The proper training of the staff is essential for a hotel. It does not matter how charming the property is, but the impression your staff make on a guest is also important. A guest perspective towards your staff helps you get booking through WOM, returning customers or whether they’ll be taking their business elsewhere.

It is even more important to create the first impression if you are in front of a house or a sales staff.

As all hotel manager, you also want that booking comes directly not through any OTA or 3^rd party source. It helps you reduce the cost of customer acquisition and boost your revenues. If this the case with you, here are few tips how you can train your front of a house or a sales staff during next training session.

Understand what customer does before calling

Before placing a call your customer would conduct an online search, compare the deals and most probably browse through OTA. Make sure when a customer places a call your team is ready to explain any question they have related to the booking journey. Explain how hotels show up on the OTAs and on each hotel how many rate options and room categories there are for guests to sort through. Your team do not have a job to help callers find what rooms/rates are available. But rather to help them decide that this is the best hotel to book and now is the best time.

Provide incentives to reservations team

Not every manager is in the favour of paying incentives to reservation agents. “That is their job” arguments kicks in when it comes paying incentives. However, study shows that if reservations team have proper incentive plan they perform better. They go beyond their normal routines which leads to more conversion and better revenue per booking.

Be ready to explain the rates

The development in revenue and distribution management hotels can take most out from a booking. Today’s agents end up giving the explanation about rate policies. Provide a better explanation to your customer regarding rates. Rather than simply saying that it is a busy season. Mould the conversation which benefits customers such as last time you were here it was low season and we were able to offer some specials. However, now during the busy season, our normal rates apply. It’s still a great value because…” Do as we also do in KTN training and prepare them to explain sticky situations such as why rates change during a multi-night stay, why a group rate is higher than the special they see online, and why their friend who booked closer in to the arrival date is paying a lower rate than they booked far in advance.