THE hospitality ecosystem is being transformed by the emergence of the “collaborative economy” and hoteliers need to understand and respond to this evolving trend to sustain business, according to Lauren Anderson, co-founder and chief knowledge officer of Australia-based Collaborative Lab.
Anderson made the recommendation this morning in her keynote address to attendees of the Economy Hotels World Asia 2014 conference in Singapore.
The collaborative economy, she defined, is “a system that activates the untapped value of all kinds of assets through collaborative models…creating a market for things that never had a marketplace before”.
With the collaborative model, access is favoured over ownership, trust is shifted from institutions to individuals. Transactions move away from the middleman to become direct, and there are opportunities for innovation, she explained.
Cited as an example for the hospitality industry was Airbnb, which is “asset light”, meaning it does not need to build or own inventory, but instead facilitates consumers’ access to existing assets, such as spare rooms, holiday houses, treehouses or entire islands.
Airbnb builds “communities” and recognises that members participate in two-way relationships. It believes in creating empathy for the customer’s experience.
To win in the changing landscape, the implication for traditional hotels, Anderson highlighted, is to create the real product the new community of consumers want, that is, the trip’s experience, not the spaces.
In addition, it is crucial that hotels leverage on technology, especially the mobile, to deliver that experience consumers demand.
