At the Hospitality Show 2024 in San Antonio, several top travel executives presented their thoughts about how corporate collaboration is crucial to the development of commercial strategy. The panel was moderated by Kevin Carey, AHLA’s interim president and CEO; Doreen Burse, senior VP worldwide sales, United Airlines; Kristie Goshow, chief commercial officer, KSL Resorts; and Scott Strickland, chief commercial officer, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, all shared their expertise.
Definition of Commercial Strategy
While a commercial strategy may simply be viewed as a straightforward, comprehensive action plan to achieve primary business goals, Goshow said that it really is more complicated than that. In a nutshell, though, she said she’d define it as, “…making sure that my team delivers the top line revenue that our operators need in order to make their bottom-line numbers.”
A conversation about commercial strategy in any aspect of the travel industry will almost always touch upon the role of technology and AI.
“The evolution of the commercial organization was just a natural thing because we had enabled our marketing, our commercial strategy, our revenue management, our distribution strategy through technology,” said Strickland.
Integration of the Entire Customer Journey
Panelists discussed the integration of travel and the customer journey, from flight to transport to the hotel. Burse pointed out that, “The journey really starts before they get to the airport. A lot of what we do in the airline business is we coordinate with airport authorities, local governments and a whole host of things that lead up to the arrival at the airport. There are multiple touchpoints along the way,” she said, noting that technology is used before they even arrive. To illustrate, she noted that while United does not run TSA, they have a close working relationship with the TSA team, implementing certain strategies that could help customers get through security faster.
From the hotel side, Strickland added that Wyndham’s two-part goal was to remove friction from both the guest and the owner experience.
“From the guest experience, we just launched the ability to book air, book your rental car, book your hotel, all on our site. As far as we're aware, we are the first of any major hotel chain to have done that. Also, for that same guest, how do we allow them to check locally if they want to, if they want to remove that friction point and don't want to go to the front desk?” Similarly, technology like mobile check in enables a hotel owner to be more efficient by focusing on other tasks.
Organizational Design and Collaboration
The presenters noted that collaboration should ideally extend to internal departments within hospitality organizations, as if they are speaking shared languages.
“My head of marketing and eCommerce has to be pretty conversant in the language of revenue strategy, and the individuals who need strategy must be conversant in the language of sales, so all of them can effectively walk around each in other's shoes,” said Goshow. “We really do encourage that by exposing all members of our commercial team to the broader business and provide opportunity for people in terms of movement through the organization for succession planning."
Strickland agreed with the collaborative approach, noting that, like KSL Resorts, each department at Wyndham must work together and be in regular communication. “Everyone has to understand what the strategy is well in advance and then become aligned behind it. We are the business, is the way we look at it, and then everybody else is helping us achieve those goals."
The collaborative model even extends to hiring a future labor force, with Burse noting that the most desirable hires in the airline industry are those who have worked in multiple areas of an airline, as they have gotten hands-on experience in other aspects of the business. Strickland added that Wyndham has pulled some of its employees from call centers and from a pool of interns.
Key Partnerships and Technology Integration
Collaboration extends to the integration of technology, and Strickland said that Wyndham considers their technology vendors to be partners.
“One of [our] key partnerships is on technology and really understanding... they're not vendors, they're partners [and] we're going to jointly develop and execute a roadmap together, and if functionality is not there, then we're going to build it together,” he said.
Future of the Travel Journey
The panelists all alluded to the fact that a customer’s travel journey begins before they even get on the road, and the key to customer satisfaction during all parts of the experience—including after they depart—resides with leveraging technology.
Goshow stated that upgrading generative AI will help drive better performance on both the top and bottom line. Strickland also talked about the importance of engaging with the guests during all aspects of the stay, from before check-in until six hours after the guest has left. He said that his company is leaning in to its AI-driven Wyndham Connect solution to help improve the guest experience. And at the airport, Burse said that technology can be used to provide information and enhance the customer experience.