10 Insightful Hotel Industry Trends for 2019

One of the primary goals of the hotel industry is making sure guests get a good night’s rest. They want their guests to have a relaxing experience and memorable stay. The hospitality industry is always looking for improvements to make sure guests are receiving the best experience possible. The following is a list of ten trends that the hotel industry could expect to see for 2019.

1. Smart technology in rooms

“Most guests are tech savvy now and want to stay in a tech-friendly atmosphere,” writes Sarbendra Sarkar, founder of Cygnett Hotels & Resorts, in Entrepreneur’s look at emerging hotel industry trends.

That means adding trendy electronics like tablets, voice assistants and automatic lighting to rooms. It’s already starting. The Wynn in Las Vegas recently announced plans to add the Amazon Echo to more than 4,700 of its rooms to let guests control lights and temperature. Other intriguing electronics that will become more common in the hospitality industry include UV-C technology, virtual reality, and mobile room keys.

2. Wellness traveling

Wellness tourism is big business, on track to become a $919 billion market by 2022. Travelers still want a comfortable bed with clean sheets, but they also look for places that offer things like yoga, spas, fitness centers and healthy dining options.

3. Mixing business with pleasure

This could be a big year for the “bleisure” class, travelers who mix business trips with leisurely vacations.

“For young professionals, bleisure is the perfect opportunity to take an extended vacation after a week of mandatory meetings and networking mixers,” writes Beekeeper in its 2019 industry forecast. “Not only do these extended vacations help keep hotels full and dinner reservations booked, but a happy millennial in vacation mode is also more likely to spend money on other amenities.”

4. The sharing economy

The next entry on our list of hotel industry trends is something that was at one time seen as a threat to the industry: Airbnb.

Millennial travelers love services like Airbnb, which has made competition in the hotel industry fiercer than ever. Airbnb has expanded its services to include hotel rooms and B&Bs that offer unique guest experiences such as locally-sourced amenities or places with knowledgeable owners on site.

5. Private experiences

More and more guests are searching for a private vacation that nonetheless lets them have access to the larger pool of amenities offered by a hotel. Some hotels are catering to this need by creating private spaces adjacent to the hotel.

6. Attracting the Instagram crowd

“As influencer-based visual marketing continues to dominate in 2019, going the extra mile with aesthetics and amenities could be game-changing for your hospitality business,” Beekeeper writes.

People want rooms with “character and unique features,” things they can share on social media.

7. Local food

After years of courting celebrity chefs, hotels are beginning to shift towards a focus on good, simple and local food, says Bjorn Hanson, a hospitality consultant who teaches at NYU’s Tisch Center for Hospitality in an interview with Travel Market Report on hotel industry trends,

Higher quality establishments are exploring what they can do with local food and drink, offering unique, interesting and – most crucially – tasty offerings.

8. Local décor

The hotel industry wants guests to feel like they’re staying in a customized room, Hanson notes. Gone are the days of seeing the same art prints – or same furniture configuration – from room to room.

9. Eco-travelers

More and more people want to “escape the concrete jungle,” and travel to places that let them experience nature.

At the same time, consumers have begun to expect eco-friendly practices from the businesses they patronize, and the hospitality industry has responded with measures like removing plastic straws to green energy measures (such as lights that shut off automatically when a guest leaves the room).

10. More global tourism

Lower-cost airfares are allowing more people to see the world at a discounted rate, while healthy economies in places like China and India are allowing whole new markets to take farther-reaching vacations. That all adds up to an increase in global tourism.

InnStyle Has Hospitality Products for the Hotel Industry

InnStyle has a large selection of hospitality products that will help make your guests feel at home. They offer bedding linens, towels, amenities, dining linens, and lodging accessories along with numerous other products. They know how much work goes into running a hospitality property which is why their goal is to be a one-stop-shop for all hospitality needs. Please give InnStyle a call and speak with one of their account managers about any hospitality questions that you may have. They can be reached at 267-354-6020 or 800-877-4667. Their website is https://www.innstyle.com/.