How Technology Impacts The Entire Guest Journey – Part III: The Post-Stay Phase
It’s time for the final part of our blog series focusing around the recently published eBook: The Hotelier's Tech Stack Guide: Must-Have Technologies That Impact The Guest Journey. Following the guest journey, from the pre-stay phase, to the on-site experience, we broke down the most influential technologies and software that hoteliers absolutely need in order to ensure a seamless guest experience. Not only that, but technology innovations also help in terms of more complex, yet easy and time-effective operations. You can take a look at the first two parts of the series aquí and aquí.
Now it’s time to focus on the post-stay phase of the journey and its technological implications. It’s important to acknowledge the value of this particular stage and not associate the guest’s departure with the finish line. Although the booking was gained and the stay finished,, there are still quite a few things to do for hoteliers, analyze, calculate, and plan. All of these operations and processes rely on technology and certain software that, in this modern era, have quickly became vital.
It’s a well known fact that any business’ reputation has a huge impact on its success, which also impacts its future development and revenue. The best way to ensure that you are constantly improving your amenities and services is to analyze the guest feedback that results after a stay. This comes through many channels and opens up a world of possibilities, from analyzing it to marketing it and using it to attract future guests. However, having so many areas that need constant monitoring can also come as a challenge for hoteliers. This is why, when it comes to managing guest feedback in an effective and time-effective way, a guest feedback platform is any hotelier’s best ally. By using a platform, hoteliers are investing in an all-in-one solution that offers access to a multitude of features, with a single sign-in.
So how exactly can a guest feedback platform be used in the post-stay phase of the guest journey? For example, the TrustYou feedback platform enables a reputation management solution, with an analytics feature, meant to display the overview of a hotel’s performance. Before going further with any future strategies, thoroughly analyzing past performance and results is a key factor. Knowing exactly who the hotel guests are, where they come from, how they rated the hotel, and what particularities they have are all valuable details that can help set the path to a future KPIs and a more successful plan and.
A guest feedback platform offers the means to analyze and reply to reviews from one place - even if they come from hundreds of sources and online portals
Our Reputation Management feature offers the means to quickly and efficiently analyze and respond to feedback, coming from a multitude of online sources. This means that reviews gathered through a personal survey, or the ones from specialized portals, don’t require separate sign-ins on each website - they can be managed from the platform itself. Also, the TrustYou reputation management feature offers a strong semantic analysis of the guest feedback, plus a competitor analysis.
Since we are talking about a feedback platform, it’s important to also focus on the “feedback” part of it. Actual reviews come from a large number of sources, but having them in the form of a guest survey is a huge plus for hoteliers. A customizable survey ensures that managers have control over the outcome and can target specific questions in order to get insights into the most relevant hotel features. Not only that, but our latest study revealed that 80% of travelers who receive a request leave a review - meaning that the best way of gathering feedback is to ask for it. Requested reviews are 16% more likely to be “extremely positive” five-star reviews. Through a guest satisfaction survey, hoteliers can not only get valuable insights into the guest journey, but also encourage the distribution of the survey result on Google, for even better visibility and more future chances of getting booked. These surveys survey can be easily pushed to Google by the guest themselves, if they chose to and are sign into their Google account.
The proper distribution of reviews across online channels enables a better visibility and higher chances of direct booking
Once the feedback is gathered, it’s important to also market it properly, in order for potential guests to lay eyes on it and have it influence their booking decision. Studies have shown that 95% of travelers check reviews before booking and after the price, reviews are the most important decision factor. Because of this, TrustYou’s guest feedback platform also provides the Review Marketing module, which focuses on making the most out of a hotel’s reputation and properly distributing it through smart and visually appealing widgets. A previous study that we conducted revealed that summarized review content is easier to digest and it offers a useful overview of a hotel. Travelers prefer a combination of full text reviews and summarized review content, which is exactly what the TrustYou MetaReview widget consists of. Also, the TrustScore widget displays a number, on a scale of 1-5, that the software determines as a result of the guest reviews. For example, a hotel can have a 4.7 TrustScore, which translates into an excellent reputation. The widget also includes the exact number of verified reviews that determined the TrustScore, giving travelers a sense of authenticity and reliability.
We’ve now made our way to any hotelier’s ultimate goal: revenue. There’s no denying that the financial outcome is the end goal for any business out there. No matter how amazing a hotel is or what excellent products and services it offers, the chances of losing out are dangerously high as long as the investments and the gained revenue are not properly monitored, tracked, and managed. This is where a revenue management system comes in place,
Revenue management represents the strategies and practices used in order to analyze financial behavior and optimize rates, while working towards maximizing the revenue and the ROI (return on investment). A revenue management system is based on a series of complex methodologies and algorithms, meant to automatically connect different revenue sources and calculate the amount of profit that comes out of them, as well as forecast future sales and rates.
A hotel’s online reputation has a role to play in the assignment of rates and prices - the better the reputation, the more travelers are willing to spend
Modern revenue management systems have a multitude of functions, which are time-saving and cost-effective. Some of them enable visual analytics, as a complex and user friendly overview of the current pricing system, the channel management, a multi-property view, forecasting management and even critical tasks. These type of software use methodologies and algorithms that calculate the most appropriate pricing and inventory control by room class and length of stay, with the goal of generating maximum overall revenue.
In terms of modern and efficient revenue management systems, Rainmaker’s integrated solutions allow hotels, resorts & casinos to maximize profit from every segment of their business.
We have gotten to the very end of our technology blog series, that broke down the must-have software that hoteliers need in this tech-driven era, in order to ensure seamless and time-effective operations, as well as a spotless reputation and a satisfactory revenue. Don’t forget to download our free eBook, The Hotelier's Tech Stack Guide: Must-Have Technologies That Impact The Guest Journey, to learn even more about technologies that have a beneficial impact over the entire guest experience.
