How to improve hotel guest experience?

No matter the range, every hotel should work on how to improve hotel guest experience. Hotel guest experience management should be carefully planned to be sure of what are the guest needs in the hotel, how to fulfill them, and how to fully satisfy the guest about the stay. See what are the steps, which help to make the hotel guest experience better.

Understand what are the guest needs in the hotel from the beginning

To improve hotel guest experience, firstly, it is needed to understand where the guest journey starts. When is his/her first touch with a hotel? It is during making a hotel reservation. Exactly, when the guest is searching for a hotel. The guest is looking for the best place to stay in a certain area, and he/she will choose the option that catches attention and meets personal requirements the most. It is important to make his/her decision process as easy as possible.

The quick finding of the hotel at booking intermediaries

When making a hotel booking, guest needs to find the offer easily. Therefore, hotel existence at booking intermediaries is key. There, guests will use filters to find the most suitable offer. This solution is fast, easy, and effective for the hotel and for the guest.

Easy reservation process at the hotel webpage

The hotel needs to take care of the easy reservation process on the hotel’s website too. When the guest is looking for a room, he/she needs to be able to find the rooms offer easily and get all the information he/she may need. The offer conditions should be clear and easy to understand. It should include information about all room equipment, hotel services, and what exactly is
included in the room price. It is crucial to remember that this what guest sees and read in the room offer, this is what he/she expects to find in the hotel. If the reality is different from the conditions presented in the reservation offer, the guest will be disappointed, willing to make complaints, and will have already one bad experience related to the hotel. Therefore, it will be harder to make him/her satisfied with the hotel stay and make him choose the hotel again.

Real and good-quality photos of the room

Another issue in the hotel reservation process are photos. They should be high quality and present the real look of a room. One of the worst things for a guest is to see that the room he/she got, is not looking like the one on a reservation photo. Of course, there are always some differences between reality and the picture, and each room may be a little bit different. However, the picture should not show the things that guests may not find in the room.

Fast hotel reservation-making

The last point is, that guests should be able to reserve a room fast. Contact information for the reservation department or online reservation option should be easy to find. Filling out a reservation form needs to be intuitive and take as small amount of time as possible. Payments should be just formality, not something that requires from a guest extra effort. The more different online payment options, the better. Guest like when he/she may choose his/her favorite and most simple payment option. For some, it will be a credit card, while for others PayPal or online bank transfer. The guest will remember that in this hotel is possible to choose the way of payment they like, so he/she will be more willing to make another booking. If the guest does not find a payment option that meets his/her requirements, he/she will stop the reservation process and only remember that they wasted time trying to reserve a room in this hotel.

How to welcome hotel guest during check-in?

When a guest arrives at the hotel, hotel staff should welcome him/her properly. This is a task for guest experience managers, which should prepare in advance all the steps from welcoming a guest, through his/her stay, to the hotel check-out. However, if the hotel does not have a guest experience manager, other staff members may take care of how to improve the hotel guest experience.

What are the guest needs in hotel when arriving?

Before coming inside the hotel guest needs to find a parking place and entrance to the hotel. This should be of course easy and hotel management should make sure that the guest will not get lost when looking for hotel parking or how to get inside the building. Therefore, leading signs are very important. As well, a guest experience manager may make one step forward, and make an employee responsible for helping guests outside the hotel to find a parking place or the entrance.

Do not let the guest be unnoticed

How to welcome hotel guest properly? When the guest enters the hotel lobby, he/she should be immediately noticed by the hotel staff. The best solution is when the bellboy helps them to carry the luggage and even goes outside to open the door for them. Hotels which does not have bell boy need to make sure that a receptionist will greet the guest when he/she comes in.

The first guest greeting should be done before he/she comes to make check-in at the front desk. If there is a line of guests, and it is hard for the receptionist to welcome everyone at first sight, the hotel should:

make sure that waiting guests have a place to sit and spend their time nicely. The best solution is a lobby bar, where the waiter can offer something to drink or eat while guests wait for check-in. Hotels without a lobby bar may provide at the hotel lobby area some coffee/tea and small snacks, which guests may serve themselves. As well available for everyone, TV or newspapers will help guests to entertain when waiting;

allocate one employee to stand in the hotel lobby and greet the guest, offer them a place to sit, and ask if they need anything. The best in this role is guest experience manager, but actually, the welcoming guest role may be given to any employee who is free at the time. It may be for example a receptionist, a bellboy, or even a front office manager.

All of these practices will make the guest feel appreciated and make him/her even not notice how long they are waiting for check-in. A warm welcome helps guests to feel comfortable, they know that they are important and their all needs will be fulfilled in this place.

What are the guest needs in hotel check-in?

First of all, at the check-in, a guest expects to be greeted. Does not matter if someone already greeted the guest before or not, the receptionist should welcome the guest when he/she comes to make the check-in.

Second of all, hotel check-in needs to be fast. The guest wants to just get the keys and go to relax in the room. The longer check-in and the more unnecessary things to do, the more guest is unsatisfied.

Third of all, the guest should get all the needed information and answer all his/her questions. After leaving the front desk, the guest should have no doubt about how to get to the room, where is the elevator, where and when is breakfast served, etc. The more guest will get to know during check-in, the less problems and complaints he/she will have later.

The last thing is to express appreciation for the guest. The receptionist should thank the guest for choosing the hotel, apologize if he/she needed to wait, and of course, wish him/her a great stay. This will make the guest feel important and cared for and will be confirmation that he/she made the right choice of a hotel.

What are the the guest needs in the hotel after check-in?

The guest needs in hotel stay are:

to relax,
to have comfortable sleep,
to have no disturbance,
to have great service,
to be able to use all hotel facilities,
to have a nice and clean room,
to have all room facilities they may need,
to have met all expectations.

Of course, depending on individual guests and hotel range, it may be hard to fulfill all the needs. However, hotels should always make as much as possible to meet guest expectations. There are a few things that may help to do that:

welcome gift – everyone likes nice surprises. A free welcome gift, such as candy, a glass of champagne, or a fresh fruit plate, for sure will make a guest smile. He/she will remember that they got something for free from a hotel and will have good memories about that. This for sure will impact positively his/her future decision about choosing a hotel again;
follow-up call – after guest check-in receptionist may call to guest’s room, ask him/her about the impressions and if he/she needs anything. This will again make the guest feel appreciated. As well, the hotel has occasion to find out about what may be wrong and make a fast solution to guest’s problems;
to be in touch with the guest – after hotel check-in, the guest should not feel left alone. Besides making a follow-up call, the hotel should make sure to always pick up the phone from a guest and not leave any issue unresolved. As well, the guest should be always greeted when passing by a hotel employee and never be ignored;
ask the guest about his/her feelings and needs on every possible occasion – when the guest comes to the restaurant for dinner, a waiter may ask him/her how he/she likes their hotel stay. Also, when the receptionist sees a guest in the lobby, it is a great occasion to ask him/her how they are doing and if they need anything.

Those are very easy practices that may help how to improve the hotel guest experience. They will reduce possible complaints during guest check-out and negative hotel opinions after the stay.

Remember about hotel guest post-stay care

Besides knowing what are the guest needs in the hotel and fulfilling them, proper guest experience management should be done as well during and after the check-out. Check-out should be similar to check-in: fast, easy, showing appreciation for a guest, being thankful for staying at the hotel, and showing him/her that they are welcome to be back.

All guest’s complaints should be resolved during check-out and given compensation if required. Sometimes being very sorry is enough, but with more serious problems there may be some discounts or free gifts needed to satisfy the guest.

After the guest leaves the hotel, it is good to make him/her remember the hotel or ask for feedback. Post-stay e-mail with another thanks for choosing a hotel and showing the guest that the hotel is waiting to host him/her again, will impact positively his/her future accommodation decision.