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Falkensteiner launches state-of-the-art experience store powered by Turneo
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The next generation of travelers are looking for one thing: an unforgettable experience. With the rise of social media, low cost air fares, and a mounting loneliness epidemic, traveling is no longer about where you go - it’s about what you do.
For hotels, this means a pivotal shift.
"It’s not enough to showcase your beautiful setting and five star rooms any more. Guests want to see the unique experiences you can offer them, that they can’t get anywhere else" says Elizabet Roža, Head of Marketing SEE at Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences.
Leading European hotel chain Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences is constantly looking for ways to differentiate and go above and beyond guest expectations.
One thing in the spotlight: guest activities and experiences.
Launching a digital experiences store
Hotels have always wanted to highlight the great activities on offer… but a digital experiences store marks a critical step forward.
Partnering with activities software provider Turneo, Falkensteiner have created a digital experiences store that sets them apart. Benefitting from live availability, a seamless checkout, and centralized, integrated data, Falkensteiner explain how their store goes above and beyond the latest guest expectations.
1. The best of e-commerce
Buying goods online is now the norm. It’s also seamless and takes just a matter of seconds to find what you want to buy, learn the key details, click checkout, and be on your way.
By contrast, planning activities can be a nightmare.
We’ve all been there: you want to book a sightseeing tour on Tuesday… you fill out a form and wait to hear back from the hotel once they’ve checked with the tour guide. While you wait, you call the in-house spa to book a treatment. You find out Tuesday is the only day when there’s availability for a facial … which means moving your sightseeing date… which also impacts your dinner reservations… which means another set of phone calls, emails, uncertainty and waiting around…
Falkensteiner’s new digital experiences store changes all that.
The store includes online checkout, with live availability and pricing - so no more waiting to hear back about availability. Plus, it’s a one stop shop for everything - so no more back and forth between the spa, the restaurant, the reception, and the tour guide. Your itinerary is generated live as you add items to your cart, and you can see in real-time how changing one booking might impact another.
Guests can start their holiday, knowing they have unforgettable experiences guaranteed.
2. Moving away from activity silos
It’s not just the guests that get frustrated with traditional activities bookings. Hotels typically have to juggle multiple departments, multiple providers, and multiple timetables when it comes to managing a full offering for their guests.
Both guests and staff alike benefit from the single, centralized experiences store.
Unlike other specialized software providers, Falkensteiner opted to work with Turneo thanks to the flexibility of their platform - offering a true one-stop-shop for every experience.
The store covers everything from Falkensteiner’s renowned children’s academies, to their top tier spa, and their extensive sports development. It also integrates their trusted partners: everything from luxury boat trips, to famous sightseeing tours, to top-rated transfer services.
Staff feel in control of activities and experiences as a cohesive part of the guest’s booking - not an afterthought.
3. Truly personalized service
High-end hospitality providers are often experts in superior service, but get restricted by lots of legacy systems.
With the ever-growing importance of personalisation, hotels are under a lot of pressure to bring their expert knowledge and service into the digital realm.
For Falkensteiner, the digital experiences store fits into an overarching strategy where technology plays a critical role. In particular, they are moving to cloud-based, API-first solutions that enable better data governance and better understanding of their guests.
"Technology is never a cold tool, it is always about making the customer experience better" says Paolo Gagliardi, Director of Technology at Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences.
Experiences are a critical component that has long been missing from guest profiles and personalization opportunities.
Rather than just being able to identify and suggest traditional “upsells” like room upgrades, with experience data linked to guest profiles, it becomes possible to recommend entire itineraries and understand the context of why people are traveling.
Falkensteiner are building a clearer, more detailed guest profile, which in turn enables that more detailed personalization, paving the way to very meaningful differentiation versus other hotels.
What's next
The Falkensteiner digital experiences catalog is powered by Turneo - the leading activities platform for hotels. Operating under a “welcome home” philosophy, the Falkensteiner group is laser-focused on using technology to deliver a better guest experience. They are currently one of the leading hotel chains for creating personalized experiences for their guests through a wide range of specially curated activities and amenities.
