The hospitality industry is all about providing the best hotel guest experience to the customers. In fact, being a diverse and dynamic service industry, each and every aspect needs to be high-performing and properly coordinated.
The hotel industry, especially so. The hotel-guest interaction goes through various stages - from the inquiry, booking, checking in, checking out and then post-sale services. In all these stages, it is essential for properties to provide the best hotel guest experience.
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Why You Should Provide The Best Hotel Guest Experience
There are several reasons why hotels should strive to provide the best guest experience to their customers.
Marketing - From a marketing point of view, satisfied guests are your best marketing tool. Customers will always trust other customers. With the advent of the internet, word-of-mouth marketing has re-emerged as a powerful tool. Proving a fabulous hotel guest experience will ensure that you will have a great reputation in the market
Revenue/Financial - Hotels need revenue, and in turn, profits in order to sustain themselves and grow. Guest satisfaction will ensure that your hotel will have a great business and generate hotel revenue. Hotel revenue will convert into profits, which will help in business expansion and improvement.
Hotel Guest Experience Before Arrivals
Interaction between the hotel and guests starts before the guest has even entered the hotel. Here are a few ways by which you can provide a seamless guest experience before the guest arrives at your hotel.
1. The Booking Process
The very first thing a potential guest comes across is the booking process. Without a seamless and convenient booking process, the visitor will be put off and will opt for another competitor. First impressions are the last impressions, especially in the hospitality industry.
Provide structured and sufficient information on the OTA platforms and hotel website. This is how you will attract customers to your booking sites. Use good images to make your listing and website even more appealing.
Integrating a booking engine into your site will come a long way in making your hotel website a revenue generator. Your payment getaway on your website and OTA platforms need to be seamlessly integrated into the booking process. Integrate chatbots to make the hotel guest experience even better.
2. Timely Communication Before Guest Arrival
When the guest books a room night, you should share a confirmation mail. This not only acts as proof but also shows seriousness and commitment on the part of the hotelier. Hoteliers can also use this opportunity to interact with the guests.
For example, the hotels can send offers, vouchers and also information about the various hotel amenities and facilities. You can also notify them of the various new upgrades as well as policies.
3. Offer Early Check-In
Offering Early Check-In is one of the best ways to enhance the hotel guest experience. Many customers travel during different times of the day. They reach earlier than the check-in time. This can cause inconvenience to the customers as they will now have to wait for a few hours before they get can get inside the hotel and rest for a bit.
Hotel Guest Experience On Arrival
When the guest arrives at the hotel, it is time to set the second impression right. The first impression is crucial, however, one cannot ignore the second impression. It reinforces the first impression and hence, you need to prove yourself as a hotel business.
4. Smooth Check-Ins
When the guest arrives at the hotel, you need to ensure smooth check-ins. Nowadays, self-check-in is in vogue. You can install a self-check-in kiosk where the guests can check in by scanning a QR Code.
The best way to facilitate it is to ask them to download a mobile app which offers safe and quick self-check-in. It will automate the entire process as well as provide a smooth guest experience to the customers.
However, in case you don’t feel like including this technology, you can always make physical check-in more efficient with timely housekeeping and proper coordination between departments.
Hotel Guest Experience During Stay
This is the main part of the hospitality experience. You can entice the guest to stay at your property. However, whether the guest will come again or give you a decent review depends on whether or not you provide the guests with a good stay at the hotel.
5. Ensure Cleanliness And Timely Maintenance
In the hospitality industry, cleanliness is the most important parameter for hotel guests. An unclean room will be repulsive to the guests. Hotels that ignore cleanliness surely get a 1-star rating on all the platforms.
The housekeeping staff should be efficient and they should ensure that the rooms, bathrooms and other amenities of the hotel are clean. Maintenance is an important factor for hotels as well.
Nobody likes to stay in a room with leaking walls, malfunctioning flushes and other nightmares for guests. Timely maintenance ensures a great hotel guest experience and fewer complaints.
6. Provide Great In-Room Amenities
Whatever may be the budget of your hotel, providing great amenities should be the priority for the hotel. Your rooms should have Wi-fi connectively, since more guests are using their smartphones, tablets and laptops, for work and leisure.
You should also provide an adaptor connectively wherever the hotel guests sit and relax. Attached bathrooms have now become the bare minimum for hotel guests. Along with it, having room service for food and beverages will enhance the hotel guest experience.
7. Remind Them Of The Various Amenities
Your hotel has a spa and jacuzzi, great! You have notified them about it during the booking process through email and call, wonderful. However, it will be fabulous if you remind them of your amenities during their stay at the hotel. These amenities will enhance their hotel guest experience.
You can notify them through the hotel app or their email. This will serve as a reminder to the guests; they will be pleased to be reminded of great offerings.
8. Train Your Staff
Your hotel staff are the ambassadors during the guest’s stay. How they behave will reflect on your hotel’s brand. Train your staff to go an extra mind in providing satisfaction to the guests. Ensure that your staff is neatly dressed and talks politely. They play a huge role in ensuring that visitors have a fabulous guest experience.
They should be trained to spot signs of distress in the guests and respond to them accordingly. Teach the staff how to deal with difficult situations with a calm mind and handle crises efficiently and smoothly.
9. Provide Them With Complimentary Service
Guests, all everyone else, love complimentary gifts. One way to stand out from your competitors is to provide them with complimentary gifts. You can offer them anything - a bottle of wine, cake, and even spa and salon services as well!
This will enhance the hotel guest experience. While providing complimentary service and items, ensure that your revenue/cost ratio is not hampered.
10. Note Down And Remember Their Preferences
Each guest has their own taste and preferences. That’s why it's important for hotels to ask for their preferences during the booking process and when they arrive at the hotel. For example, a guest wants vegan food, wants some sleeping aid, or even wants some preference for liquor.
You can ask the guest to download an app, where there will be an option to state their special preferences. You can include it on your website too before the guest is directed to the paywall.
When the guests arrive at the hotel, you should confirm their preferences at the time of checking in, and also ask them if they have any other preferences, if they have forgotten to mention them.
11. Manage Guest Complaints
If a guest has any complaints, hotels need to note them down and address them as soon as possible. Naturally, many guests will have many complaints, and it will be difficult to keep track of all. Hence, complaints need to be recorded based on each room number.
In the end, check which are the most common type of complaints. Ratify those flaws with which the guests are unhappy. It should be dealt with before it causes any further issues.
Hotel Guest Experience During Departure
Providing a great experience to the hotel guest is especially important when the guest checks out. Here are some things you can do to provide an easy check-out experience for the guests.
12. Provide An Easy Check-Out Process
Just with check-in, hotels should provide guests with smooth check-out as well. Hotel guests had a great time during their stay, they should leave with pleasant memories too! Causing any inconvenience to the guest during check out can ruin even the fond memories they had in the hotel.
13. Reach Out For Feedback
When the guests are about to check out the hotel, asking for feedback is courteous. It will show that the hotelier is serious about providing the best hotel guest experience and improving their offerings and service.
Hotel Guest Experience Post Departure
In order to provide the best hotel guest experience, the hotels need to keep on communicating with the guests after departure. Constant communication will help build relationships and also encourage the guests to come again.
14. Communication Should Continue
When they leave the hotel, you should always send them a feedback form via email or even a special app for the hotel. You can also send them promos, newsletters and vouchers as well. Also, communicate any changes in terms and policies. The addition of any new amenities or temporary/permanent discontinuity can also increase transparency.
15. Encourage Them To Come Back
You should always encourage them to come back to your hotel. Customer Relationship Management is the process of building and maintaining relationships with customers. If you provide a great hotel guest experience, they will always come to the hotel.
Your job as a hotelier should be the encourage them to come back with the help of promos, customer loyalty programs, and vouchers for restaurants and bars.
By following these steps, you will be able to provide a great hotel guest experience to your customers. Hotel guests make or break your business, and satisfying them should be your number 1 priority. By incorporating these 15 methods, you will be the guest’s favourite hotel!
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