From Lobby to Rooftop: How Gamifying Your Hotel Can Boost Guest Delight!
By Emin Kara | November 22, 2023
In the ever evolving landscape of the world, the concept of gamification has become a groundbreaking strategy to enhance experiences, and retain attention. By integrating game-design elements into the customers journey, (in theory) hotels and resorts can create more engaging, memorable, and enjoyable experiences for their guests. So let’s find out how.
Gamification transforms mundane activities into fun and engaging experiences. Now it’s not just about adding points or an in-app badge, it’s about tapping into the psychological principles that make games so captivating: challenge, curiosity, competition, and reward. For the hospitality industry in my vision, this means reimagining the guest experience as a playful journey, encouraging exploration and interaction in fun ways.
One of the simplest yet most effective gamification strategies is rewarding guests for exploring different parts of the hotel. Imagine a scenario where each section of the hotel – from the lobby, to the pool, the spa, the rooftop bar, and the in-house restaurant – is a checkpoint in a treasure hunt. Guests could receive a digital or physical map upon check-in, guiding them through various hotel amenities and rewarding them with points or stamps at each checkpoint. These points could then be redeemed for discounts, complimentary services, or special access to exclusive areas. By introducing a level of game design, you take such a mundane task and turn it into something fun, whilst giving them an incentive to explore. Dive deeper into this idea, and you could set it up as an “upsell gold mine”!
Another exciting avenue for gamification lies in encouraging guests to engage with local culture and activities. Hotels can collaborate with local businesses to create a series of challenges or quests. For example, guests could be rewarded for attending a local music performance, trying a traditional dish at a nearby restaurant, or participating in a community event. This not only enhances the guest’s experience but also fosters a deeper connection with the local community. To continue, you could leverage this as a way to cover a decrease in revenue during the off-season, think of it as a glamorized ad and have business pay you to promote their spot!
Personally, if I owned a hotel and was to implement this strategy, I would focus on using an app to bring this to life, compared to analog instruments like a physical map. This way you can always stay top of mind via notifications, make it more interactive and engaging, and you could introduce more technical technology like AR (Augmented Reality) so guests can interact with their environment in a more immersive, playful and unexpected way.
The use of gamification could astronomically increase your brand awareness via free marketing utilizing UGC (User Generated Content). You could either have it as part of the game for an extra reward, or simply prompt (not force) people to post their experience on social media. This not only creates a buzz around the hotel’s unique offerings but also provides authentic, word of mouth marketing. As guests share their fun and engaging experiences, it creates a snowball effect, drawing in their social media followers and showcasing the hotel’s ambiance and services in a genuine, relatable way. This strategy not only enhances online visibility but also builds a community of engaged and loyal customers, all while providing valuable, shareable content that resonates with a wider audience on social media platforms.
Now, whilst I’d really like to see more hotels and resorts introduce a level of gamification to the experience, I would strongly advise to plan this out thoroughly. If you don’t plan correctly, it could be perceived as being pointless and unrewarding which in turn could decrease the level of satisfaction of guests.
