Ensuring consistently high guest satisfaction is crucial for the success of any hotel. When lodging businesses effectively set and meet realistic expectations, they create the foundation for positive reviews and guest loyalty.
Maintaining exceptional guest satisfaction not only increases retention rates but also reduces the expenses associated with acquiring new customers. Between online travel agency (OTA) commission fees and marketing costs, the financial burden on a hotel or hospitality business can be significant.
Happy guests are more likely to return for another stay, refer friends and family, and leave positive reviews online, which in turn can attract new customers without the same level of investment.
From setting the right expectations and accurately gauging guest feedback to enhancing every phase of the guest experience, here we will explore actionable insights and technology to ensure your guests have an unforgettable stay.
Know your ideal guests
The key to having happy guests is to ensure that your property meets (and exceeds) their expectations. While ensuring basic guest needs through a warm welcome, seamless check-in, and clean rooms is important, exceeding expectations can significantly enhance guest satisfaction and translate into good reviews and loyalty.
Creating the best experience for guests starts with determining which guest segments your property aims to attract. Collecting guest information and identifying how, when, and where guests book will allow you to define your most valuable market segments, which in turn will help you prepare to effectively cater to their preferences.
Set the right expectations
Once you have established your ideal guest profile, it is important to set accurate and transparent expectations through targeted marketing and implement clear channels of communication. Showcasing your property’s offerings truthfully from the start gives guests a picture of what awaits them and minimizes the potential for letdowns.
How to measure guest satisfaction
Measuring guest satisfaction serves two main purposes. It is a valuable tool for evaluating performance and improving operations, allowing lodging operators to gain insight into their guests’ experiences and identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
Additionally, guest feedback can be a powerful marketing asset, playing a crucial role in persuading potential customers to visit your property. In fact, a study by Tripadvisor found that 81% of users usually or always refer to user reviews before they make a booking.
One reliable way to know what your guests think about their stay is to actively ask them. Here, we’ll focus on two of the most powerful tools for measuring guest satisfaction: online reviews and internal guest surveys.
1. Online reviews
Online reviews offer valuable insights into what you’re doing well and what needs to be improved. Sites like Tripadvisor, Google, and Expedia are outlets for guests to share their impressions and experiences with the potential to influence the booking decisions of other travelers.
Although online reviews are often left organically, it is a good strategy for hotels to ask their guests to leave a review after their stay. Properties can streamline the collection process by sending review links via guest engagement software.
2. Guest satisfaction surveys
Guest satisfaction surveys offer a more proactive way to gauge guest satisfaction. Properties can use reputation management solutions integrated with their property management system (PMS) to automate the survey collection process. When a guest fills out a survey, the response is sent directly to you, allowing you to identify the guest and address any issues privately.
Improving the guest experience
Discovery
In the discovery stage, it’s crucial to effectively communicate the value of your property and build trust to encourage potential guests to book with you. Create a good first impression with a website that is easy to use and visually appealing, with high-quality photos and videos of the property, and optimize it for mobile users.
To make the booking process as seamless as possible, use an integrated booking engine directly on your website. This minimizes the frustration of entering information multiple times and ensures availability in real-time.
Additionally, make sure that your profiles are consistent across all distribution channels, including OTAs, metasearch engines, and social media, with accurate and updated information, images, and descriptions.
Pre-arrival
The pre-arrival phase offers an opportunity to be proactive and get your guests excited about their upcoming trip. When guests make a booking, promptly send them a confirmation email, followed by a quick message on SMS or WhatsApp a few days before their trip. Ask if they have any questions or special requests on arrival, and consider offering add-ons like early check-in or transport services to help alleviate some stress. You can also offer last-minute upgrades if you have availability.
Arrival
Upon arrival, the main focus should be providing a frictionless check-in experience that meets each guest’s unique needs. Frictionless will mean something different depending on your guest segments. For some properties, it might mean self-service, leveraging digital check-in and mobile keys so guests can bypass the front desk entirely. For others, it may be a guided tour and welcome drink.
Regardless of the type of welcome experience you provide, make sure you also incorporate a personal touch. Find unexpected ways to delight guests through small gestures, like a personalized letter or a special surprise in their room.
In-stay
Once guests have settled in, lodging operators must ensure that the guest experience remains consistently great throughout their stay.
Not every stay will be perfect, no matter how hard you try. For that reason, it is crucial to train your staff in the art of service recovery. Teach them to proactively identify signs of dissatisfaction and address issues promptly using these six steps: listen, clarify, empathize, apologize, resolve, and follow up. To stay ahead of potential problems, consider sending a friendly follow-up message a few hours after check-in to ensure the guest’s experience meets their expectations.
Post-stay
Even when the guest is gone, you still have a chance to make a lasting impression. After their trip, send a personalized message thanking them for staying at your property and ask for feedback. Make it a part of your routine to keep up with guest feedback and take time to respond to online reviews, both positive and negative.
To streamline this process, consider using a reputation management tool with AI capabilities that can generate replies. This tool can help you respond quickly and manage all your reviews in one place.
Most importantly, use the information that you gather to improve. Be consistent in tracking satisfaction and benchmark performance to ensure you’re trending in the right direction over time.
The role of technology in guest satisfaction
To truly exceed guest expectations, hospitality operators need to provide their staff with the right tools. By gathering data, using automation, and establishing workflows, staff will not only have access to more personalized information but also the time to understand preferences and interact with guests throughout their stay. With the right technology, your staff can dedicate less time to mundane tasks and more time to delivering exceptional experiences that will delight your guests and set you apart from the competition.
In collaboration with
Cloudbeds is the leading platform redefining the concept of PMS for the hospitality industry, serving tens of thousands of properties in more than 150 countries worldwide. Built from the ground up to be masterfully unified and scalable, the award-winning Cloudbeds Platform brings together built-in and integrated solutions that modernize hotel operations, distribution, guest experience, and data & analytics.
Author bio:
Lana Cook is a Content Specialist at Cloudbeds where she is able to combine her love of writing and passion for travel. She has spent the last few years writing about all things technology and the ways in which it can be used to help lodging businesses grow revenue, streamline operations, and deliver more memorable guest experiences.
