How to Increase Guest Satisfaction in Hotels

People get pickier when it comes to staying at a hotel. Hoteliers need to re-evaluate and improve their business regularly for better guest satisfaction.

If you're a hotelier looking for ways to increase guest satisfaction, you've come to the right place. In this blog post, we'll share some tips on how to make your guests feel more comfortable and appreciated during their stay.

Discover how you can become a top competitor in the hospitality industry by delivering a memorable hotel experience to your guests.

Respond to guests' needs and desires promptly

People generally want to spend quality time on their vacation. They come here to stay away from problems. So, to provide a positive customer experience, you must fulfill their requests and needs promptly and with high quality.

Your audience will show you how

Decide on whom you want to serve.

Ask yourself: Do I want to appeal to business travelers, backpackers, families, and teens?

Guest expectations of these people will be different. After nailing the target guest profiles, you can choose the facilities and services you need for a better hotel guest experience.

Hotel guests have different expectations, but also some in common. Then, you must fulfill different customer needs to increase your reputation by getting positive reviews and feedback. Pay attention to getting feedback from your guests both as face-to-face and online reviews post-stay.

For teens and young adults

They want action!

You can add discos and parties to your hotel activities to appeal to teens and young adults. Plus, it is helpful to offer technical services such as free Wi-Fi, abundant charging stations, etc., for a more satisfying guest experience.

Also, even though they have a tendency to be online all the time when interesting options are given, they will enjoy being social with other teenagers or their families. You can offer social activities such as Karaoke parties, game nights, and sports activities (try beach volleyball!) so that teens won’t get bored when staying at your hotel. 

And more importantly, they will remember their experience and talk to their friends about it. 

Families with babies or young children

Offer kindergarten and nursing staff to families with babies or young children. You can also provide parents with 24/7 staff to take care of the children.

Provide equipment such as strollers and baby changing tables both in common bathrooms and rooms. Personalizing the family rooms with that kind of equipment will make parents’ holidays much easier and more comfortable.

Don’t forget to mention these facilities and services in your ads!

Besides the care services, you can also add some fun to your hotel with child theaters, kids' clubs, children's pools, and watery activities. This will make kids have fun, and parents will get a break!

Families with older people

Elder people want peace when staying at a hotel, so it is helpful to have peaceful places for those people. You can design soundproof rooms and separate dining areas if they want to stay away from the noise.

Be sure that these spaces are easy to reach if they have difficulty walking. That's also a part of creating inclusive spaces, which simultaneously becomes more relevant for businesses and customers.

Business travelers

To increase business travelers' satisfaction, you should balance work and rest time. You can

• Add common and personal workplaces so that they can work with full focus.

• Design meeting rooms for companies.

• Offer different options for rest time, such as fitness centers, spas, pools, etc.

Business travelers might not want to spend time on bookings. So, you can offer easy and quick check-in and check-out options to attract them.

Fast and secure Wi-Fi is also a must for business travelers since they will be working on their laptops online.

For more tips, discover how to attract business travelers.

Backpackers

Backpackers usually stay at a hotel to get to know the neighborhood around the hotel. They want to find local transportation to visit around and travel services such as daily tours.

At this point, you can provide tour organizations and tour buses for backpackers, so they don’t have to spend time searching. Helping them with their travel will make them more likely to stay at your hotel for a longer period of time.

Digital Nomads

A digital nomad is someone who is working remotely and can work anywhere they want. So they are flexible and mobile. But fast and secure Wi-Fi is also paramount for them while doing business online.

These people are usually looking for long-term lodging. If your hotel rooms are suitable for long stays, we highly recommend you target digital nomads in your hotel marketing efforts.

Learn more about hotel personas.

Comfort Traveler

Comfort travelers are more likely to spend money since they want the best for themselves on vacation. If you want to satisfy comfort travelers' expectations, you need to adhere to the principle of 'quality over quantity'.

This must lead you to provide these people with VIP services since they expect quality service when they pay. These can be exclusive events, tourist attractions, and shopping options. Comfort travelers may also be interested in your upselling options to appeal to comfort travelers. If they haven't realized your amenities or services, you can let them know once they arrive at your hotel.

Extra tip: For every type of guest with special days to celebrate on their vacation, such as birthdays, you can offer party services. A personalized experience is always the top choice!

Keep your hotel clean

No matter what type of guests you have, everyone wants a clean place when staying outside of their home.

Here are some cleaning tips:

Routine replacement: Replace dirty items with washed and freshly-cleaned items regularly in your hotel rooms, such as bath towels, bathrobes, soap, shampoos, pillowcases, sheets, and so on. A task sheet for your housekeeping team will help them clean the hotel regularly.

Disinfection: After the pandemic, the importance of hygiene has increased. You should disinfect everywhere in your hotel regularly (hourly, daily, weekly, etc.). People will be happy to see your care; and they will feel comfortable.

Contactless processes: Plus, use as many contactless processes as you can. Payments can be made online or only accepted through contactless cards. Just don't forget to mention the payment methods in your ads and on your website!

Best-quality and green products: Now, people care more about the environment than ever before. Use only high-quality and green cleaning products for laundry and cleaning.

Add some comfort to improve the experience

Beds and pillows: At hotels, people usually look for the comfort they have in their homes. Therefore, ensure that your rooms are filled with high-quality items, such as comfortable beds and lots of soft pillows.

Bathroom usage: When guests want to use the bathroom, they want a comfortable place to settle their affairs. Create comfortable and clean bathrooms for guest satisfaction.

Hot water: For example, no matter how the weather is, people want to take a bath in a cozy space. So, make sure there is always hot water and, plus, auxiliary feedwater in case the water is cut.

Bathroom essentials: Also, provide shampoo, bath puffs, cotton towels, and other bathroom essentials which your guests are likely to need. And refill them when requested.

Stand out with your hotel design

During high season, make sure your guests have plenty of space. So they will not feel overwhelmed by the crowd.

Besides having generous space, first impressions also matter for guests. So, when creating a cozy atmosphere, pay attention to using good-looking items.

Here are some tips to make common spaces spacious and enjoyable. You can use these tips anywhere in your hotels.

High roofs: People tend to feel claustrophobic when there are low roofs and many people. To avoid that feeling, you can use high roofs so the place looks wider and guests feel they have more space.

Winter garden: You can create a small winter garden for people to feel the sunlight without getting cold in winter. These spaces are usually amazingly eye-catching, and people remember their cozy moments there.

Lighter colors: If you use lighter colors in your common areas, it will relieve people and create a calm environment. Lighter colors can reflect natural light, making rooms appear more spacious.

Minimalism: Less is more. Provide good products and good furniture but don’t go too far. Design your hotel with enough equipment, and this will increase hotel guest satisfaction.

Train your hotel staff to be friendly and helpful

Since people use hotels for a short period, they don’t want to deal with problems and expect exemplary guest service from a hotel. That’s why you should employ qualified and professional staff to improve guests' stays.

Plus, you should provide quick and effective problem-solving skills in case of problematic situations.

The importance of the front desk

Your front desk makes a big difference. There, staff should always be smiling, helpful, and proactive. They represent your business. You should select the most qualified people with strong communication and management skills under stress to deal with all types of customers, including difficult ones.

To achieve this, you can train your hotel staff by providing online, theoretical and practical lessons. This will help their improvement. A win-win!

Discover 7 Key Operational Areas Of Hotel Management.

Communication across the team

Also, they might want to feel involved in the team. Make sure to communicate with all of your staff and make them interact with each other by organizing in-company activities.

For an employee, acknowledgment is essential. So, always appreciate your staff and make them know this! This will increase their happiness and productivity at work. These are key elements for better hotel management as well.

Improve food variety and kitchen quality

People follow many different diets, such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and ketogenic… To increase guest satisfaction, you should offer all types of food to appeal to your guests with different diets.

As well as offering various types of food, ensure that you use high-quality products and maintain a clean kitchen. You can take photos of your kitchen and display them in your dining halls to make guests feel comfortable with what they eat. Using translucent walls to show your guests how you cook shows transparency and reliability.

Provide transportation

Most of the time, people come from far places, and they don’t have personal vehicles. That’s why it is important to have free transportation services for those people who might have difficulty reaching out to your hotel.

You can offer free or paid shuttles from airports, bus terminals, and train stations to your hotel.

Reach out and communicate

To appeal to your customers, all of these services must be heard. So here are some tips to be heard.

Use social media actively

Be visible on different social media platforms to attract a variety of types of guests. For example, write informative and enjoyable blog articles on your website and announce them on LinkedIn to attract business travelers.

Use Instagram for teens and Facebook for older people. And discover the power of TikTok in the hotel industry. Expand your social media limits because there are so many different people!

Work with OTAs and focus on metasearch

OTAs (Online travel agencies) are among the best platforms to publish your hotels’ advertisements. Tripadvisor is a perfect example of OTAs. By working with them, you can ease the booking process.

Here, guests can compare the hotels by looking at the pricing, services, places, etc. You can show your opportunities and services to shine among other hotels.

What is better than OTAs is metasearch. By improving your hand in metasearch engines, you can reach out your potential guests through your own website directly.

Create mobile app

You can create desktop or mobile apps to make the booking process easier by offering quick processes. Giving them extra miles every time they buy something in your apps can encourage people to download and use your apps.

Be in touch with your guests

There are many ways to do that:

• Create a mail channel and send regular emails about your offers, opportunities, services, hotel-related blogs, etc. Basically, anything that might attract your repeat and new guests!

• Messaging is also another channel to get in touch with your guests. People are more likely to read their messages than emails. Try to use both of them! Let them know about your enjoyable amenities and cozy corners to enjoy their time at your hotel.

• If you have repeat guests, send them personalized emails regularly and call them to mention special offers. It will make them pleased if you make their bookings quickly and easily. This will also increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

• Ask your guests’ feedback post-stay to improve your services. Negative reviews can show you what's wrong with your services and help you fix them instead of repeating the same mistakes. Let their guests know that every opinion matters to you.

Key Takeaways

Let’s take a look at what we listed above:

• Figure out who you serve and what services they need

• Take care of the cleaning to keep guest satisfaction high

• Add some comfy spaces to make guests feel at home

• Design your hotels to avoid the feeling of the crowd

• Employ professional people, train them and appreciate their work

• Provide the highest quality food and be transparent about your service

• Make access to your hotels easier for your guests

In short, to increase guest satisfaction and provide a memorable guest journey, you need to address their needs. Be your top self when serving and delivering quality products to be a top competitor in the travel industry and hotel business.