Small mistakes can quickly cause disappointment. This article will explore the causes of bad hotel experiences, as well as how you can improve your guest’s experience with some practical strategies.
Remember: the days when location and service were all that mattered are gone.
Today, a great hospitality experience is all about how efficient and personalised your service can be.
Some bad experiences are not caused by difficult situations or uncooperative guests. Neglecting to address basic issues can result in a bad guest experience.
1. Communication with guests that is not planned can lead to confusion
Most hotels do not have a guest communication strategy. They either send out too many messages, or they don’t send any at all.
Emails are sent to guests too often, inviting them upgrade their rooms or add breakfast when they may not even be using email. All messages arrive one after the other and, at times, multiple messages can be sent on the exact same day.
All of this can lead to a poor hotel experience.
According to Deloitte’s survey on the guest experience Only 66% of guests were satisfied with how the hotel interacted with themThere is still plenty of room to improve.
Your communications must be consistent, planned, timely and value-driven. It means:
– Communicating with them across the entire guest journey.
– Not sending information every day
– Using different channels
The Creating of a Guest communication strategy for your Hotel Avoids frustration for guests caused by inaccurate, delayed or incomplete information.
We have some ideas for you if you’re thinking of how to optimize the guest experience. great tips to help you optimise your hotel guest journey.
2. Brand reputation is damaged by irrelevance of offers
It is not surprising that this is one of many examples of poor guest experiences. This has to do the improper use of segmentation.
– You offer a couples massage to a business traveller.
– Send a message about tickets to a family show to a solo traveller.
– Say It’s wonderful to have you here for the first time. A guest who has already stayed at your hotel five time.
All of these situations show the importance of providing guests with personalised recommendations. using your guest data to understand who they are What are their preferences?
Every message must be relevant to the guests. It will not only improve the guest’s experience, but it will also help you build a relationship. This in turn can have a positive impact on guest loyalty.
Find out how a CRM can help you segment your customers. segment your guests and personalise your communication in less time.
3. Slow processes that frustrate guests
It is important to act quickly! The first thing that can be annoying is waiting in the lobby of the hotel for someone to bring you the key or make you sign some documents.
Waiting times and manual procedures automatically remove a part of the magic experience that you promised your guests.
You can automate processes and save time. It could be about digital keys or online check-in.
What about service inquiries? It is already too much to ask that they call reception to place an order for something extra. Why not let them order it via a guest app?
4. Negative customer sentiment is caused by high customer effort
Some real-life examples are:
– Guests need to fill out a massive form to get in contact with the staff
– Guests need to go to reception to ask any questions
– Reservation processes that take more than three steps
– Booking that are impossible to modify
According to Zendesk65% of consumers want to purchase from companies who offer easy and quick online transactions. This includes the hospitality industry.
Why? Customer effort is crucial to customer satisfaction. The more simple, easy and clear your communication, your processes, and your products are, the happier you will make your customers and the better their experience.
You can start by analysing your processes from the most critical to the least important. Consider how you can simplify it, eliminate unnecessary steps and only keep the essential items.
Learn more about customer effort and why is being a guest in your hotel so difficult.
5. No personalisation to new guests or loyal customers
A good guest experience is based on a personal touch in hotel communication. Treating your guests all the same is detrimental to your brand.
According to Deloitte’s survey, only 65% said that they were satisfied with how the brand remembered them, what their preferences and needs are.
Personalisation can be seen in the communication channels that people use. Not everyone reads their emails and not everybody is interested in receiving WhatsApp messages.
Personalisation can also be seen in the way you provide instructions to travellers on how to get to your hotel via train or plane, depending on whether they arrive by train or by air.
The better your experience will be, the more personal your communications and services are.
6. False promises can destroy reputation
When the hotel’s promises don’t match up with what they actually deliver, this is another common cause of poor guest experiences.
Unmet expectations, whether they are due to over-inflated amenities or inaccurate room descriptions can quickly transform excitement into frustration.
Imagine booking a hotel with a gym that is advertised on the website, but finding only a few dumbbells or a stationary bicycle. Imagine booking a hotel that advertises a fully-equipped gym, only to find a few dumbbells and a stationary bike.
These gaps between promises and reality are not only detrimental to the guest’s experience but also damage your reputation, resulting in fewer repeat bookings.
It’s not necessary to be exaggerative to attract attention. Transparency is better. Accurate and clear information allows guests to make the best choice for their needs, while building long-term trust.
Focus on the following to avoid common mistakes and improve customer satisfaction:
– Building a solid guest communication strategy
– Using a CRM to deliver personalized guest communication
– Monitoring and learning from examples of bad guest experiences in hotels
The best strategy is to focus on the entire guest journey and consider how to improve it at each stage from both an operational and guest satisfaction perspective.
Follow us on Linkedin Stay up-to-date with the latest hospitality trends. subscribe to our newsletter Get more tips and tricks for hotel marketing and operation.
