The Future of ALPIANA – Green Luxury

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"Our initial skepticism about working with marketing automation software? To overwhelm our guests with communications. After 5 years, we know: There is never too much!"</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Christian Margesin</div></div></div>

Hotel ALPIANA - green luxury in Völlan near Lana (South Tyrol/Italy) has been owned by the Margesin family since 1975. At that time Josef and Rosa Margesin laid the foundation for the "Völlanerhof" with 25 rooms, Johann and Monika Margesin optimized the business, until finally their sons Johannes and Christian actively joined the family business.In 2015, the ALPIANA RESORT was created with 59 rooms and suites, one of the first large wellness hotels in the region with a unique pool and garden landscape. The hotel is part of the Dolce Vita Hotels and Belvita Leading Wellnesshotels of South Tyrol groups. The hotel has always focused on economic sustainability in many areas, recently reflected in the new name "ALPIANA - green luxury".

<h3 class="interview-question"> ALPIANA - Green Luxury as a strong brand: What does it stand for and what is the company's vision?</h3>
Christian and Johannes Margesin: The ALPIANA brand stands for an upscale wellness hotel in a beautiful natural setting, creating a retreat for all generations. Our vision is to create a new kind of luxury through a symbiosis of infrastructure, architecture and software. We believe that ALPIANA is a place where time has its place, where everything is allowed, but nothing is required.

<h3 class="interview-question">A hotel, like any business, is a living organism. In which direction will ALPIANA develop?</h3>

We continue to work on the vision we developed in 2015, when the existing hotel was completely rebranded and remodeled. The foundation we laid at that time is still in place, because a lot of what we conceived at that time was not immediately implemented. We were pioneers, for example, with our vegetarian-vegan restaurant Nutris, the first of its kind in the region. Now the time has come to put some of the ideas we had back then into practice.

<h3 class="interview-question">Can you also tell me which of the “ideas of that time” you mentioned are now being implemented?</h3>

Absolutely, we want to build on our leading position in wellness that we achieved in 2015 - we are planning further investments for the future. This leading position was and is not so much due to the number or size of the saunas, but rather by better emphasizing our unique location in the midst of nature and by focusing on quality. According to the motto: "Less is often more".

The Future Strategy of ALPIANA

<h3 class="interview-question">So the ALPIANA infrastructure is being improved?</h3>
Not only that, but we are also continuing to focus on the vision of combining sustainability and holidays. For us, sustainability does not mean positioning ourselves as a purely organic hotel, but rather sustainable thinking on various levels: starting with energy production, the use of local and regional food, waste separation, staff training and guest education.The vacation should also be sustainable for the guest himself: in the future, we will no longer offer a wellness lunapark with event infusion and techno music as an on-site experience. The goal would be for the guest to return home with something to take with him: something educational because he met the cheesemaker on the alpine pasture, something interesting from the didactic children's program, or because he found himself reading in the garden.Holidays with a lasting effect for the guest, not only for our local nature. We want to offer honest experiences with high quality infrastructure. This is what distinguishes us from many other medium-sized wellness hotels, which take the opposite approach and invest in five additional saunas.

<h3 class="interview-question">More and more hotels are implementig the idea of sustainabillity...</h3>
True, but sustainability always requires credibility. That's why we are in the process of working with a renowned institute to achieve climate neutrality. Respect for the environment also means respect for people.

We also want to highlight what we are already doing in this area: we are practically self-sufficient in energy production and our pools have been heated exclusively with pellets for some time now. In addition, we would like to make the house even greener in the future and are working hard with our architect on concrete ideas.

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"Sustainability always requires credibility."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Christian Margesin</div></div></div>

<h3 class="interview-question">Your family has been running the ALPIANA for more than 40 years and has thus been at the forefront of the digital transformation in the hotel industry. Which digital revolutions have had the greatest impact on your company?</h3>
Can I tell you an anecdote about our father? In the 90s, he managed to fill the hotel with a single ad in Madame magazine and at most another in a car magazine - and the Völlanerhof, with its 47 rooms, was by no means small. In those days, guests had fewer choices and guest loyalty was very strong, so this one ad was enough to fill the remaining rooms with new guests.Websites and emails (email marketing hotel) have certainly influenced the industry the most. Those were the game changers. Then came the introduction of hotel software, which made things a lot easier. Not only in the area of reservations, but also in the area of building management and infrastructure control.

Digitalization in the Hotel

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"For us in particular, the introduction of the marketing automation software ADDITIVE+ MARKETING AUTOMATION has been a major game changer."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Christian Margesin</div></div></div>

<h3 class="interview-question">And recently?</h3>
In recent years, the digital revolution in the hotel industry in general has been in the area of social media: the various platforms, the influencer and blogger movement. For us in particular, the introduction of the marketing automation software ADDITIVE+ MARKETING AUTOMATION has been a major game changer.

<h3 class="interview-question">What opportunities and risks do you see in the ongoing digitalization?</h3>
We see the problem in the fact that the personal and human aspect gets lost - and this is exactly where we start. We see digitalization as a huge opportunity, and the hotel industry in particular has an absolute need to catch up. The key is not to let the guests feel this digitalization; the human should be in the foreground, but supported by the digital in the background.
The guests themselves are ambivalent about the subject: on the one hand, they are looking for a vacation in nature and in the region. On the surface, these desires seem to be in stark contrast to technology and digitalization. In the second moment, however, the WLAN in the room is almost more important than the bed in the room. The Wi-Fi better not go down for a minute... (laughter).

<h3 class="interview-question">How does ALPIANA try to master this balancing act?</h3>
We try to combine both well: for us, we try to make the processes more efficient through digitalization and to simplify the handling for the guest, but without giving the guest the feeling of automation (hotel marketing automation). Because we see that as problematic, especially when using tools: giving the (potential) guest the feeling that everything is automated is the worst thing you can do...

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"We can mention the following advantages reduced workload, error prevention, cost reduction, process simplification and standardization."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Johannes Margesin</div></div></div>

<h3 class="interview-question">So the opportunities outweigh the risks when it comes to digitalization for hotels?</h3>
To sum up, we can mention the following advantages reduced workload, error prevention, cost reduction, process simplification and standardization.For the hotel industry in particular, the area of CRM is worth mentioning: without digitalization, nothing works in hotel management and hotel marketing, and it is precisely this area of digitalization that offers great opportunities in our highly competitive market: knowing as much as possible about your own guests. In day-to-day business, a lot of knowledge is lost because it is not documented. That's exactly what needs to happen, but in a way that the guest doesn't notice. Under no circumstances should the guest feel that they are being served their favorite wine because the waiter has read it from the software. It makes a difference whether the person remembers it or just a program. There is also the issue of privacy.

<h3 class="interview-question">The recently published case study shows that ALPIANA was and is a pioneer in marketing automation. How do you assess the journey so far?</h3>
Back then, 5 years ago, we were actually the first customer to install ADDITIVE+ MARKETING AUTOMATION. The cooperation has been great from the beginning! Initially, we were afraid of overwhelming our (potential) guests with various communication measures in hotel digital marketing. We were already manually sending out the ALPIANA hotel newsletter, creating organic social media posts, and if the automation software worked too - wouldn't that be too much communication?

We soon had to admit that you can't process guests too much: People forget a lot, don't open every hotel email, and are just used to being bombarded with information these days.
Let's think about ourselves for a moment: we don't remember everything the first time we read or hear it, we just need to be addressed several times until something is anchored in our minds. In any case, there has not been a single complaint in recent years that a guest has heard too much from us!