Meet Jessica. She's a 24-year-old college graduate working hard to break into the world of musical theatre. Needless to say, Jessica loves music. She is also highly connected, with a smartphone she carries everywhere and a laptop she uses at home. Jessica is one of the world's 2.5 billion millennials – the young adults ages 18 to 35 that hotels should keep in mind when considering how to make meaningful connections with potential customers.

Today is Jessica's big day, the day she gets the call she's been waiting for: an invitation to travel to New York for an audition on Broadway.This infographic documents her journey: a personalized, meaningful hotel booking experience using the tools Jessica depends on to discover, plan and book her stay.Jessica, just like most millennials, doesn't have a host of magical devices or ultra-connectivity. What she does have is the ability to access the tools hotels can provide allowing her to discover the possibilities to create that meaningful experience.

Follow Jessica's booking journey and you'll see that hotels have a multitude of opportunities to connect with guests:

• Book On The Fly – Offering limited-time deals or reduced rates by using known traveler preferences.
• Sync Preferences Seamlessly – The ability for potential guests to move from one device to another and pick up where they left off during the browsing or purchasing process.
• Plan With A Local – Using social networking applications to help travelers create local connections and find insider tips during the planning stage.
• Discover In Context – Providing key information to customers at critical moments to personalize the path to discovery and purchase.

Hotels looking to differentiate themselves and make meaningful connections with their guests face a challenge, but also have a real opportunity. Jessica's booking journey shows how leveraging data, past interactions and customer preferences gives hotels an opportunity to make offers at this key moment in her booking journey. This type of personalized interaction meets the connected traveler's growing demand for instant service, and creates a best-in-class seamless booking experience.

You can learn more about this key trend and many others in our new report, Future of Hotel Booking: A Guide To Hotel Retailing. Download your copy here and contact your Account Manager to boost your Hotel Retailing strategy.