Summer Travel Trends 2024: What Should Hotels Expect?

In fact, a Virtuoso survey stated that 82% of its clients are considering destinations with more moderate weather in 2024, in place of the usual summer hotspots such as South of France and Sicily. Another report identified such destinations to be Iceland, Finland, and Scotland.  

Therefore, with so many new and crucial summer travel trends emerging, let’s see how hotels can make a guest’s stay more summery and pleasant in 2024.

1. Add a summer touch to your hotel marketing

In order to attract more guests this summer season, you must add a summery touch to your marketing strategies and campaigns. The hotel website and social media platforms should give a summer vibe and look inviting enough to guests.

Add visuals such as images and videos that suggest summer and nudge guests to make a booking. Update content to include summer-specific amenities and services such as air-conditioning, swimming pool, complimentary cold drinks, etc.

2. Remind guests of the importance of togetherness this summer holidays

Through your promotional campaigns and hotel website content, remind your guests how important it is to spend time with family or loved ones this summer season.   

With kids getting their summer break/holidays, it is a good time to emotionally appeal to guests and persuade them to step out of the house and spend some quality time with each other.

There’s also Friendship’s Day during the summer season when you can entice guests to celebrate their friendships with an intimate vacation.

3. Make your menu summer-ready

First and foremost, welcome your guests with a cool drink. Allow them to beat the heat as they step into your property. This will also allow them to lessen their travel fatigue. It is a summer must-have!

Furthermore, add more light snacks and elements to the menu. Include fresh fruits, salads, fresh juices, smoothies, coolers, etc. Also, add vibrant and colorful desserts such as pastries, cakes, yogurts, ice creams, sorbets, and gelatos to your menu to give it a more summer feel.

4. Leverage technology

Summer or winter, leveraging technology for a personalized and enhanced guest experience remains constant. 

Starting from mobile-friendly websites, online booking, and payment platforms, and contactless check-ins/outs, to AI chatbots and smart rooms, hotels must offer these digital solutions to their new-age guests.   

Moreover, you must offer undisrupted WiFi connectivity for guests to have a frictionless stay experience. The appropriate threshold for WiFi these days is 50 megabits per second (Mbps). While some providers, like Google Fiber, may offer up to 1000 Mbps.  

Hotels must also offer co-working spaces, conference halls, quiet cafes, or open spaces for leisure travelers to enjoy their vacation whilst fulfilling their work commitments. Because let’s be real, adults have no summer breaks!

Searches for ‘work from hotel’ are up 76% in 5 years. 

A strong WiFi connection is highly required for this segment of travelers.

5. Encourage sports and fun activities

Summers can be harsh. So, if you are located near a beach or a lake, and if it’s safe out there, organize some water sports activities for your guests. You can include different activities for different age groups. Help them beat the heat with some water splashing and fun.   

However, if you have no water body around, no worries! Organize some fun games at the property in the evening, as the sun becomes less intense. Keep your property size and space in mind while hosting such events.

Some summer-themed, light-hearted games could be lawn twisters, sack races, dunk bucket games, etc.

6. Offer guests sustainability

Most of the travelers are seeking sustainable travel and stay post-pandemic and amidst a climate crisis. And rightly so! We humans do not have much time to make amends.   

A survey by Virtuoso found that 82% of participants said the pandemic increased their desire for sustainable travel and 70% feel that sustainability enhanced their stay experience.

Thus, modern-day hotels must offer sustainability to new-age travelers. This could be done through automation, using smart devices. Smart rooms and solar panels could help a hotel save energy and make guests feel responsible and energy-conscious travelers.    

These smart devices are a part of EaaS (Energy as a Service) and allow hotels to make major energy investments without any initial costs

EaaS searches are up 68% over 5 years and still rising.

Tools like resource trackers such as Con-Serve allow properties to easily track and manage resource usage such as water, food, electricity, laundry, and transportation.

Multiple global hotels are following some really cool and effective sustainable practices and operating responsibly.   

Es Racó D'artà in Mallorca, Spain, has all biodegradable, locally sourced, and organic material. It further houses gardens, a biomass plant, and a water treatment system. It utilizes self-produced solar and geothermal energy. Moreover, mobile signals are intentionally blocked within the premises.   

Another property, The Wynn Las, Vegas, back in 2018, started partially powering its resort via a 160-acre solar facility.   

It also launched its Zero Carbon Zero Waste event service in 2023. 

MGM Hotels and Resorts launched a 100-megawatt solar array in summer 2023. This facility powers 90% of daytime usage at 13 of its properties including the MGM Grand, ARIA, Mandalay Bay, and the Bellagio.   

The hotel and resort chain also diverts 30 materials from landfills, from glass to hangers and towels.

Melià Hotels has partnered with Climatetrade to allow guests to apply reward points toward environmental projects in Brazil and Mexico and combat climate change.  

Not just hotels, companies from other industries are also coming up with solutions to make properties a more sustainable place of stay.

Rocean and FloWater, the companies specializing in water and water waste, are helping hotels install water purifiers in rooms and common places. This would help reduce plastic bottle use. 

Multiple hotels from Radisson Red to Hilton leverage power-producing gym equipment like SportsArt’s Eco-Powr line, to practice eco-active tourism.

7. Prepare for group bookings

Hotels must be prepared for group travel this summer because people are inclining more toward shared holiday experience, especially post-pandemic. 

All generations are embarking on new journeys together, making wonderful memories, and leaving nothing for tomorrow. Relationships are getting sweeter, and friendships are becoming stronger through these shared experiences.

Tom Marchant of Black Tomato says, ‘While some predicted group travel would peak post-pandemic, we’ve seen it have a lasting, positive impact with private group bookings continuing to be a dominant trend’. Group travel now accounts for 30% of Tom’s bookings.

To cater to this demand, Tom’s company has launched the ‘See You in the Moment’ series where a mood board of more than 35 different guest experiences ranging from meals to fun activities together, is created for lasting memories.

Empty-nesters are also increasingly going out for vacations in large groups to reinforce their relationships, rekindle their friendships, and live life leisurely.

Thus, hotels could come up with subscription models, mood boards, packages, etc., for group travelers this summer and create an army of loyal guests.

Conclusion

These were some of the Summer Travel Trends for 2024 that hotels must keep in mind to offer a frictionless and enhanced guest experience.

From making your marketing strategies summer-ready to tweaking your menu and packages to incorporate summery elements to offering guests technologically advanced solutions and sustainability, hotels must be at the top of their game this summer with these trends.

And BOTSHOT is here to help you with exactly the same!

Streamline your hotel operations, practice sustainability, and elevate your guest's experience this Summer with us.

Schedule a demo and start your 14-day FREE trial today!