Take a close look at how the hospitality industry is evolving and we will notice that more and more imaginative hotels and vacation rentals emerged across the world.Providing uniqueness, especially in terms of design and amenities, these newly developed properties are changing people’s view on a typical hotel experience.
If you are a hotelier and have been in the industry for so long, to completely change your property into extraordinary is almost impossible. Even if it’s not, it would surely burn a hole in your pocket and not to mention the time you have to bear before your property becomes a sensation and you hit a new record for your occupancy rate!
Surely there is something simpler we can do for our existing hotel businesses, no? Sure there is! After all, hospitality is all about what is expected to be received by the guests during their stay, so as long as you manage to provide them services that are at the same worth of what they have paid, they won’t hesitate to come back and stay at your property over and over again.
To make sure you’re on the right track in providing value-added experience to your guests, we have listed here several things you can offer to your guests and have them feel like no other hotel can give them a similar experience than yours.
1 – Personalization
The key to the guest heart is undoubtedly great customer service. Guests love it when hotels connect with them on a personal level.
Make use of the booking details of the guests as a tool for you to better build relationships with them. Even before they arrive at your hotel, you can reach out to them by sending out a pre-arrival email to welcome them and even to upsell amenities like in-room extras and transportation.
Hotel staff can make a habit to call the guest by name and spend time getting to know them during their stay which won’t cost you a dime! Building a relationship on a personal level with the guests can be a key differentiator that hinders the guest to make a booking at other hotel as they will not be sure that your competitor can provide warm services like you do.
2 – Complimentary Wi-Fi (And Working Too!)
If you think well working Wi-Fi is not important for your hotel business, hold that thought because according to a survey, Wi-Fi is one of the most important parts of guest experience. It revealed that 65% of guests get online within 7 minutes of checking in!
Even if you do offer complimentary Wi-Fi, do make sure that it is functioning well. Many a time hotels claim that they have Wi-Fi but turns out the connection is a headache and worse, we can’t even connect! This will be a major turn-off for the guests. Sure they might keep it shut and still stay at your property but most probably they won’t come back again.
3 – Room Service
Typically, hotels that have in-house restaurants will have a room service. However, with technological advancement, even if you don’t own an in-house restaurant, you can still provide a room service to your guests which will definitely add value to your hotel business.
The existence of company like GrabFood and FoodPanda definitely opens up new opportunities for hoteliers. By making use of the services offered by the above companies, hoteliers can have a simple menu available for their guests to order and have it delivered to the hotel.
Even if you don’t feel partnering with GrabFood or FoodPanda is viable, you can always order from the nearby restaurants. It won’t cost much for you but if you’re willing to cater this to your customers, you will definitely stand out among other hoteliers that might think this is a lot of work.
4 – Pick Up / Drop Off Service
Another way to provide impeccable hospitality to your hotel guests is by offering a pick up and drop off service.
Big hotels normally have their own transport for airport transfer but smaller hotels usually don’t have this. If you are one of the small hoteliers, don’t let this be the deal breaker for your guests.
You can still provide your guests similar service by partnering with Grab. A lot of boutique hotels out there has started seeing the importance of having a transport service available for their guests. They choose to partner with Grab and create their own unique Grab discount code for their hotel guests to use such as save MYR10 for their ride to and from the airport.
5 – Free Room Upgrade
With so many hotel business out there throwing discounts out there, how do you stand out from the crowd? If you’re just another hotel providing 10% to 30% discounts to your guests, it might not be sufficient to help you in the customer retention department.
Instead of being predictable by giving out typical discounts just like the rest, why not provide a free room upgrade for your guests when they least expect it.
For example, if you have guests staying more than 3 nights or for the week, offer them a free room upgrade to show that you appreciate them. This way, you bond a special relationship with the guest and they will most probably come back to you the next time because of your sweet gesture.
Or you can also make use of promo code system to create early bird promo for your regulars. On top of getting a 10% or 20% early bird discount, give them a free room upgrade / free breakfast too.
Our Thoughts
Truthfully, it is not that hard for hoteliers to create attractive offers for the guests. As mentioned, it is all about hospitality.
Start with the easiest one by providing a reliable Wi-Fi connection and be better at serving your guests with other offers listed from time to time. If you never try, you’ll never know what are you capable of in terms of providing the best guest experience.
All that said, for guests to find you online and to land them to your property, you should also provide them a seamless booking process on your website. That’s the key to everything that will happen after!
Not convinced your current website is able to attract your target customers? We have all the features that matter for a website, for your business, staff and guest.
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