December 15, 2009

What Your Guest Wants

In this age of political correctness and sexual harassment lawsuits it might not be appropriate to say this but…touch your guests. They want it. Bad.

They don’t necessarily need to be touched in a physical way, but when you find a way to touch their hearts and their minds with your service efforts you’ll be rewarded tenfold as these valued guests become your biggest advocates.

This theory was the upshot of a panel of travel experts who gathered this past month in New York City for the Hospitality Leadership Forum, the Industry Trends Conference of the Hotel/Motel Restaurant Show. Together, this group of frequent travelers logged in over 300 room nights in 2009, making them imminently qualified to talk about how their travel experiences mirror those of other travelers and what guests want and need, and what works. Or doesn’t.

Moderator Regina Lewis, VP of Global Insights for Intercontinental, asked her panel to share their thoughts on what drives them to choose a hotel for leisure travel. By and large the response was overwhelmingly, “show that you care about our needs.” Gary Leopold, President & CEO of ISM, an ad agency servicing many hotel accounts drives home this point as he says, “People will never forget how you make them feel.”

For Andrea Bitts, National Sales Director at USA Today, feeling good about where she and her staff stay means making sure a hotel offers a complimentary breakfast. And she adds, “24-hour room service is very important.” Janet Stein, Country Manager USA of Hästens Beds, appreciates a property that’s respectful of her time, particularly at check-out when every moment counts. She comments, “An efficient check-out process is essential. Anything that delays you unnecessarily is a pain in the neck.”

Geoff Feingold routinely endures what others may see as a minor pain in the neck; when visiting his west coast office he stays at a property that is a little further down the road than some others. Why drive the few extra miles when he could stay closer? It’s because the staff at this particular property has made him feel so welcome and well cared for that he’s become loyal. It’s the way the staff anticipates his needs and caters to him. And rewards him. Feingold notes, “Guests want to stay at a consistent, quality brand. There’s a benefit of frequency when you find a frequent travel program that rewards you the way you want, and so you stay with them.” Lewis concurs and makes a point about what she sees on comment cards over and over again as she says, “A key driver of guest love is ‘treats one like a valued guest.’” She reminds everyone, “We’re not concerned with satisfaction anymore. If you’re ‘satisfied’ it doesn’t mean you’re going to go out and reconnect.”

Getting those guests to reconnect takes more than just providing a clean hotel, free of mold and stopped up tubs, accessible electrical outlets to plug in all our devices and the iron. According to this panel of experts it takes a little ingenuity in how to exceed guest expectations. Sometimes even before they arrive. Leopold advises, “Supply experiences. You can be mapping [the guest’s good feeling about the hotel] from the point of the initial search and booking stage. Get them pre-journey.” He queries the audience, “How many of you hoteliers send an email to your guests before they arrive telling them what the weather will be during their stay or informing them about an interesting exhibit at the museum next door?”

And once they arrive, well there’s so much more you can consider. Leopold continues, “63% of US households have pets. 30 million people travel with their pets. What are you doing for them? And, by the year 2050 there will be more people over 60 than younger than 15. Think about what you have to do to service that guest.”

Attentive, creative, and thoughtful service will touch your guest in the most positive way and create a sense of loyalty that benefits you in terms of repeat business and builds grass-roots positive public relations campaigns as these happy guests go out into the world via Facebook and Twitter to talk about your brands. Stein remarks, “When you travel as much as this panel does the bar for love gets raised awfully high.” The bar is certainly high for frequent business travelers like those on the panel, but guests staying in your hotel on vacation aren’t really expecting anything different. How to best touch them? Lewis concludes, “At the end of the day it’s all about anticipating.”

Read the article on hotelinteractive.com.