Airport Experience® News - 20 Years of the AX Conference

Left: Minute Suites has emerged as a leader in providing rent-by-the-hour rooms for weary travelers

Above: Tapping into the gaming obsession of Millennial and Gen Z travelers, Gameway has emerged to offer entertainment in airport terminals.

in need of a bed or private work space.

— from showers and toothpaste to flight tracking and digital assistants — as well as expand their hours to a 24/7 operation in locations where possible. At their first Minute Suite, Solomon says, “we had those old fashioned grills to shut the location down, and when we would come in to open it up in the morning, people were leaving their time-stamped business cards with notes saying, ‘I just came in, red-eye from LA, why aren’t you open?!’” he laughs. “We decided to go 24/7, and the rest is history.” Whether the customers are nursing mothers, airline crew members, immunocompromised travelers looking for built-in social distancing or passengers seeking ADA compliant spaces, there is an ongoing demand for the service, adds Solomon. More than anything, he notes, customers return time and time again for the personalized service. While the team at Minute Suites plan to continue incorporating automated technology to streamline transactions, “People really do value the human touch,” says Solomon. For Airport Dimensions, the next evolution of blending the automated and the personal is the Connecta app, a new growth platform currently available at LAX to coordinate concessions services and gather customer feedback in real time. “It can be a revenue driver to the airports, and we can also promote development

partnerships with content providers,” says Gwilliam as he points to lounge-content partnerships as the future of passenger experience. When it comes to entertainment-based lounges, Airport Dimensions has teamed up with Gameway on one of its video-game centered lounges at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) . In addition to CLT, Gameway, which was founded by hospitality veterans and entrepreneurs Emma and Jordan Walbridge to give passengers a relaxing outlet before or after a long flight, has 5 other lounges at DFW, HOU, and LAX with more on the horizon. Drawing on research that a majority of Americans game on a weekly basis, the couple set forth to provide passengers with a home-away-from-home to relieve travel stress and disrupt the standard terminal experience. “We get a lot of comments that say, ‘I was able to relax at the airport, I had no stress and anxiety,” says Emma Walbridge, who notes that Gameway reservations are timed to ensure that customers don’t relax so much that they miss their departure. Having expanded their offerings to include select lounges with snacks and beverages as well as themed lounges with throwback games, she emphasizes the need for airport brands to continually reevaluate their services based on customer needs.

Gauging Customer Desires Emma Walbridge says she and her team are acutely aware of customer feedback. “You’ve got to listen, you’ve got to evolve,” she says. The customer-centric approach has taken off, and since their founding they’ve welcomed in enthusiastic repeat visitors. “We have pilots who come in who are regulars,” says Emma. “We have stories of a child who comes through our store in Houston while traveling for medical care and plays his games with his mom. [We feel that] if it makes you feel comfortable and relaxed, that is a blessing to people.” In monitoring U.S. passenger insights, Bélanger and the team at PPG have taken special attention to provide curated services for the diverse community of travelers. They’ve established the ALLWAYS meet-and-assist concierge program at DFW as well as made plans to expand their Smart Traveler rewards app and establish the Aerotel airport hotel system stateside. Looking ahead to the next 20 years, both teams at Airport Dimensions and PPG stress the need for a combination of tech led innovation and personal customer service as key to increasing passenger satisfaction. “Technology is going to play a big piece going forward — but I’ll tell you that there’s just no substitute for human interaction,” says Bélanger. “One doesn’t fully replace the other — I think one complements the other.”

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AX NEWS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024