Building a customer experience strategy in the hotel industry
In an increasingly competitive sector, a hotel can no longer succeed by imitating its neighbors. Too many establishments end up reproducing the same standard pool, imposing lobby, standardized room with no differentiating impulse. However, what really makes the difference is a strategy focused on the customer experience: thinking of the hotel not as a product, but as an assembly of emotions, services and meaning. This is the driving force behind Delporte Hospitality: to accompany each location so that it becomes a unique, coherent and memorable destination. Hospitality will become its main asset.
What is a customer experience strategy?
A customer experience strategy involves defining a global, structured vision that guides every point of contact with the customer. It’s not just about marketing or pretty decor: it’s about technology, organization, service culture, team training and adaptability.
The key components are :
- Knowledge and personalization: collect customer preferences, via CRM or interactions, to offer an anticipated, tailor-made stay.
- Active listening: communicate before, during and after your stay, via e-mail, SMS and mobile applications.
- Service culture: trained, autonomous staff capable of anticipating emotions and instilling a sense of daily well-being.
- Fluid technology: from mobile check-in to IoT solutions, to facilitate the experience and free up logistics staff.
- Scalability: designing the facility so that it can adapt its spaces and services in 10, 20 or 30 years’ time, without destroying everything or losing coherence. You always need to have an idea of the next step.
DELPORTE HOSPITALITY helps its customers to structure this strategy in a holistic way, bringing together hotel vision and operational excellence.
What is customer experience in the hotel industry?
Customer experience isn’t just about decoration or wall color. It is conceived as a global, sensory, functional, relational and emotional journey.
At DELPORTE HOSPITALITY, we support hotel construction and renovation projects by putting hospitality at the heart of every decision. All too often, hotels offer the same rooms, only in different colors. Yet changing the curtain or carpet is not enough to create a genuine customer experience.
What we’re proposing is to design places that are truly conceived for the diversity of uses and clienteles. Why not integrate :
- intelligent modular family rooms, with modular spaces, kitchenettes or separate sleeping areas for children;
- Aparthotel-style studios for long-stay guests or business travelers wishing to cook or reheat their meals;
- lounges that can be transformed, depending on the time of day or use, into projection rooms, coworking spaces, or meeting places for the local community;
- signature moments: masterclasses, workshops, meetings that extend the hotel’s DNA and create a real emotional bond.
The customer experience is much more than comfort: it’s a feeling of belonging, of being recognized, of being expected. This is what we seek to bring out in every project we support. In contrast to standards, we stand for tailor-made hospitality, embodied in both spaces and services.
Why do too many hotels look the same… and how can they stand out from the crowd?
Today, many hotels are in a frantic race to provide the best facilities: swimming pool, spa, rooftop, Instagrammable decor… with a logic too often dictated by imitation. Is a nearby hotel installing a swimming pool? The reflex is to want to build one too, sometimes even bigger, more designer, or more “wow”, simply so as not to be outdone.
But this logic of duplication can be counter-productive. If your pool isn’t as beautiful, as well-located or as well-maintained as your neighbor’s, it risks damaging your image rather than enhancing it. Worse still, it can generate significant costs without creating any real added value. On the other hand, if it allows you to have more people in winter, then it can be an asset indeed.
The real question to ask is not, “What are others doing?” but rather, “What can I do differently, and especially better?”
Because if the local market has a real need, for example, a strong demand for hotels with swimming pools, then yes, two establishments with swimming pools can coexist, each with its own personality. But if it’s just a question of following a trend or filling a “gap” through mimicry, the effort may be in vain.
To stand out is not to do more, but to do differently. It means thinking about the customer experience as a whole, understanding what your visitors are really looking for: a feeling of genuine hospitality, attentive service, an inspiring environment, a unique ambience.
Rather than adding standardized equipment, ask yourself this question:
What will my customers remember about their stay with me?
A swimming pool? Or a warm welcome, a unique atmosphere, attention to every detail? On the contrary, an intelligent strategy is based on :
- Differentiation: offer a unique service, such as an immersive VR lounge, a green rooftop, a wellness bar…
- The modularity of spaces: transform a living room without daylight into an interactive brainstorming area, or a cosy projection room, modulated as the day progresses.
- Customization of rooms: limit standardization (one room = 5% larger + different color), to create adapted typologies (family, business, romantic), with equipment dedicated to the different customer profiles expected.
- Modularity of use: kitchenette or apartment-hotel for long stays; family, romantic or sports packs; wellness corners, yoga corner.
Far from being incidental, these ideas create a strong identity and positive word-of-mouth. They transform a hotel into a destination, a place chosen for what it is, not just what it offers.
Trade shows also play an essential role in this dynamic of constantly evolving customer experience. The EquipHotel 2026 trade show, to be held in Paris in November, represents a fantastic opportunity for hoteliers, architects, investors and project developers to discover new trends, technological innovations, new uses and solutions capable of transforming tomorrow’s customer experience.
Attending a trade show isn’t just about looking at products: it’s about understanding market trends, meeting suppliers, talking to experts, identifying differentiating concepts and feeding your strategic thinking. It’s also a concrete way to avoid reproducing the same models as your competitors, and to find ideas that are truly adapted to your identity and clientele.
On this occasion, DELPORTE HOSPITALITY will also be developing a new edition of the Parcours Luxe, a selection of exhibitors offering solutions, products and services particularly suited to the high-end and luxury hotel industry. This journey will highlight companies capable of adding real value to the customer experience, through design, well-being, technology, materials, services and emotional experience. The aim remains the same: to help professionals identify partners who are consistent with their vision of hospitality and the expectations of tomorrow’s premium clientele.
The human factor: bringing strategy to life through teams
A customer experience strategy is worth nothing without a committed team. Hospitality is first and foremost an encounter between human beings. A brand’s identity, its values, are only alive if the team embodies them.
- Knowing oneself better, to be more welcoming: employees need to understand their personalities, their levers, to better adapt and welcome differences.
- Creating the right conditions: hoteliers need to welcome their teams in the same way they welcome customers – with recognition, training, space to talk, flexibility.
- Emotional training: learning to ask the right questions: “How do you feel?” rather than “Is everything okay?”. This requires a caring, not superficial, relationship.
The stakes are clear: emotion is the future of the hotel industry. A customer remembers a gesture, a smile, a shared moment. We help teams build a truly hospitable and emotional posture.
How can DELPORTE HOSPITALITY help you?
DELPORTE HOSPITALITY offers a comprehensive and modular support service:
- Customer experience diagnosis: analysis of strengths and opportunities.
- Strategic vision workshop: redefining direction, customer typology, hotel ambition.
- Co-construction of a differentiating customer experience (tools, spaces, services).
- Human training modules: emotional intelligence, personalization, proactive relations.
- Operational monitoring: evaluation, measurement of KPIs, regular adjustments.
We know that every hotel is unique. Our job is to align vision, place, team and community to create a strategy that’s tailor-made, sustainable and truly focused on the customer experience.
Things to remember
Building a customer experience strategy means :
- Stop copying ourselves, and choose to be different.
- Thinking space and services around use and emotions.
- Involve teams, create a human culture, focused on welcome and relationships.
- Design a coherent strategy, from positioning to events, services and space modularity.
With DELPORTE HOSPITALITY, every hotel can transform its strategy into a coherent and differentiating customer experience, make every stay a memorable one, and build a lasting community. Do you have an ambition? Together, let’s bring it to life.
Does this message speak to you? So don’t hesitate to share it with your colleagues, your customers, young people looking for a vocation, or anyone else who might be inspired by the challenges of transmission and excellence. Together, we can get these ideas circulating, give new meaning to manual and hospitality professions, and create real vocations.
If you have any ideas or needs, or if you’d like to take things further, I’d be delighted to hear from you. I offer hospitality audits, hospitality strategies, inspirational conferences, customized training and coaching for managers and teams in the hospitality, luxury and exceptional venue sectors.
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