2016 – Smart & Social Stay Way Forward For The Hotels Business
Understanding your customers – Hotels will need to collect more data in the reservations they receive, it is very important to know who has booked your double room. Double rooms are very tricky, if it is a couple and after check in if room has twin beds or business team / office colleagues staying in a same rooms getting a double king-size bed would be a bad experience, and guests expect you to be aware of this. Hotels should start engaging customers and need to build more data on their preferences and engage them in a social contact would bring back repeat stays and more references. There is too much of technology but a introduction of hotel with a employee name and even a small personalized behavior makes the guest very comfortable and give them a touch of social stay. Hotels are competing not only with brands but also with Airbnb and biggest key differentiator is a social stay, as guest gets just more than stay with local experience, preferences someone to depend upon if they need something.
GPS Co ordinates – We have covered lot of topics on content, but recently one important content that most of the hotels should include is their co ordinates of their hotel location in GPS, world is all about latitude & longitude, google maps may be a business driver. It is just not your hotel location but ensuring the proximity to the city attractions, CBD, Convention Halls, Airports etc.. Market your GPS co ordinates in the hotel lobby, business cards and all communications.
Busy Days vs Vacant Days – Hotels need to keep on balancing the ratio of busy days vs vacant days most of the hotels do not track this every day basis which is key in revenue management, you need to know or your team needs to know what should sell up first. Employees should be incentivized for vacant day reservations pick up.
Content on Local Experiences – Most of the travellers always knows the famous points to visit during their vacations / business. But it is also a important factor for hotel to give the customer or at least make them aware of local experience. Irish pubs are very common in Dublin, but a old school local haunt called Celt Bar was really a experience which was memorable, this small things bring back your guests.
Mail before & after stay – Most hotels do send mails post the guest stay for the feedback, it is always better to prevent a bad review / feedback before it goes online so engaging customer before check in reduces unnecessary conflicts. It can be simple mail of introduction and contact co ordinates for the guest in case of any challenges or necessities, this will bind a better guest hotel relationship.