The term “value add” has always fascinated me, mostly because of the sheer mental gymnastics hoteliers perform to justify it. We throw “value add” around like it’s some revolutionary marketing masterstroke. A free continental breakfast here, a complimentary glass of lukewarm house red there, maybe a late check-out if the guest promises to leave a five-star review.
But let’s strip away the corporate gloss and look at what’s actually happening. Are we truly adding value, or are we just giving away products for free that guests probably should have paid for in the first place?
My tenet? We call these things “value adds” simply because our industry historically lacked the technological mechanisms to sell them effectively. Our clunky legacy systems and rigid distribution pipes weren’t built for modern retailing. So, instead of building a proper digital storefront to monetize ancillary inventory, we just handed the inventory away and called it a strategy.
Consider your local supermarket. When you walk down the aisle, does the grocer “value add” you by tossing a free carton of milk into your trolley to outsmart the shop down the road? Of course not. They display every single product they have available, make it effortlessly easy to purchase, and let you decide what you want. The actual value to the consumer is the breadth of choice and the friction-free ability to buy it.
This is where hospitality has completely lost the plot. We spend endless cycles trying to outsmart the competition with yield-eroding freebies, when the real differentiator is staring us in the face: comprehensive product exposure.
What if our distribution tech actually allowed us to expose every asset, service, and experience we operate directly to the guest at every touchpoint? That’s true differentiation. Instead of diluting our margins with hollow perks, we could just empower guests to buy what they actually want.
Instead of adding value, maybe it’s time we just added revenue.
Life is so tech. Less of more.
Mark Fancourt
