All hoteliers will attest that managing your guests’ expectations is the most rewarding and also most challenging part of their job. After all, each guest who decides to stay at your property is expecting something special from your property; whether that’s something your website promised, something a front desk clerk mentioned or something that a former guest stated in an online review. Each guest experience is unique because each guest is unique, but how can you ensure that each guest interaction creates a positive experience? Out of all the interactions you and your staff will have with the guest throughout their stay, there are three major touch points that have the greatest impact on the guests’ satisfaction and ultimately their overall experience.

Is Your Check-In Sending the Right Message?

The check-in is possibly the most critical point of the guest experience. Guests who have never visited your property before are observing the staff, the décor, and the way the staff is handling the guests. This interaction, which is almost always the first interaction since most reservations are made online, leaves a lasting impression on your guests, so the quality of this interaction must be top notch! In most cases, your property’s check-in process is seamless, but what opinion do you think your guest forms when credit card terminals don’t function properly, or there are overbookings?

These are just a couple of examples of things that could go wrong at the time of check-in, and while it is difficult to anticipate all the issues that could arise, it is imperative to have plans in place to resolve issues quickly. By having back up plans in place, you could create positive guest experiences that leave guests feeling like they made the best choice for their stay instead of regretting their decision to stay with you.

How Does Your Staff Handle Guest Requests?

When guest requests come in, they are typically for small items, or for items that make their visit special; for example- flowers in room for an anniversary surprise, or a welcome basket for a guest that is traveling from out of the country. Obviously when a guest requests, a hotelier’s goal should always be to meet that guest’s need immediately, but how does your staff handle guest requests? To ensure that all guest requests are taken care of, you may want to consider a PMS integration that can handle guest requests like Guestfolio’s Mobile Concierge. This integration allows your staff to quickly approve or propose an alternative to your guests at the time of the request. This frees up your staff to attend to live guest requests. Guestfolio is a great way to ensure that your guest requests are managed without mistakes, creating the perfect guest experience.

How Are You Handling Live Guest Interactions?

It happens every day: As you and your staff make the rounds through the property, you encounter guests wandering about. How you and the staff interact with those guests during these interactions can have a lasting impression on them. A smile, a wave, a hello, or a quick “Are you finding everything satisfactory?’ can go a long way with a guest and potentially build a “forever guest”. In fact, it is possible that you will bump into the same guest repeatedly, so how you handle each of those interactions is crucial to creating an outstanding guest experience. When you make the most of each interaction, you ensure that the guest has the best experience possible. Even the smallest gesture could make a huge impact on future stays.

Putting it all together:

In summary we have learned that there are three main touch points in each guest experience and all are equally important to guest satisfaction. It is important that as hoteliers we are cognizant of each of these touch points and continue to make the most of them so that we can create not only the best guest experience for each of our guests, but so that we can create lifelong guests.

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InnQuest Software is a leading technology provider for the hospitality industry. For over 25 years, innQuest has combined hotelier experience with innovative technology to deliver an all-in-one solution that empowers hotels to attract guests, drive customer loyalty, and increase profits. Our flagship property management software, roomMaster, helps manage over 5,500 properties across 100 countries. InnQuest develops scalable solutions ranging from a Hotel PMS, Cloud PMS, Channel Manager, Hotel CRM and helps properties enable guests to Book Direct. We believe that everyone deserves a great guest experience, whether they’re staying at a small B&B, a thousand-room resort, or anywhere in between.

Call us today at 1.813.288.4900, or email us at sales@innquest.com. We will be happy to walk you through innQuest’s solutions.