The Metaverse: What It Means for the Hotel Industry

As everyone starts to become more aware of the Metaverse, it's no surprise that hotel industry professionals are asking what this means for them. The Metaverse is a virtual reality world that is predicted to change the way we interact with each other and experience the world. For hotels, this could mean anything from attracting guests with new and innovative marketing strategies to assessing how they can enrich their guests' experiences. In this article, we will explore some of the ways in which the Metaverse could impact hotels and what they need to do to get ready for it.

The degree of interaction between two individuals is the key distinction between Metaverse and virtual reality. Users in the Metaverse use their avatars to interact with one another and experience new things in a shared digital environment with other Metaverse users. This encounter is linked to the person's physical existence via technology.

The Metaverse will effect the industry

The first and most important point to consider is that the Metaverse will not render traditional travel obsolete, as some people believe.

People go on holiday for a sense of escapism and relaxation, as well as digital detoxing, according to studies. In other words, some individuals will be going on vacation to get away from the Metaverse.

The Metaverse may be used to sell hotel rooms quickly, as the hotel business discovers. Guests previously had only photographs, text, and reviews to go on. Now they'll have a new, more interesting choice: immersive 3D presentations. 

This isn't something out of the realm of possibility. Consider this: you're walking through a hotel lobby, along with other rooms, a spa, and comparing and contrasting potential hotels and attractions in VR. Major travel operators like TUI are already doing this in their flagship stores and is how future holiday planning and window shopping will work.

Immersive business travel

The hospitality sector does not only profit from sleeping leisure alone. Events and business are also a key element of the business.

The business traveler is taking the Metaverse by storm. After the virus is eradicated, the increase in virtual and hybrid events will not cease. The potential of the Metaverse may help to alleviate some of these problems. Covid has been a fantastic test case to experiment and refine VR offerings and now ready to impart this knowledge to the Metaverse. Hotels can now make themselves accessible to anyone anywhere. 

“Ensuring your technology infrastucture, Wi-Fi, Broadband and Bandwidth can cope is no longer a nice to have but a key critera to allow the business to function.”

Technology is now a room feature and amenity

Hotel guests like nice facilities, such as TVs, WiFi, decent showers, gyms, and so on. Connected services like streaming and VR access in the future will be defining characteristics for visitors looking at their stays. If you have Metaverse compatible equipment to offer, it might be a selling point that seals the deal.

Ensuring your technology infrastucture, Wi-Fi, Broadband and Bandwidth can cope is no longer a nice to have but a key critera to allow the business to function. That aligned with 1st line support for maximum uptime is now a key business decision for property operators.

New booking touchpoint opportunities 

This opens up new possibilities for streamlining the booking procedure and interacting with consumers at the point of purchase to enhance conversion by providing the front end booking office in the virtual realm - or, more precisely, further automation of the booking process.

New loyalty programs and NFT rewards

Hotels might have a unique selling proposition if they offered NFTs to commemorate visitors' stays, and they may be on the verge of having a completely new and enormous selling point for travellers who want something unusual to remember. The Metaverse enables competitions, coupons, and special events to be used.

Virtual tourism for guests

The hotel can also now offer new experiences of a location direct from the hotel themselves and use the Metaverse to improve the experience of the city and emphasise the desire for a unique experience. 

In order to offer virtual experiences while still staying within the hotel's boundaries, they may upsell the hotels food and drink and facilities. They may offer their area's tourist attractions, museums, historical monuments, and other similar experiences while remaining inconspicuous. This personalised attention might be appealing to future-thinking consumers.

The future

Despite its youth, the Metaverse has already led to important progress in the hotel sector, from attracting and up-selling customers to enhancing hospitality locations' events and guest experience.

As well as Metaverse hotels, one of the other key emerging technologies that the tourism industry should be aware of is blockchain technology which will run alongside the Metaverse. This will be key in a variety of ways, including for making secure payments and identifying individuals.

Finally, artificial intelligence should also be considered another key technology that may be linked to the Metaverse hotel idea. However, like virtual reality, it should also be regarded and understood as a separate technological movement, and it can be utilised to provide both in-person and internet customer service as well as data analysis.