Creating Platforms

Laurent Haug

21
Sep

11:10am – 11:40am

Creating Platforms to Bring People Together

We live in a world of perception vs. reality. With this thought firmly in mind, Laurent Haug instructed us not to think of ourselves as operators of hotels but as operators of platforms that traffic in attention, money, relationships, identity, and information. Hotels are places where all these assets are flowing, he said, and a guest’s experience begins long before arrival when he/she is still anticipating the experience. Further, he noted that it is important for a hotel to associate itself with a theme, be it health, relaxation, food, etc., and to stay in people’s mind all year long, not just the few days of the year when they visit you. Continuing with the perception vs. reality idea, Haug stressed the importance of a hotelier understanding and connecting to the realities of the guest. Relationship changes your perspective. “Experience,” he said, “is what technology cannot trick your brain into thinking,” adding that there are no rules on how to make experience, but that a hotel should, for example, empower its staff with positive feelings about a property because guests will pick up on those feelings, creating a positive experience for them as well. Extending this point, Haug said that “social media tricks us into thinking we have friends and relationships. It’s an illusion. A relationship is what allows you to fight the commodification of the hospitality business. Focus on making a real environment where people care for each other.”

Recap Overview

Creating Platforms

Laurent Haug

Creating Platforms to Bring People Together

Properties of Sound

Welcome to Arena*

Creating Platforms

Providing Deeper Meaning

New Membership Clubs

The Portugal Survey

Festivalization

Social Capital

Loyalty’s Future: SPG + Marriott

The Iceman

The Future Laboratory