Think Different - Happiness in Hospitality

Take a moment to remember a time when you were really excited to go on holiday. I mean, REALLY excited. That tingly feeling in your stomach just thinking about it. The compulsive Googling to research the areas you were visiting. The WhatsApp photos you sent to friends to brag about your upcoming trip while you spent your time daydreaming about that viral Instagram photo you were going to post right after. 

Notice how you feel now, thinking back to that memory.

Almost three years into my career in hospitality, I've been reflecting on what makes this industry such a "happy industry" - a phrase I often use when people ask me about my career shift. I wonder what makes me feel this way. Is it my friendly colleagues, or the extravagant business events? Is it the travel? Or perhaps it’s the opportunity to constantly visit new hotels and justify it as market research? While all of this might sound legitimate to you, I realized that this industry’s main purpose is to make people happy – to bring out positive feelings of anticipation and excitement. And in doing so, professionals working in the field, like myself, are bound to get their share of that happiness.

Hospitality and happiness

Hospitality, done right, is about crafting and staging experiences to cheer people up – oh, and charging a premium for it! So, when people’s happiness is directly related to increasing revenues, it becomes pivotal to understand the science behind happiness, how to trigger it and how to maintain it.

The Joy of Anticipation

We’ve all found ourselves randomly staring into space, daydreaming about our next vacation. If you’ve ever travelled with me, you would know how much of a planner I am. A 2-week road trip requires 10 excel sheets of flights, routes, restaurants, attractions, and even parking lots. I know, I’m next level! But I don’t go through this lengthy planning exercise to religiously follow a plan. In fact, I’m very aware that we never really do. I do it because it generates feelings of joy and excitement that sometimes even surpass the joy I feel while on the trip. That build-up phase, which for some over-planning travellers like me could extend over months, is extremely important in measuring one’s satisfaction from a trip. It is therefore imperative that travel and tourism industry professionals take note of this common human behaviour and use it to their advantage.

While You’re There

The day is finally here! You’ve just arrived at your destination and you’re already digressing from your “strict” plan. But who cares? As long as the trip is frictionless, you’re having a good enough time. Whether you’re on discovery mode or enjoying being pampered, it’s the “wow moments” that boost your happiness hormones. What you don’t realize, however, is that what you’re going through will eventually become your “good old days”. You are building memories, and hospitality professionals better build them right!

Nostalgia

Just like the future, the past is an elusive dream that is sometimes distorted, yearned for, and often seen as being better than the present. Ever wonder why life coaches and motivational speakers constantly preach about finding happiness in the moment? Well, you may have guessed it: because it’s very difficult to eliminate the past and future and focus solely on the present. 

Quite commonly, we realize that we were happy only after time has passed. We go through old photos or take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about moments of excitement, joy, peace, and fulfilment. We feel nostalgic for the past moments that are long gone, and strive to recreate them by planning events similar to the ones that once made us happy. We find ourselves recalling a fond memory and wishing we could relive that moment. No wonder #throwback is one of the most commonly used hashtags on Instagram!

The “so what?”

If there is one thing we should learn from the marketers of the iPhone, it is how good they are at creating hype with the announcement of pre-order dates for every new model. This is most certainly not designed to help them manage their supply-chain, but rather to help them intensify their customers’ joy of anticipation.

While most hoteliers and experience managers have been directing their efforts towards perfecting the fulfilment of their services, not many have worked on expanding the guests’ journey to include the anticipation as well as the nostalgia phases. If hospitality’s purpose is to monetize the happiness it creates for guests, then they must learn from other industries and tap into the more lucrative windows of the guest journey by thinking outside the obvious time frame.