The pandemic has been an electric shock for hotels, especially with the latest variants continued to shake up recovery efforts. While many hotel brands may still yearn for the days of ‘high touch’ hospitality where passionate, attentive and well-trained associates deliver service with a smile, this period is over.

The prolonged relevance of COVID-19 means that technology will be a cornerstone of operations going forward – and an increasingly dominant one at that – with what was considered the time-honored standards of service firmly in the past. This may be hard to grasp in terms of what it means for the future of your organization, so we present the Luddites as one historical example with profound lessons for how to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to hospitality trends and guest expectations.

History hasn’t been kind to the Luddites, nor has it been accurate. Our modern interpretation of these people is, in fact, wrong, and knowing the real story will help you to understand both their motivations and their actions in the moment – and not through the omniscience of hindsight – as well as why they are important at this pivotal moment for the hospitality industry.

A Bit of Historical Misinterpretation
Today, the word ‘Luddite’ has taken on a pejorative meaning for any individual who is tech-phobic or who refuses to ‘get with the program’ of any new digitized or digitalized way of life. At the time when they were most active in Great Britain around the first two decades of the 1800s amidst the nation’s rapid industrialization, they were branded as terrorists, albeit with good intentions.

Throughout civilized history, creative destruction sucks for those on the losing end of the technological evolution, and the coal-fired factories popping up throughout England were putting a lot of craftspeople out of work – not to mention introducing abysmally horrid working conditions for the burgeoning class of poor, urban laborers. The Luddites started out as a virtuous protest movement to protect the economic interests of the recently unemployed, hoping to strike a balance between the newly wealthy industrialists in the cities and the usurped, largely rural artisans.

But radical factions soon emerged within the Luddites, engaging in guerrilla sabotage throughout the countryside, which angered the aristocracy (who were now making a fleet-load of money off the growth in domestic production and exports), inevitably getting the whole group outlawed. As history is written by the victors – in this case, the capitalists – we are left with the homogenized interpretation of the word. Luddite now connotes being tenaciously opposed to most forms of technological progress, and yet we glaze over the events leading up to this boiled down definition. The Luddites weren’t necessarily abhorred by technology; they started off as pacifists with the goal of protecting displaced businesses, seeking compromise in the face of rapid, unchecked change.

Lessons for Dealing with Home Sharing
Consider how the Luddite movement organically grew from noble intents into something more combative and what might apply from this example to our industry’s current model. Oftentimes, we are so set upon preserving a way of operating that, instead of innovating internally for long-term survival, we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to systemic creative destruction from outside forces.

Nothing demonstrates this better than the rise of home sharing platforms, as lead by Airbnb. Is your chosen action in the face of this global creative destruction to complain and seek out more protectionist laws from various governing bodies (that is, oppose new technology)? Or do you consider Airbnb as simply another iteration of supply and demand, where an influx of guestroom supply (home sharing units) inevitably forces all current supply (hotels) to become better in order to justify their prices?

If the past two decades have taught us anything about technology companies, it’s that they move significantly faster than the law. As such, the best action is not to be a Luddite and pin your hopes on punitive fines and injunctions – as those might take years to come and travelers will have shifted behaviors by then – but to adapt.

Important to consider in how you respond, here are three of the characteristics that make these new home sharing entrants more adaptable to the current economy:

• Home sharing inventory is introduced and managed on a one-to-one basis, thus requiring far less capital for onboarding, brand differentiation and refurbishment, not to mention a more laissez faire organizational structure that greatly reduces managerial requirements.
• The tech stacks underpinning these home sharing platforms are more nimble, less complex and better integrated, together making it faster for inventory to be brought online, cheaper to manage (less labor and SaaS costs) and easier to use by the end consumer.
• In a positive feedback loop, home sharing platforms are training the next generation of guests not to expressly value a traditional hotel’s ‘high touch’ service, instead preferring a hands-off experience with fewer amenities but truly unique living spaces.

The message here isn’t to abandon ship. In listing off these three advantages, our hope is that you can help discern what necessary changes you can make to appease the shifting interests of younger guests as well as what attributes will serve as bona fide defensible moats for your property well into the future.

Embracing Tech for High Touch
In speeches given to crowds around the world – both before and after the pandemic – we have steadfastly remarked that a hotel’s team is its greatest strength. Despite any hints from the above that high touch is dying, the optimal solution is one of embracing technology so that your teams can be even more high touch than ever better (or hands-off if that’s what the guest wants).

Reminiscing on the good old days of hospitality, the GM used to be front and center, knowing all guests by name and directing an orchestra of service to personalize the experience. Now, most managers are bogged down by emails, meetings, maintenance issues and all other matters that might stymie the development of real rapport along with the nurturing of a vibrant social atmosphere.

By building better tech stacks, you help to shift the guest-staff dynamic from transactional back to interpersonal. Whereas most home sharing units are going the way of keypad entries and only virtual contact with the host, you want your guests leaving your property thinking, “Wow, they treated us like genuine friends and really made our stay special.” Ironically, this lofty goal echoes an early Airbnb intracompany slogan: a friend not a front desk.

Of course, there are innumerous other ways beyond service that can help a hotel resist creative destruction. Think physical aspects like location, golf courses, spas, restaurants, marinas, inspirational décor, themed rooms or lobby art. Perhaps you also have (or can develop) strong supply-side relationships, good branding or exclusive access to other entities.

Any tool in your shed can work, but still keep in mind the true lesson of the Luddites. It’s honorable to want to protect what has worked in the past, be it an operation, a SOP or a corporate structure with specific managerial roles. Nevertheless, change is inevitable and innovation is essential. If you don’t strive to meet customers where they are headed, then someone else will.