Top 8 Guest Complaints

“More than one third of consumers will not book a hotel room without reading (online) reviews first.” – LateRooms

Discussion of hospitality trends is a constantly changing one that’s usually very unpredictable.  “Online Reviews” is one of those “trend” words that we’ve all been hearing a lot lately.  Online reviews have become directly related to the success of your property.  With the number of online users only increasing as time goes on, these reviews will come to determine the future success of hospitality businesses.  Monitoring and interacting with online reviews has become a cornerstone of successful hospitality business practices.  The engine for which these reviews are shared and posted will always be changing.  Right now, the popular sites are Yelp and TripAdvisor, but in 5-10 years, it could be anything.  Regardless of where people go to post these reviews in the future, they will forever and always be doing it.  It’s your job as a hospitality professional stay on top of these reviews.  One can try to avoid negative reviews from occurring altogether, but if that doesn’t work, then you need to be online fielding these customer reviews; good and bad.

How can you stay on top of your hotel operations to make sure bad reviews aren’t posted in the first place?  HotelInfo.com published a multiple year study detailing the comments and causes related to a negative online customer review.  Here are the top 8 things guests complained about:

1. Extra costs for internet access, parking, breakfast, etc.
   1. Free WiFi has become an expectation. If something as simple as free parking will provide your property with positive customer reviews, it’s worth it.
2. Lack of service
   1. This isn’t always in your control, but making sure your staff is happy and knowledgeable can combat this issue. With emphasis on happy; a happy employee is a happy guest.
3. Breakfast choice
   1. Again, if it gets your property a good review, it’s worth providing some additional breakfast options.
4. Uncomfortable beds
   1. If your beds are uncomfortable, it’s not an easy/cheap upgrade. But to remain successful in the longer term, guest comfort is essential.
5. Dirty rooms
   1. This is no different than lack of service. If your rooms aren’t clean enough, your housekeeping staff needs to be re-evaluated.  Keeping your staff happy is the best preventative measure.
6. Unfriendliness
   1. Same as dirty rooms and lack of service.
7. Quality of breakfast
   1. A cheap breakfast with multiple options is no better than a good breakfast with no options.
8. Hotel does not offer what it promises.
   1. Keep track of your online/print listings and descriptions. If your hotel doesn’t offer listed options, get the info changed to appropriately market your property.

As you can see, a lot of these negative reviews stem from issues that can easily be prevented from occurring in the first place.  If you’re constantly seeing negative reviews for unfriendliness, dirty rooms or general lack of service, you may need to re-evaluate your staff.  Keeping your employees happy and making sure to keep yourself open to them is an easy way to prevent these issues.  If they can knowingly come to management with their questions and issues, they’ll be sorted out much quicker and hopefully help avoid negative reviews in the first place.  Besides issues with your staff, the majority of these complaints come from additional charges for services.  These charges may bring extra income to the property, but they cause negative buzz to your online community and ultimately harm your establishment.  These extra charges should be carefully reconsidered in your future hotel operations.  Extra benefits like this can generate positive reviews and ultimately loyal customers.

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To see the full article including percentage statistics on these top complaints, please visit the link below.

http://www.eturbonews.com/48354/tips-hoteliers-what-do-about-negative-hotel-evaluations?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Eturbonews-TravelAndTourismIndustryNews+%28eTurboNews+-+for+the+global+travel+professional%29

Role of Reviews and Reputation on Buying Success

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbender/2012/07/27/americans-biggest-complaints-about-hotels/

5 Ways to Handle Unhappy Customers

There are so many ways to deal with unhappy customers.  Some methods are more effective than others but the most important thing you can do is let the guest know you’re making a sincere effort to fix whatever’s wrong.  Being able to successfully deal with these situations on the spot is essential to good management and a successful business.  Here are 5 key steps to making sure that guest doesn’t leave your business unhappy.

1. Learn the facts from all parties involved.  Before approaching the customer, ask the employee who was first presented with the situation what their take is.  Often times they will have a different perspective on the issue than the customer will.  Then proceed to ask the customer what they believe has occurred and how they were wronged.  Once you have all the facts, you can make a decision on the situation should be handled.
2. Know your abilities and limitations in the steps available that you can take to fix the issue.  Are you allowed to give complimentary items? Can you give them an extra night’s stay?  Have a thorough understanding of all your options prior to dealing with the unhappy customer.  More often than not, a bad situation can be fixed with some other form of compensation; but make sure you’re authorized to provide said compensation before you do it.
3. Inform the customer that you are the person that will assist them.  Make them feel valued and personally help them to solve their issue.  This way there is only one party involved in fixing the situation and customers don’t feel brushed aside by being sent to various people.
4. Get direct assistance from others in your organization; if you’re not able to resolve the issue yourself.  If you’re unable to fix the issue at hand, there is usually another employee who is readily available that can help solve your problem.  Go directly to them and ask for their help as to solve the issue in a timely manner.
5. Follow up with the customer.  This one is a no-brainer.  While solving the issue, you’ll usually receive the customers contact information.  Make it a point to reach out to them after the fact and offer to personally take their reservation should they choose to come back.  Make sure they know that you’ve taken the time to personally assure their satisfaction.

While there are of course many ways to handle an unhappy customer, these are a few steps you can take when something comes up unexpectedly and you’re forced to make quick decisions.  To read the full article, please visit; http://www.hospitalitynet.org/column/154000392/4065105.html

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Guests “Text” Their Thoughts to Hotels

The Park Hyatt at Beaver Creek recently completed their room renovations to display a more contemporary look in the ski resort.  Upon finishing the renovations, the hotel wanted to find out what their guests thought about the new rooms.  Since it’s so difficult to get guests to fill out surveys, especially on paper, this Park Hyatt asked its guest to text them their thoughts on the renovations.

Upon check in, guests are given a phone number and told they can text their thoughts on the new rooms at their own convenience.  In return for their thoughts, they receive a complimentary cocktail.  Something as simple as a free drink can generate a much larger number of responses; everyone likes free stuff!

Not only are several other hotels implementing similar strategies, guests have taken a liking to the concept.  By putting the ball in the guest’s court and not sending them solicitation texts and spam emails, guests have accepted the practice and are more open to participating.  “So long as the texts are strictly about the renovation and won’t lead to the hotel “spamming” us with deals or packages, we’re cool with that.”

While this strategy has worked great for the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek to hear guests reactions to the newly renovated rooms, this could be used across all kinds of guest reviews.  The concept creates a simple and 24/7 available outlet to tell the property what’s on their mind.

http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2014/2/24/94258/3396/hotels/Text_The_Park_Hyatt_Beaver_Creek_What_You_Really_Think_About_Their_New_Rooms