The hospitality industry is one of the economic sectors that rely on customer satisfaction. Significant aspects of customer experience seem timeless, as customers always search for a comfortable bed, clean room, good shower, complimentary toiletries, and strong internet connection. However, as technology continues to advance in this digital era, the guest experience landscape has changed.
Today, technology plays a critical role in increasing revenue, enhancing customer experience, and attracting and engaging guests to boost loyalty. Many technology services and products have become readily available in the market, from AR to AI and robots. However, before choosing the best technology that suits your hotel business, you need to understand what your customers want and expect during their stay.
Here are some of the things your guests expect when they visit your facility:
1. Mobile Check-Ins And Digital Keys
While many people can load boarding passes, reservations, and event tickets onto their smartphones, your guests do not have any reason not to access their rooms using their mobile devices. Mobile check-ins save your guests time and enable you to offer them a quick and easy check-in service at their convenience. This way, your guests do not feel rushed and can go through the process at their pace.
With mobile check-ins, your guests do not see any point in checking in and having to waste time at the reception waiting to be handed keys to access their room. Thus, digital keys that enable guests to open their rooms using their mobile devices go together with mobile check-ins. Your guests expect to book online, receive their room number through a confirmation text or email, and head to that room once they get into your facility.
2. Instant Connectivity
After location and price, hotel internet services have become one of the most significant factors influencing a guest’s decision to choose your facility. Many customers claim they would give up on some amenities and services for better connectivity, while others would pay extra for better hotel internet services. In most cases, guests consider Wi-Fi a necessity, not a privilege.
3. Personalized Experiences
Your guests want to feel at home whenever they visit your hotel. They desperately want to get that feeling that someone is looking after them. Although excellent customer service has always been an essential part of the hospitality industry, technology has replaced some of the services customers never appreciated. While technology is promoting self-service, guests still want to interact with hotel personnel. Your guests do not want to feel like any other customer that has visited your hotel for one night and then overlooked in the morning. They expect a personalized and tailored service, and it is an excellent way of ensuring they are delighted.
For example, you can leave a welcome message on TV to allow your guests to feel welcomed. Besides, you can take services to a more advanced level by sending your customers mobile push notifications to remind them what they have purchased. Push notifications enable you to upsell your business and drive sales.
4. Communication Ease
You need to keep your communication levels on the spot before, during, and after a customer’s stay to enable them to feel satisfied with the services you provide. In case a guest makes a query before their visit, you should respond to them in a timely way. By doing so, you entice them to return to your facility and improve your reputation.
You should always ensure you get hold of the right individual to help solve your guests’ problems. Whether it’s from their mobile phones, phones in their rooms, one-on-one, or live chat, communication is a common expectation among your guests.
5. High-Quality Service
High-quality service will continue to remain a significant guest expectation for decades. Although hiring helpful, approachable, and polite staff is the start, a decent standard of basic amenities results in excellent customer service. Poor service is a crucial driver of dissatisfaction among guests, and thus, you must promote a culture of impeccable customer service if you want to attract and retain guests.
Your guests expect a comfortable bed, clean rooms, a good shower, complimentary toiletries, and a strong internet connection. However, excellent customer service supersedes all of those things and helps you ensure that your guests have the perfect stay with you, want to return, and will refer their friends to your hotel. Although cutting-edge technology can help you improve customer experience, it cannot replace the natural human touch.
6. Fast And Easy-To-Use Booking System
Today, a booking system has become the first place where guests decide to either book with you or not. Having an efficient and easy-to-use digital booking system makes a difference. Your guests want a booking system they can rely on and get personalized services.
7. Great Value For The Money
With an entry of new players in the industry, such as Home-Away and Airbnb, you need to show your customers that they will get more value for their money by staying in your hotel than they would at an apartment. Ensure you offer services that will exceed their expectations regardless of the price. Many business travelers are more likely to book a relatively expensive room if they think it provides more value than a cost-effective option.
8. Sustainability
Today, guests have become more environmentally conscious than before, and thus, they automatically expect your facility to be the same. Since many people have started to adopt new lifestyles to curb the effects of climate change, you need to highlight your environmentally friendly initiatives, such as recycling and waste reduction programs, water-saving and renewal energy initiatives, and utilization of organic and local products. By doing so, you will provide your customers comfort and knowledge that you are also doing your part to improve the environment.
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Meeting and exceeding guest expectations helps you to satisfy your guests and probably turn them into loyal clients. You should always put your guests first and strive to give them the best experience to ensure they enjoy their stay. As a result, you will create a great, long-lasting impression and gain more acceptance and validity in the hospitality industry.
