The Hotel Guest’s On-Site Experience – Communicating with the Guest
When working in hospitality, and especially when managing a hotel, you quickly learn about the guest journey and what it implies. You probably know by now that there are three main phases that a traveler always goes through: the search and booking process, the actual stay on-site, and their post-stay impressions, which are sometimes translated into formal feedback through hotel reviews.
Since we have previously focused on the first stage, the decision making factors that influence the booking and the booking behaviours, it is now time to discuss the on-site experience and how can hoteliers make the most of it, in order to generate positive feedback. That contributes to an overall better reputation and, implicitly, more revenue. Therefore, we are partnering up once more with our friends from StayNTouch and Fuel Travel, to bring to you a brand new webinar: this time we are turning the spotlight on the hotel guest’s on-site experience.
Let’s dive a bit into the subject, just to make sure that we have the basics ready before the webinar. Aside from quality amenities and services, you have to always make sure that the lines of communication between the hotel and the guest are open. This can be easily achieved by using a messaging tool, such as the one integrated in the TrustYou platform.
In our most recent study, we analyzed the guest preferences and expectations for direct hotel communication. We revealed that the majority (80%) of hotel guests expect that the accommodation provider will initiate communication regarding their booking, and 80% also expect this to be sent via email. It’s easy to understand why it’s becoming imperative to constantly communicate with guests and to start this process even before they check-in. Their overall experience, the impression they get off your hotel, your staff and the services offered will be influenced even by the pre-stay communication and the quality of the customer support.
Another finding of our research is that on-site hoteliers are the preferred point of contact and guests are extremely likely (91%) to report service issues during their stay. Post-stay feedback is great in that it highlights the positive features of the hotel, and creates an advertisement for them in the online world. However, why wait until the guest leaves the hotel and his thoughts and impressions are no longer fresh? Asking for feedback while on-site is the best possible way to go, in order to make the necessary improvements right away and keep the guests satisfied and happy. By diffusing any issues that might arise as soon as possible, you are leaving a pleasant impression upon the customer. Keep in mind that 91% of travelers would report issues during their on-site experience. They want to communicate, so you have to make sure that you provide the means of doing so. Constantly keeping in touch with the guests lets them know that you care about their experiences and it makes them feel more comfortable, which might results in recommendations and further bookings.
It’s not an easy task, to know what guests want in terms of communication, what they expect, what works and what doesn’t. To be on top of it, you need to find out what the correlation between messaging and guest satisfaction is, how to boost your hotel’s ratings and drive more revenue and also, how to leverage technology in order to enhance your guest’s on-site experience. All of this and even more will be discussed and analyzed in our upcoming webinar, with StayNTouch and Fuel Travel, so make sure to register hier zu finden. We look forward to it!
