One of the main challenges in the hospitality industry comes down to one question: How can you improve your guest relations during their stay?
Indeed, hotel concepts are changing and guest expectations are evolving alongside technological innovations and consumer habits.
Here are some tips that will improve your guest relations.
Social Media Presence
Social media platforms represent a place of exchange and inspiration for millions of internet users. They are essential for improving your online reputation. Increasingly, they are used to interact with travelers.
Your guests are accustomed to these communication channels and use them daily. They expect them to be used in your establishment as well.
Moreover, being active on your social media is essential for building connections. Not only with your guests but also with your community.
Likewise, responding to comments on your posts is important. This allows you to stay close to your community and retain current guests while acquiring new ones.
On social media, users have the ability to leave reviews. You can then showcase them on your accounts. This is a great way to improve your guest relations and a real asset for your establishment’s image.
Environmental Responsibility
Concerned about the environment and their carbon footprint, your guests prefer to book a room at a hotel that shares their environmental values.
Some simple and immediately visible measures for your guests can be implemented:
- Use eco-friendly toiletries. You can make them available in your room bathrooms.
- Automatically turn off lights and air conditioning when no one is in the room.
- Reuse bath towels.
- Replace all your paper communication with 100% digital communication.
During this health crisis period, the government strongly encourages tourism industry players to make the digital shift.
At Utelys, we help you digitize your communication materials and make your welcome booklet digital. As a result, you significantly reduce your carbon footprint. This saves you from printing and disinfecting all your communication materials when guests handle them.
And if you want to keep your posters in your establishment, add dynamic QR codes for the content of your posters. This will save you from printing new ones whenever information or content changes.
The Importance of a Hotel CRM
When booking a stay at your establishment, your guests seek a unique and hyper-personalized experience.
The “Customer Relationship Management” or CRM, encompasses all the tools and techniques designed to capture, process, and analyze guest information. This is done with the aim of building loyalty by offering them your establishment’s services.
It will allow you to:
- Boost your establishment’s image and its services among your clientele through regular digital follow-up.
- Maintain a database of your current clientele.
- Send email campaigns to retain your guests.
- Build connections with your guests.
You can add a solution to your CRM to personalize and improve your guest relations and automate the sending of your emails and SMS messages.
The Need to Understand Your Guests
Even today, too many hoteliers continue to not take an interest in their guests. And that is a real shame.
Knowing your guests will allow you to offer them relevant services that perfectly meet their needs and thus boost your upselling revenue.
To find out what your guests think and understand their needs, you will need to analyze their behavior or, more simply, ask them directly.
How?
Online questionnaires have long been overlooked, but they are by far the best way to understand your guests’ desires and needs. Send them this questionnaire by email or SMS:
- Before their stay to identify their expectations.
- During their stay to find out if they need anything.
- After their stay to build loyalty.
It will show your guests that you care about their well-being and are listening.
For your questionnaires, opt for a short and targeted format. Too many long and poorly optimized questionnaires end up in the trash. Your guests should spend as little time as possible on them and have as little to do as possible. Detail your questions as much as possible and use the funnel method.
Perfect Your Scent Ambiance
In your industry, everything is about experience.
Finding the right atmosphere is the key step to creating and building exceptional experiences and offering your guests memories that last over time.
Through a scent ambiance, you personalize the experience your guests have with the sense that stays longest in memory.
Showcasing Your Regional Knowledge
You are best positioned to advise your guests and help them have a pleasant stay. So showcase your knowledge of your region to guarantee your guests a successful stay — they will be grateful.
For example, if your guest is interested in sports activities, suggest the best sports spots around your establishment. For those who appreciate gastronomy, recommend restaurants that you know and trust to help them avoid “tourist traps.”
This way, you kill two birds with one stone by boosting local businesses.
It is these small recommendations that make the difference between a good stay and a stay that creates the Wow effect — one your guests will remember!
And don’t forget! You are not just offering a room but an experience you provide to your guests. Attentive listening will surely be more appreciated than having a spa or a rooftop pool!
With these tips, you now have the tools to improve your guest relations.
