Guests define what luxury means today

In this week’s episode of the Hotel Moment podcast, Shannon Knapp, President and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, joins Karen Stephens, Revinate CMO, to offer a comprehensive perspective on what goes into creating a luxury experience and why that experience means nothing without the right technology and staff that knows how to use it. Shannon also provides historical context around how hoteliers have approached luxury in the past, and why guests have assumed leadership in luxury experiences today.

Tune in and get motivated to narrow your hotel’s focus on the guest experience, listen to guests’ definition of luxury, and choose the right technology to personalize those luxury experiences.

Meet your host

As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen Stephens is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinate’s brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships.

Karen is also the host of The Hotel Moment Podcast, where she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading Revinate’s global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023.

Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution — including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and lastminute.com

Connect with Karen

Transcript

Intro – 00:00:04: Welcome to the Hotel Moment podcast presented by Revinate, the podcast where we discuss how hotel technology shapes every moment of the hotelier’s experience. Tune in as we explore the cutting-edge technology transforming the hospitality industry and hear from experts and visionaries shaping the future of guest experiences. Whether you’re a hotelier or a tech enthusiast, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in and discover how we can elevate the art of hospitality together.

Karen Stephens- 00:00:37: Welcome to the Hotel Moment podcast. I’m your host, Karen Stephens, the Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate. And on today’s episode, we are thrilled to have Shannon Knapp. Shannon is the President and CEO of The Leading Hotels in the World. With a deep background in luxury hospitality, Shannon has been pivotal in driving global customer engagement, brand strategy, and marketing innovation for over a decade. Under her leadership, LHW has seen significant growth in brand awareness and customer loyalty. Prior to her current role, Shannon held various senior positions at American Express, including Vice President of Marketing for Travel and Lifestyle Services, where she spearheaded key initiatives in customer experience and loyalty programs. With over 20 years of experience in creating integrated marketing strategies, Shannon is recognized as a leader in elevating brand presence and enhancing customer satisfaction in the luxury travel sector. This conversation was just phenomenal. I mean, first of all, to have a leader of Shannon’s caliber on the podcast, I mean to say — I am very grateful. We started out our conversation talking about the shift in the luxury space. So Shannon had a really good insight about how luxury has shifted over the last, call it 20 years or so. It used to be very led by the hotels, and now it’s really down to the travelers. So it’s really an n-of-1, is how she put it. So the need to understand the expectations of the customer and how to provide the guest experience is more important than it’s ever been. And personalization is really at the core of that. She also talked about the shift in the technology stack. So the center of the hotel that used to be the property management system has now really shifted over to the CRM. And we also talked a lot about, since the time of COVID, the shift for a lot of hotels in their marketing mix. Obviously, we’re seeing a lot more leisure than we’ve seen before. Corporate has kind of stepped back, and it’s ebbed and flowed, but she really hit on how hotels should think about how they get the right mix of business in their hotel and what really matters there. And finally, we capped off our conversation by Shannon talking about her own career trajectory that led her to the top spot at the world’s leading hotels. So obviously, as a CEO, whether it’s in hospitality or in any industry, it’s still fairly rare for a woman to be holding that top position. And Shannon talked a lot about what got her there. So some of that has to do with the mentors that helped her throughout her journey with advice as she came up in her career, and the importance of mentorship. And then she also talked about being open to all kinds of different roles, understanding what you like and what you don’t like. So I really encourage anybody who is looking for career advice or is inspired by someone who has reached that echelon, to give a listen. So I give you Shannon Knapp. W

elcome to the podcast, Shannon. We’re so delighted to have you here.

Shannon Knapp – 00:03:34: Thank you, Karen. I’m thrilled to be here. I appreciate the invitation.

Karen Stephens – 00:03:38: Absolutely. So I’d love to jump right in. So can you give our audience an idea of who are The Leading Hotels of the World and what is, kind of, your role? Obviously, you’re the President and CEO, but we’d love to hear a little bit about the luxury travel space and how Leading Hotels of the World really contributes in that area.

Shannon Knapp – 00:03:55: Sure. So Leading Hotels of the World is a collection of over 400 truly independent luxury hotels all around the world. We’re in, I think, over 80 countries at this point. And our mission is really to empower the success of our independent hotels so that they can continue to make the choice to stay independent, which, as you know, in this time is increasingly difficult thing. So what we try and do for our members is to provide global distribution, obviously a global luxury brand, sales, marketing, technology, data analytics support, so that they can continue to be successful. Many of them are brands in and of themselves, but they can continue to be successful, grow their business, and we can continue to support this thriving independent luxury segment.

Karen Stephens – 00:04:44: Yes, and we’re familiar, we have a lot of Revinate customers that are also the world’s leading hotels. And I can tell you, I mean, obviously, you know, some of the most beautiful hotels that are all over the world. And I think what I love so much about your organization, and you just hit on it, the hotels are able to maintain their independence. And so they have their own character, their own experience, but they have that support from the overall organization. That’s great. So you’ve been operating in the luxury travel space for quite a while. So before you were at the world’s leading hotels, you were with American Express on the luxury travel end. So can you talk to me a little bit about the history of luxury hospitality? What have you seen change when it comes to creating a luxury stay experience and what has kind of remained constant?

Shannon Knapp – 00:05:29: I think, and I’m certainly not going to share anything that is probably earth-shattering here, but luxury has changed so significantly over the last, let’s call it 20, 25 years. I think in the past, especially on the hospitality side, the hotel side, the hotels almost used to dictate what luxury was. We define the standards of luxury, and we told that to the consumer, and we demonstrated that in the experience to the consumer. But what has evolved and changed so significantly, is that luxury now is such a personal experience. It really is about what is important to me as a traveler, as a person, and what is luxury to me might be completely not luxury to you. And I think that that is both a challenge and an opportunity in our business. I mean, we certainly see this reflected in the guests that stay with leading hotels. Not only do they absolutely love their traditional palace hotels in our portfolio, like the Ritz-Carlton, or like the Lowell here in New York City, but they’re also really interested in hotels that meet different criteria for luxury these days based on who they are. Maybe having different experiences being with a hotel in a remote location or a hotel that offers a hyper authentic experience that is authentic to its destination. Or maybe they want to stay at a really small, intimate hotel that maybe doesn’t have all the traditional five-star amenities and multiple F&B outlets. Or maybe not a central lobby, for example, but something that’s a little bit more home-like. They embrace different kinds of architecture and design. We see, obviously, and I know, again, this is a trend that we’re all seeing in the industry, but this shift towards a focus on holistic wellness and sustainability as interest. So I think the definition of luxury over the last several years has evolved to be much more of an N-of-1, in a way. What is luxury to me, and how will I express that in the choices that I make with the hotels that I stay in?

Karen Stephens – 00:07:27: You know what, that’s a really great point. And what you’re hitting on or what I’m hearing from that is how important personalization is. So really understanding what that guest wants and needs. Because as you mentioned, again, going back to the uniqueness of the world’s leading hotels, 400 hotels, they’re all different. You know, they all have their own flavor. So can you talk just a little bit, how do you approach that from a marketing standpoint, thinking about how you understand the guest and make sure that that experience is as personalized as possible from the communication standpoint, website brand? Like how do you approach that? Because it’s a tall order.

Shannon Knapp – 00:08:02: Absolutely, as marketers, it’s no longer just broad segments that we can create offerings for and call it a day. It really is segments of one. So it starts with, and this again, many years ago, the center of the tech stack universe at the hotel used to be the PMS. The PMS did everything for our members and for hotels around the world. But so much more now is available to enable the hotel, to deliver a truly personalized experience. I mean, obviously Revinate is a partner of leading hotels, actually, in terms of being a CRM provider. You know, CRM for a hotel is really a fairly recent development, and it’s something that has become so vital to being able to collect the interests and the needs and the preferences of your guests, and then be able to match the right promotion or the right experience. That is all being done now at scale. So especially on the luxury side, when you think about luxury being, about white glove service, personalization, really delivering that, that used to be delivered exclusively by the most connected GMs who had the most robust Rolodex of customer information on their desk that they could pull out when they knew you were coming to stay. But now we can do that level of personalization at scale, and really free up the front of house staff to deliver the experience that they want to deliver, to do what they do best, which is really, spend time with the guests, speak to the guests, get to know what their needs are and kind of match the experience for them. That’s something that historically couldn’t be done at a scale that we can do it today because of the availability of technology and data resources that post-COVID, we’ve really seen the luxury hotel industry embrace.

Karen Stephens – 00:09:45: And that is so exciting. I think you really hit on something extraordinary there. If you have somebody who really loves hospitality, staff and hotels, what they really want to be doing is interacting with that guest. And if you’re leveraging that technology properly, you’ve done the heavy lift for them, and then they can just put the guest experience on top, which I know for luxury hotels is at the center.

Shannon Knapp – 00:10:04: It’s their passion, right? Their passion is not technology, but I think they’ve come to realize that technology can really empower and enable them to do what they do best. And what they want to do is make that guest return. They want to make that guest so happy that they want to return to their hotel, and they now see the power of technology to enable that experience that they deliver personally that drives that level of loyalty.

Karen Stephens – 00:10:27: That’s exciting. So speaking of loyalty, you just brought up another buzzword near and dear to my heart. Loyalty in the context of a collection of independents. And I know that you initiated the Leaders Club program. So can you share how the program has evolved since its inception and how hotels are utilizing it?

Shannon Knapp – 00:10:45: Sure. And Karen, I wish I could take credit for initiating the Leaders Club program, but I certainly can’t do that. It’s been around for many years, but we did relaunch the program in 2018. First off, and kind of leading from the last question, loyalty really starts and ends with the experience that’s delivered at the hotel. From our perspective, we have the best hotels and hoteliers in the world who do this every day. And so it really starts and ends there. But of course, being in hotels, we need to have a loyalty program. And we have created what I think is a really great platform, loyalty platform for both the consumers as well as the hotels themselves. So as an independent hotel, it neither makes economic sense nor practical sense for you to have your own loyalty program. The expense of the loyalty program is very difficult. The diversity of where guests travel makes it very difficult for smaller-scale groups or individual hotels to have a loyalty program that makes sense. So what we’ve done is we’ve provided a platform for our members to be able to offer loyalty benefits from Leaders Club that enable them to reward their best guests, to enhance the stay experience, again, to make that guest want to return, not only to the hotel that they’re staying at, but also to make the connection between the hotel and the extraordinary experience that they’re having there with Leaders Club and The Leading Hotels of the World, so that when they travel to a new destination, they look to The Leading Hotels of the World and Leaders Club for where they would like to stay. So the loyalty program is complimentary to travelers, and it really creates that gateway to our extraordinary collection of independent luxury hotels around the world. And it enables the guests to have an elevated stay experience with benefits and amenities, including pre-arrival upgrade, complimentary breakfast, the ability to earn points to redeem later for stays. And what’s interesting or unique about our program is that you earn those benefits from day one. So you don’t have to go through a tier before you get some of these, for example, complimentary breakfast or upgrades. Those come day one with your membership with Leaders Club.

Karen Stephens – 00:12:53: That’s wonderful. And are you also leveraging personalization within Leaders Club? So making sure that whatever the guest is telling you, you can then transmit to other hotels. How does that work?

Shannon Knapp – 00:13:03: There’s quite a world of GDPR and PII and all those things that we have to obviously be very conscious of and very careful with the data of our guests. And we are different than your traditional fully branded hotels like Marriott or Hilton’s, and that we don’t own operate or franchise our hotels. So the data of our hotels is actually uniquely the data of our hotels. However, as Leaders Club, the program, if you sign up as a Leaders Club program, and you choose to share with us your preferences and you choose to say that you’re happy to have those preferences shared across your stay experiences, we absolutely do and are able to share that information with our hotels, whether that’s something as simple as your arrival time. So you can hope that your room would be prepared for your arrival to your preference in the type of location of your room or the type of amenities you enjoy. So when the guests chooses us to provide that, and they’re comfortable with us sharing that, we do share that with our hotels around the world.

Karen Stephens – 00:14:03: That’s wonderful. You know, one thing that we’ve always talked about with personalization, or if you’re asking for guest information, is that you use it properly, obviously, but then you do actually use it. So if somebody tells you in one hotel, you know, I want to be facing whatever, the courtyard, you want to make sure that the next hotel gets that information. So that’s great. You’re able to tie it together with the loyalty program. So shifting gears a little bit, it is that time of year, we are heading into the budget season. And so I’m sure as the world’s leading hotels, you probably give a lot of advice and help hotels as they move through it. But generally, what kind of advice do you give during this period? Why do they think about their financial planning, their marketing budgets, their tech stack? How do you advise the hotels in that regard?

Shannon Knapp – 00:14:46: It’s such an interesting time. I do think that it has really stimulated a different approach and a different take on the annual budgeting process now. What we try, and when we speak to our hotels, and we are strategic business partners for our hotels, we are there to help ensure that they’re maximizing the revenue that comes to them through all channels. So we work with them on their budgeting strategy from a revenue perspective, as well as their distribution strategy. How will they achieve that outcome? And what we’re seeing a lot of these days is a shift in mix. So leisure, obviously, it kind of took off in 2021, 2022, and has really become a major part of the mix of a lot of our hotels, so much so that some of our hotels who were historically maybe more of a balanced mix of corporate, and group, and leisure, are now really leaning very heavily on the leisure business, and maybe reducing the amount of corporate business they have or the amount of group business that they’re pursuing. So the guidance that we give to our hotels is really understand, obviously, your owner’s expectations, but also where is that business coming from today? Where do you think you need to invest resources to increase your share? And increase your share in a way that’s realistic. So you may wish to have a highly rated business from a certain country of origin, but if you’ve got zero of that today, it’s going to be very hard for you to suddenly blow that out of the water. So help them really have an eye to what is their mix today? What is their aspirational mix? What is the investment that they need to make both themselves as well as in collaboration with us to affect that outcome? As it relates to budgeting for CapEx related things, specifically technology, we have a lot of conversations with our members about not being distracted by the new shiny object. Really understand what the use case is for these new technology platforms that we all get. You know, every day I get probably 50 emails from various vendors of data technology. They’re all great, I’m sure. But what is the problem that I’m trying to solve as a hotelier from my hotel? Really be clear on what the use cases are. Don’t be distracted by the next shiny object coming through. And make sure that you have somebody on property who can actually manage that vendor. And if you can’t, work with us because we can help you with that. Because having the greatest technology platform that no one on property understands means you’re not maximizing the value. It means you’re wasting money and resources.

Karen Stephens – 00:17:19: Oh my gosh, truer words were never spoken. You know, we had our own conference this spring in Miami, and our CEO got up on stage, and he showed a picture of a utility closet, you know, in a hotel with all the wires and hanging out. It’s like, here’s where technology goes to die. And I think you hit it on the head. All these platforms, they don’t speak to each other, and nobody’s managing it. And so somebody thought it was a good idea, but I think that truer words were never spoken. Making sure that everything could be integrated, you can have access to the data, and someone’s managing it.

Shannon Knapp – 00:17:50: Exactly. And I mean, think about it from an independent hotel’s perspective. If you’re a small hotel in the middle of the Swiss Alps, maybe you have a team of 10 folks on property between sales, marketing, and distribution. It’s hard to expect that somebody on property is going to have the experience, the knowledge, the time to be able to manage this increasing collection of technology providers, especially when they don’t speak to each other, especially when what they sold you is not necessarily what has been implemented. So it’s really important. And this is a role that has become increasingly important for leading over the last several years is consulting with our members first. As I mentioned, don’t get distracted, understand the problems you’re trying to solve, but also then how are you maximizing the tools that you have? You don’t need anything new. You actually have a great setup here. You have a great tech stack. How are you using it? And how can we help you do that?

Karen Stephens – 00:18:42: Absolutely. And I can just say from the vendor side, when we went through the partnership with Leading Hotels of the World, your team stepped in to do all of the technical due diligence. It was not a one-and-done. There were many competitors in that boat. So I just want to give a shout out. I think, again, if you’re an independent hotel, for you to do that kind of diligence is difficult. So to be able to kind of look to Leading and say, Okay, this vendor works or doesn’tI think is important.

Shannon Knapp – 00:19:07: Yeah, thanks, Karen. It is something, like I mentioned, it’s a newish, certainly not a newish capability for us. We’ve had a very strong tech team for many years, but in terms of turning to the hotel operations side, and really helping to be a partner for our members in identifying their needs, finding the right partners, the right vendors to meet those needs, because the needs of smaller hotels, independent hotels are very different from those of larger hotels or hotels that are part of chain brands. So really understanding what the distinct needs of these members are and then helping to make sure that they’re getting the best business terms, the best commercial terms, best service terms, as well as obviously world-class technology solutions. So, I mean, we’re proud that we’re able to help in that way. And the demand for that is ever-increasing.

Karen Stephens – 00:19:51: It really is because, my goodness, to your point, to wrap your brain around the speed at which all of the things are coming out now is a lot. And so to be able to leverage kind of the experience of a central team, to be part of an association where you’ve got other hotels, you can leverage that knowledge and have something centrally driving it, it’s really exciting. So speaking of kind of global brand presence for a hotelier, what one piece of advice would you offer to hoteliers that are looking to increase their brand’s global presence and customer experience in the digital age? Is there anything that comes to mind?

Shannon Knapp – 00:20:25: I think it comes down to really having a good understanding of your business, your growth aspirations, and trying to, in all seriousness, maximize the partners that are available to you. Because I would say, and it’s truer than ever, as much as I think there are a ton of capabilities that enable, that may sell themselves as, Hey, you can do this all yourselfI think that that is a really tall order for any independent or smaller operator to figure out how to elevate your brand, how to define your distribution across literally, thousands of channels globally to manage your operations, to deliver a great guest experience, to manage your loyal guests. The task is taller than it has ever been for hotel operators. And I think the best advice that I could offer is to stay maniacally focused on what you are trying to achieve from a business outcomes perspective, from a guest experience perspective, and put your resources on the things that matter in driving those outcomes.

Karen Stephens – 00:21:33: I love that. That’s great advice. Okay, so Shannon, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you this question. So for women aspiring to reach top leadership positions, what tips do you have based on your own career jo urney? Moving from a marketing leadership position to the top job, what helped you make that transition?

Shannon Knapp – 00:21:51: I would say the most important thing across my entire career has been the support and advocacy of mentors. I have had three mentors across my career that have really invested in me and have helped me, and they’ve challenged me. They have helped me refine what my career aspirations were, and they really invested in my success. And that’s something that I think as a rare female leader in this industry, is something that I love to kind of pay it back or pay it forward, however you want to look at it. But it’s something that I think is really important for those of us that are in this industry to be able to not only model behavior for future leaders, but also to take the time to mentor and be a support so we can help bring more women into the leadership positions in hospitality in particular. I would say the other thing that I did that maybe at the time I wasn’t as conscious about, but I think has been a really important part of my ability to continue to progress in my career is I never charted too narrow a course for my career. I was very comfortable taking lateral moves. I was very comfortable going into areas that I perhaps, that maybe it first didn’t appeal to me or I wasn’t aware of. And what all of that did was help me really understand and refine over time what I liked, what I was good at, what I didn’t like, what I wasn’t good at. And all of that helped kind of refine my path as I went along in my career. And I think that that’s a really important, especially as I kind of look at our younger workers these days, is to be okay with having a broader scope of experience. Because ultimately that is where I had the greatest learnings. I got to work with different customer types. I got to work in different functions. I got to work with different types of products. And all of that contributed to my knowledge base that I think was really important for me as I moved from being a functional expert in marketing to really taking on the CEO role. I was able to draw on a really diverse background and experience.

Karen Stephens – 00:23:59: I love that. And I love the shout-out to mentors as well. I think it’s so important to be able to have trusted advisors because I think as we grow in our careers, we gain more and more confidence and to be able to help younger people get some confidence and try and fail and it’s okay.

Shannon Knapp – 00:24:16: Yeah, failure is an amazing thing, actually. Some of my best lessons, bar none, have been as a result, not of successes, but actually of failures.

Karen Stephens – 00:24:23: Failure and learning. Oh, I love that. Shannon, it’s been a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much. My guest has been Shannon Knapp, who is the president and CEO of Leading Hotels of the World. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

Shannon Knapp – 00:24:34: Thank you so much, Karen.

Karen Stephens – 00:24:40: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hotel Moment by Revinate. Our community of hoteliers is growing every week, and each guest we speak to is tackling industry challenges with the innovation and flexibility that our industry demands. If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if you’re listening on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe for more content. For more information, head to revinate.com/hotelmomentpodcast. Until next time, keep innovating.

About Revinate

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Our Guest Data Platform and communication solutions unlock revenue for hoteliers and put them in control of the full guest experience — initial research, booking, check-in, throughout the stay, and even after check out — all via the communication channels that guests prefer, whether it’s voice, text, email, or web.

More than 12,000 hotels globally bank on Revinate to drive direct revenue and deliver delightful guest experiences.

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