10 Tips to Improve Hotel Guest Satisfaction & Increase Retention

Today’s hospitality industry is driven by customer service with guest satisfaction as its priority. With a banquet of options available in the market and only a click away, guest expectations have risen to an unexpectedly demanding level. 

Imagine stepping into a hotel with stunning ambiance and amenities but having a ruthless encounter with their staff who is not only rude but makes you feel low about yourself. Would you ever step inside that hotel ever again?

As humans, we tend to notice the negative more over the positives in life. Focusing on providing a stellar hotel guest experience is the key to success in the hospitality industry. It is not your customer’s job to remember you but your responsibility to make sure they don’t have a chance to forget you. 

Here are a few tips on how to improve and enhance guest satisfaction in hotels and increase retention:

1. First Impressions Last Long

Guest experience begins before Check-In. Today’s generation never settles for less and strives for research and comparisons among the sea of options available to them. As a hotelier, show diversity in what you can offer and be true about it. 

Greet your guests with a welcoming smile and make them feel at home. Guide them through the hotel’s amenities and also familiarize them with the city’s local culture and authentic experiences.

Go that extra mile and create a pleasant and approachable environment for your guests from the moment they step into your hotel. 

2. Keep up with Technology

In this era of booming technology and the craze for social media, hoteliers should divert all their focus to creating a relevant presence on social media and providing a tech-savvy experience.

It’s not just the younger crowd but our older generation has now become well versed with technology and tends to appreciate it in full swing. 

The following tech services can make your customer’s experience better and more satisfactory:

• Quick and Simple Booking Procedure
• Mobile-friendly Website
• Smart Room Key that opens with a swipe on the mobile.
• Direct interaction through Phone/Mobile App and not Emails. 
• Contactless Payments
• Self- Serve Kiosk
• Virtual Reality Tours attract the customer and help them imagine their stay at the hotel before they even arrive at your property. 

3. Personalization is the Future

Hotel staff should follow the motto of “Know Your Guest” and tune into the customer’s needs to drive loyalty that will in turn help in growing your business. Fostering a personal connection with your guests and offering them a cutting-edge experience will make them feel valued and special at all times.

Focus on Customer Service that is not just the best but Legendary. 

As Atef Mankarios correctly says, “The key thing that a hotel must do is create a unique personal experience for each guest.” Hoteliers should adhere to the fact that hospitality is about connection and not perfection. 

Be available at all times and lean towards being a good listener in order to serve your guests with the best you’ve got. 

4. Train Your Employees 

Hiring the right crew can make or break your business plans. Customer Service is not a Department. It’s an Attitude. As a hotelier, you should give a free hand to your crew and let them treat your customers in the best manner possible. 

Focus on the 3 Qs:

• Quality
• Quantity and
• Quickness

Allow them to Think Like A Customer and be detail-oriented. Hold weekly training sessions in order to understand their progress and focus on the major problems they encounter on a daily basis.

Do not forget to appreciate the efforts your crew is making towards building a brand name for your hotel since it is their handwork that is pushing your business forward. 

5. Have a Solid and Proactive Action Plan

Stay ahead and use the information that you have from the time of booking and surprise your guests by showing them that they matter. Be ready with a Best-In-Class Service that is personal and unique to them. 

Take charge of serving your guests using generic details like the purpose of their stay, be it birthdays or anniversaries, and Arrange for Freebies like chocolates or complimentary Spa Day. Check if anyone’s traveling with kids or elderly people and drive your focus on offering them extra care along with some super fun activities for the kids. 

Reach out to your guests and offer assistance before they even ask for it. A comprehensive and effective strategy will redefine your hotel’s customer satisfaction to a greater extent and hence result in customer loyalty and retention. 

6. Recognize and Reward all Returning Customers

James Penney rightly said,” Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.” Serve them with your best and see the Word Spread Like Fire. As customers, we not only mention the experience but also make sure our friends and family try it out for themselves and help your business grow. 

Always give people more than what they expect and watch them become Loyal customers for life. Never step back from showing how much you value a returning customer by presenting them with free services and discounts. Stay connected with them and customize offers as they please. 

7. Offer Attractive Holiday Packages

Excite and interest your customers with out-of-the-world holiday packages which are only exclusive to your hotel and make you stand out from the others in the market.

Collate at least 3 to 4 holiday packages pertaining to each category of consumers. Giving them interesting names like BFF Package or Bucket List Package will also help draw your customers attention. 

A few basic inclusions like these should definitely make heads turn:

• Discounted Combo Prices
• Value for Money
• Covering the city’s local attractions and offering complimentary tickets to the Zoo/Theme Parks/Museums
• Free Meals
• In-house photographers and tour guides
• Pet-friendly 

8. Feedback Helps You Serve Better

Enhance guest experience by learning through their feedback. Remember, No matter how good your feedback is, you always start over with the next customer. There’s no hospitality like understanding. 

Hotel staff should be on their toes in order to serve their guests better which is only possible if they stick to the feedback and strive towards making it better with time. Quick resolutions can impress even the most rigid customers. 

Recognize the mistakes and offer an Apology Gift which will act as compensation and shows ecognition and the will to improve. It will also act as a factor that will eventually become a memory. 

9. Safe and Secure Hotel Experience Post Covid-19

Covid-19 has changed and affected the hotel industry with the hardest hit. As a responsible hotelier, Covid has burdened you with higher expectations than ever. 

Following these points will attract customers and help you build an amazing hotel customer satisfaction:

• Cleanliness & Hygiene
• Contactless Check-Ins and Room Service
• Waive off Cancellation Charges
• Allow Rescheduling
• Share Covid-19 norms and protocols applicable in your area
• Avoid overcrowding in shared spaces like Restaurants and Bars

10. Use a Reliable CRM & Serve Your Customers Better

A Hotel Management CRM Software will make it easier for your guests to make requests on their mobile devices and enable the hotel staff to address them at the earliest. It will also help your staff in personalizing every customer’s stay by referring to the details available with their bookings. The CRM tool will help in categorizing and managing bookings effectively. 

It will streamline your booking process, automate important activities, and evaluate all your customer data in one place, significantly increasing revenue and efficiency.

Meet and Exceed Your Customer Expectations With Kapture

Kapture’s Ticket Management System will empower your agents with a unified view of all the bookings in one place and help you resolve them at the earliest. 

Allow your customers and staff to manage and address all their queries effectively and efficiently using the Self-Serve portal driven by Kapture. 

Use the Knowledge Management System and keep your customers and staff updated on everything related to your hotel. 

And finally, Kapture’s Learning Management System will help train your vision and mission and equip your staff with the best techniques required to deliver satisfactory customer service. 

Sign up and Achieve the Ultimate Goal of Customer Satisfaction with Kapture’s Hotel Management System.

About the Author
	Vartika Singh
	Senior Content Writer at Kapture, Vartika Singh is a Literature buff who loves putting out well researched content. She has previously worked towards enlightening the world about cryptocurrencies.

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