If you are reading this, chances are you are looking for ways to improve your hotel´s operational performance – and you are unsure what actions to take and which tasks to prioritize. And understandably so, since creating a successful hotel business is anything but straightforward. It requires careful planning, prioritization, and dedication to achieve great results for a hotel. There is always room for improvement in numerous aspects of the business. Whether it is making the right decisions, optimizing work processes, providing higher-quality service, or aligning departments and objectives.
MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS
Anyone working in the will know that it is easy to get overwhelmed by the number of tasks and opportunities that are always at hand. For this reason, it is highly important to set priorities.
Without establishing the right set of priorities you will run the risk of overlooking more important responsibilities that can directly compromise the service quality of your hospitality operations.
My recommendation is to always start with a logical outline based on the question ‘What brings the most value to your guests?’. Following the same reasoning, you can start establishing which processes and initiatives constitute building a great guest experience.
Importantly, this can be done on a case-per-case basis that is adaptable to accommodate the wide variation in products and services inherently present in the hotel industry.
KNOW YOUR GUESTS AND PERSONALIZE
Another question that hoteliers should ask themselves is “do you know what your guests want?”. If not, it’s about time to get to know them a little better! Start reaping the benefits of a well-built and maintained customer database.
Through personalizing services and products, you can increase revenue and customer experience. An essential step is to focus on recording guest preferences and thoroughly developing their profiles, which should all be tracked in your hotel´s operating software CRM. Also, don’t forget to push the importance of capturing hotel guest data and email addresses to your staff. Without their efforts, this strategy will struggle to take off!
PREPARATION IS KEY
Waiting for opportunities until the guest arrives will work against your operations in many ways. Instead, it is better to take a proactive stance and start driving customer experience and revenue from the get-go. The benefits are abundant.
Any questions or issues can be answered before arrival, alleviating some workload that otherwise would be carried by front office staff.
Think of sending a welcome email (providing basic information and confirming their booking) followed by an email shortly before the guest´s arrival. This email could include directions to the hotel, parking information, things to do, and services in the hotel incl. bookable options.
Moreover, this also proposes opportunities to drive traffic to your website (e.g. package pages and blog posts). Which is always beneficial when it comes to SEO.