5 WAYS TO HELP YOUR HOTEL STAND OUT
One aggregate site boasts listings for 1,227,357 establishments, which range from small plush hotels to larger chains. For every difference between these hotels, guesthouses and serviced apartments, there are five areas that shouldn’t be neglected if you’re to keep you guests happy, and increase the chances of them leaving a positive review, or even coming back in the future.
1. Up-to-date facilities
You don’t have to overhaul a beautiful old building to give guests Wi-Fi access, which is almost an essential for trips away, whether they’re wanting to share snaps of the stunning view from their room on Instagram or keep in touch with their colleagues back at the office via email. It’ll also facilitate card payments, giving your guests greater convenience not just with how they pay, but how quickly.
2. Staff presence
“When we tried to voice our complaints to the manager, they were nowhere to be found.”
Variants of the above are common threads in negative TripAdvisor reviews, and are often the beginning of a downward spiral in the account of the writer’s trip. By ensuring that you always have a member of staff easily available, and a duty manager on call, any problems can be dealt with quickly and hopefully put behind the guest who is then free to enjoy the rest of their trip.
3. Get feedback
Aside from scouring TripAdvisor, you can find out what your guests did or didn’t like about their stay with a questionnaire sent to their email address afterwards. You could offer a chance to win a prize on a monthly basis or 10% off their next stay. Checking feedback on a regular basis will give you the insight and opportunity to make improvements, even small ones, that make your business stand out.
4. Interact
Be sure to respond quickly to enquiries sent online, whether this is via a contact form on your website or via twitter. If a guest does tag you in a post, be sure to respond to them to let them know you appreciate their interaction and encourage future engagement. This will not only help your guest’s social media action feel appreciated (providing it’s positive!), but a good following on social media and regular updates is going to be reassuring to those looking to book who are trying to garner more information online.
Be sure to thank anyone who leaves positive reviews on TripAdvisor, and build bridges where necessary when guests have had a negative experience.
5. Be prepared
You can’t predict what will go wrong or when – a failed supplier, a utility outage – these could lead to cancelled bookings and lost money. Having the insurance in place which is designed for hospitality businesses can help you keep your cool when in the midst of a crisis, by offering financial support and expert advice when it’s most needed.
Talk to Affinity to discuss insurance for your hotel, B&B or serviced lodging.