Travelers booking hotel reservations online may soon notice that the process increasingly mirrors what it\u2019s like to buy airline tickets.<\/p>\n
Want early check-in or late check-out? More space, a higher floor or a garden view? Pool access or a \u201chydration station\u201d (aka bottled water) in your room?<\/p>\n
Check \u201cyes\u201d before you book and the cost will be added to your basic room rate.<\/p>\n
How about milk and cookies for the kids or a gourmet snack box for your dog? Those bonus amenities can be waiting for you in your room, for an added, prepaid fee.<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies are turning hotel operators into travel retailers, selling much more than just rooms.<\/p>\n
Individual properties can now creatively unbundle and repackage their room inventories, allowing guests to personalize their stays and increasing revenue.<\/p>\n
But it can be tricky for a hotel to find the sweet spot between giving guests more control over the details of their stays and leaving them feeling like a hotel is charging for perks that guests expect for free.<\/p>\n
At the 14-room Lakehouse Inn<\/a> in Lee, Massachusetts, a new AI-powered booking platform helps match guests with specific rooms and maximizes returns on each booking.<\/p>\n \u201cEach of our rooms is unique, and previously guests could only book a room type, i.e., king or queen, and then call us if they wanted a specific room,\u201d said co-owner Kurt Inderbitzin.<\/p>\n The Lakehouse Inn\u2019s new booking platform asks prospective guests their preferred room size, bedding, location and view. Then it provides detailed photos and descriptions of a few specific rooms that meet the requests.<\/p>\n The question, then, becomes whether a guest is willing to pay more for a room that\u2019s a little bit more to their liking.<\/p>\n Only 14% of U.S. hotel guests were willing to pay a premium for a room with a better view, and only 11% for a room on a higher floor, according to surveys conducted earlier this year by Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry market research firm.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a budget traveler and never spend extra\u201d on perks, said Debbie Twombly, 74, <\/strong>a substitute teacher in Astoria, Oregon.<\/p>\n While some guests may feel nickel-and-dimed if they are asked to pony up for once-standard amenities like bottled water or pool access, others will pay for amenities they view as contributing to the enjoyment of their stay.<\/p>\n Los Angeles-based leadership brand strategist Anne Taylor Hartzell, <\/strong>50, is fine with paying extra for a better view. \u201cI\u2019ve also paid for a bottle of bubbles to be chilled and waiting in my room,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n At the 79-room Inn at the Market<\/a>, a boutique hotel tucked in Seattle\u2019s historic Pike Place Market, hotel guests can prepay to have a bouquet of market flowers or a box of fresh macaron cookies from a bakery around the corner waiting in their rooms.<\/p>\n And even though only around 5%-10% of guests opt for one of these a la carte perks, the additional income is \u201ca positive outcome\u201d that helps the property stand out from the city\u2019s other downtown properties, said Jay Baty, the inn\u2019s marketing and sales director.<\/p>\n Columbia Hospitality, which manages about 50 unique properties across the country, has also added optional upgrades into its booking path.<\/p>\n Its 73-room Wren<\/a> hotel in Missoula, Montana, offers flower bouquets and an in-room pour-over coffee station as pre-bookable perks.<\/p>\n In Walla Walla, Washington, its hip, 80-room Finch<\/a> offers a s\u2019mores kit and half-pound boxes of chocolates.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just boutique inns that are taking advantage of new ways to create custom stays.<\/p>\n In 2024, more than 5,000 Wyndham<\/a> hotels adopted new technology that allows properties to text guests 24 hours before check-in with locally tuned add-on offers.<\/p>\n These include early check-in at a Howard Johnson hotel near Disneyland, and a basket of sunscreen and beach toys at a Days Inn in Jekyll Island, Georgia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most successful hotels are those offering add-ons that truly enhance the experience at a price that makes sense for both sides,\u201d said Scott Strickland, Wyndham\u2019s chief commercial officer.<\/p>\n Other large chains are also using new technology to expand optional attributes, amenities and add-on services offered during booking.<\/p>\n Among them are IHG Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International and Hilton Hotels, according to a closely watched global business travel forecast<\/a> for next year.<\/p>\n