The hotel industry places the family at the heart of its circle of visitors, and an important share of these, in the summer in particular, is represented by this family-oriented clientele.

The hotel industry places the family at the heart of its circle of visitors, and an important share of these, in the summer in particular, is represented by this family-oriented clientele. Equipment often targeting children allows properties to welcome and attract families, even if the installation of new services does not appear to be the primary concern of hotel actors. MKG and Olakala wanted, with help from a survey addressing sector professionals, to understand how they feel about arrivals of family clientele and which equipment they were installing or planned to make available to them.

In the summer, family clientele can represent more than half of a hotel's guests. Using a survey of professionals in the hotel sector in France, MKG and Olakala wanted to offer a glimpse of the current relationship in France between families and hoteliers, in particular regarding equipment and installations targeting this market.

More than half of the respondents indicated that family clientele represented between 10 and 30% of their guests, even if for 4 in 10 hoteliers this figure does not reach 10%. Finally 10% of hoteliers indicated more than 30% of their clientele were families. 6 in 10 hoteliers thus have less than 10% family clientele at their property; to attract and also make these visitors comfortable, equipment has been implemented at most hotels. 55% of our respondents declared they had installations especially designed for parents and children alike. These installations often concern leisure activities for children (games, game room) of all ages, as well as communicating rooms, family rooms and spaces for both smaller and bigger children (swimming pools, Ping-Pong tables).

Generally speaking, the higher the proportion of families among a hotel's clientele, the more services the hotel provides outside the room, whereas properties where the percentage of families is lower have "democratized" services such as family bedrooms and beds for children. Nonetheless, the ratio of amount of equipment / share of family clientele is not always coherent, and could be one of the reasons why hoteliers tend to be prudent when it comes to investing in installations dedicated to families. Among participants in the survey, only one in ten hoteliers expressed a desire to develop their offer of services for families. Swimming pools are among the frequent responses regarding future investments, as are game consoles. The number of installations already available does not appear to have a strong impact on the will to incorporate new ones at hotels responding to the survey.

Family clientele play an important role in investments at hotels, which for the most part have equipment that its visitors find useful. But the concern hoteliers show for the future may result from the fact that suppliers have not yet renewed the supply of equipment for families that has gradually spread throughout most properties.