk or on your mobile phone. You have no emotional connection to that airline, none whatsoever, because there's no human interaction. But if you are checking in to a hotel in person and the desk clerk is complimenting you and asking about your day and making it fun for you to check in at that hotel and telling you that if you need anything, just call me My name is Joe David And this is my extension Just call me if you need anything. Well, how do you feel compared to checking in via kiosk? Now, you know for a lot of hotel guests, especially at hotels like Hyatt, maryart, hilton, ihg people flew in, they just went through the most horrific experiences with airlines and rental cars and you know, whatever way they got to the hotel, if you can just change that completely for them and greeted them warmly. With that wonderful smile and warm greeting and make them feel welcome and special, you can make such an impression on that person. That's opportunity that we have in the hospital industry. That's why I say It cannot be virtual. What can I lose out on that opportunity to set our industry apart? it's called hospitality for a reason. It cannot, it cannot be virtual.

Speaker 1: 3:37

I love hearing that from you, because you pioneered the use of CRM at Hyatt. you understand the role of technology, and CRM at its best is better understanding people. it exists behind the scenes so that you're able to reference, that, you're able to remember things, you're able to personalize. But the interface, the in hospitality, is human to human right and is that a? is that a fair way to kind of summarize how you're thinking about using technology?

Speaker 2: 4:04

Precisely. You know that's actually a good analogy when you think about CRM and In marketing. If you're sitting in the corporate office And you're trying to apply CRM, basically you're looking at your database with transactional history, you're looking at All the patents that you've added to the database through what it's credit card spending or through some of these big data houses that Have a lot of psychographic lifestyle information about the person. You're adding all that into your database And then you're trying to predict what that person likes and what the behavior is going to be like And then you try to market it that person in quote unquote relevant way because it's information about that person. I tell you that you know from my years of experience working on a CRM marketing, one on one marketing it doesn't work very well Because, you know, just because I've been to Las Vegas three times this year doesn't mean that I like Las Vegas And thank. I dislike Las Vegas. And so I went to Las Vegas for three conferences and stayed at a Hilton hotel. They send me an offer to go Las Vegas again. It doesn't work on me. But if someone had asked me, you know my likes and preferences. That's a different story. So nothing replaces a human person doing that. You know, with AI, i think it would improve the effectiveness of CRM greatly. I think greatly Because there's so much more information you can consider, but it still can't get us there. You know you need a real person.

Speaker 1: 5:52

There's nuance you pick up in conversation and that I think will always exist. I think will always exist and so you kind of see, i think to your point. There's no virtual hospitality because at the end of the day it's that connection.