Experiential journey retail is the new popular hospitality throughout the board. Just ask Airbnb, where experiential travel bookings have grown 500% with its more experience-based total offerings rollout. However, for the property owner-based platform with the principles already in the area for nearby expertise, launching an experiential division turned into an herbal extension of its hooked-up emblem. Legacy resort chains and years-antique franchises are finding modern approaches to tackle the rising trend, even staying genuine to their brand.
Take Renaissance Hotels, a division of Marriott International. For the first time in eight years, the emblem introduces a reinvented visual identification that emphasizes the neighborhood neighborhoods surrounding every inn, promising visitors an unexpected and specific enjoyment on every occasion. The transition is followed by launching a new advertising and marketing campaign dubbed “Discover This Way,” a focused storytelling method to design proposing handpicked reviews from neighborhood experts.
PSFK stuck up with George Fleck, VP of worldwide brand marketing & management for Renaissance Hotels, to research approximately the patron insights and strategies in the back of the new identity, in addition to how it evolved based totally in element on the converting expectations of enterprise vacationers, one of the most important demographics in its network:
PSFK: Tell us how the Renaissance Inn logo came to be and what the patron needs for the tour and hotel experiences it responds to. George Fleck: “I changed into leading what we name our Premium Distinctive manufacturers (our full-provider manufacturers who have an awesome lifestyle positioning), which includes Westin, Le Meridien, and Renaissance. We desired to take a deeper study of the site and programming of those remaining especially, asking, “How will we set off the emblem from a design attitude, as well as from a 2D visible advertising and marketing point of view, in addition to for our visitor studies on our residences?
So, for the remaining two years, we’ve labored to ensure that those manufacturers that are both deeply anchored in what we name the invention section have an ownable and awesome positioning that’s appealing to tourists and that there isn’t overlap in terms of how visitors are experiencing those two brands. With Renaissance, we have been searching specifically at key consumer insights—whether or not there has been a nucleus that we ought to pressure the purchaser to enjoy lower back to. Our Westin brand is primarily based on the straightforward insight that touring is annoying. We want to be a fantastic associate who ensures visitors’ wellness on the road. I don’t feel we had that perception quite as defined for our Renaissance brand.
We looked at the complete Renaissance from three perspectives. Given that this emblem is in this discovery segment, we should base it on an easy perception: When purchasers travel, they want to experience it as if they have been somewhere. Second, they need to sense that they’ve had the threat to immerse themselves into the neighborhood that they’re in. It’s no longer discovering the exceptional of Paris while you pass there; rather, whether you may extract these exciting, sudden moments across the Place Vendôme or République.
What are interesting hidden gems or reports that outline a selected neighborhood? That’s what we wanted to cognizance of. We assume that locations like New York, Paris, or Shanghai aren’t just defined using the destinations but using how neighborhood stories define or make up a patchwork of experiences. When you are in Harlem, it’s a unique New York, unlike when you’re in Chelsea or when you’re inside the West Village. So, we wanted to capture that as an experience of thought for what position the Renaissance can play. We desired it to remain a logo that frequently speaks to commercial enterprise travelers but offers what boutique motels have cornered the market on as their strength.
We wanted to provide customers with more curated fashion and design but the consistency in provider and quality of a complete service chain or mass emblem lodge revel. So that’s how we started. That led us down the direction of doing a full MRI at the revel from a layout attitude as well as from a programming perspective in the visitor experience.” Airbnb also specializes in tapping into the revel in of neighborhood regions. So why do you think traveling purchasers are interested in this hospitality experience?
“Business touring has modified over the past decade. A commercial enterprise tourist in the past might have wanted to come in and out of a destination, attend to the reason for the trip, order room carriers, and maybe visit a restaurant nearby. Today, there is a greater craving for local enjoyment, nearly like a journey. Even if consumers have an hour in an area, they’re more likely to want to maximize it and feature a unique encounter. This applies even to enterprise vacationers.
We feel that if you don’t have the time, you should go away to the hotel. From a design angle and its provider offerings, the established order nonetheless offers you neighborhood enjoyment, from interesting local microbrews to localized cocktail recipes to interesting food services that speak to the destination.
Our visitors want to walk away with a tale that is truly well worth retelling. Whether for their social feeds or shares with friends, family, or colleagues, they want something they can dispose of and display from that experience.
Business vacationers nowadays want to complement their lives in addition to the motive of the journey. We need to offer them something beyond the fundamentals. This concept informed our protection of our Los Angeles Airport and Gateway Airport Renaissance locations.
Those inns set themselves apart from a design attitude from the numerous other motel services in those markets because they are generally very well known. We use sensory reports like sound, track, and service infused with nearby flavor to elevate that widespread experience.
Customers can stroll away, thinking, “I needed to live at an airport. However, it wasn’t like something else I’ve been to.” So we’re certainly seeking to push those studies. We’re reimagining that more staid, traditional inn enjoy.
We’re not trying to compete with Airbnb, but alternatively, we’re raising a motel experience that has emerged as quite commoditized in expected areas like convention motels or airports. Luxury and boutique lodges can seize that thoroughly. However, I have not seen plenty of lodges in that four-star, full-carrier scale doing that at scale, which is in which Renaissance is available.”
