It used the be that when guests went to a hotel, it was often to “get away from it all,” and leave home behind. Now, citizenM Hotels is working to “home-anize” the guest experience, so they have the same comforts—and technology—when they are on the road.
“Our belief is that the closer we stay to what the consumer is used to, the more likely we are to be relevant to the person that stays as a guest in our hotels,” said Mike Rawson, chief information officer, citizenM Hotels. “All of the technology that you see come into the home and some of which you adopt, is a pathway for us to ensure that you have some familiarity when you come and stay with us. It reduces the training. It reduces the new-guest experience because they have something they’re familiar with and allows us to leverage a lot of existing footprints that happen to be on everybody’s phone.”
“Our belief is that the closer we stay to what the consumer is used to, the more likely we are to be relevant to the person that stays as a guest in our hotels.” —Mike Rawson citizenM Hotels
As part of this move to bring guests’ stays closer to what they are used to—and, quite frankly, want—the company has added Google Chromecast and its casting capabilities to all guestroom televisions at the brand’s 24-hotel global portfolio.
Rawson said that even before the company began negotiating with Google, it realized that a big driver for its guests was Netflix. The hotel company already has AppleTVs in its guestrooms, but because of a conflict between Apple and Netflix that makes it difficult to stream Netflix on the TVs, it made sense to make a move to Chromecast.
“Secondly, what we realized is that Google Chromecast is a very reliable and very easy to use,” he said. “It just gave us multiple ways for [guests]to come and stay and have a very familiar experience. So whether they want to come and use their Apple device or just Chromecast, giving them a really short access point to Netflix has turned out to be a winner.”
In addition to offering guests the choice to watch what they want, citizenM is able to monitor usage and extrapolate certain data points. “We can see, for example, what percentage of a hotel has employed casting,” said Rawson. “So, I can bring up [our]Glasgow [property]and see that 40% of the guests have taken a casting session in the last week and that’s a very good stat. We can see how many minutes have been employed per room.”
The statistics have shown that the casting has much more usage than the pay-per-view movies the brand previously offered. “We know that the in-room movies would average about one entire movie per room per month,” he said. “We’re far in advance of that in terms of the customer engagement with Chromecast.”
citizenM Hotels has added Google Chromecast and its casting capabilities to all guestroom TVs in the global portfolio.
While the data does not include what programs are being watched and by whom, the hotel company is able to see what platform they are streaming. “[We are] interested in the fact that
Twitch is around 5% of our guests’ engagement, and that helps us understand that gaming is an interesting area,” said Rawson. “It gives us clues as to where we should be starting to build our next engagement point.”
Using that data, he said, gives the brand insight into where they should be focusing their guests’ time even further. “It tells us what we can do in that area to give [guests]a deeper experience,” he said. “They are telling us it’s important to them. The most important driver for us is where the guest is leading us.”
This data might tell the brand that its guests tend to be interested in streaming certain platforms. If that platform has a new launch, the local properties can build events around it—like cosplay events, for example. “We can start stacking relevant events around those types of things because we know our guests are interested in it,” said Rawson. “It is very big for us to then understand how to engage it. We know the segment is engaged and they’ve hooked on to that activity. So, we’ve got a very good focus point to drive some more activity with them.”
Hotel guests want to bring their at-home experiences onthe road and citizenM properties will now make that easier for them to do.
While this type of data can help the hotel build revenue, the biggest value-add of Chromecast for Rawson is its effect on the total customer experience, which brings guests back for repeat stays. “As we build the repeat-business customers…it’s all about your routine when you’re a business traveler,” he said. “Being able to be a part of that routine so they can get into the room and continue watching the content they were watching on the plane is huge. The more we play a part in that ability for them to do that, the more people will come back.”
