How to gather valuable hotel guest feedback?

In customer-centric hospitality industry, guest feedback and evaluations are critical, which determine the hotel's fate, reputation, reservations a hotel is likely to receive and ultimately, its income.

With so much at stake, hotels all over the world are putting a greater emphasis on providing excellent service to their guests and then ensuring that the majority of them share their experiences, helping them improve their services and grow their business and gaining high visibility.

Here are a few ways to gather valuable guest feedback at hotels.

1. Encourage customers to submit feedback-

Ask, and you shall receive. When you engage guests at a time when you know they will be responsive, you are more likely to get a higher response rate on customer satisfaction surveys. You can do this by training your hospitality staff to mention your feedback program at key touchpoints. Piloting can be done at places like the hotel reception, the spa or the restaurant. Similarly, teaching team members how to inform guests about the feedback program in an appealing manner will improve the quantity and quality of responses. Using a guest’s name is an example of one such tactic.

2. Use a variety of feedback channels-

When it comes to obtaining feedback from your guests, convenience is crucial. Messaging apps are extensively used to communicate in today's world, and most people use more than one app at a time. Providing a number of choices, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and even SMS will grow your audience while also addressing the needs of your current guests.

3. Utilise simple customer surveys-

No one wants to go through a lengthy and inconvenient feedback procedure. When possible, keep your queries short and uncomplicated. If a guest has to work to provide feedback, they are less likely to do so. Provide steps throughout the feedback survey or form so that a guest may simply complete it, and make giving feedback as simple as pressing a 'submit' button.

Follow these simple techniques to get guest feedback and boost your online presence and ranking on search engines and review sites. Your potential guests will be able to quickly locate your hotel online as your visibility grows. Furthermore, when they read the comments (both positive and negative), your hotel appears to be dependable and trustworthy in contrast to competitors. Keep in mind that your guests are your actual brand ambassadors!

Note: The views expressed in this article are that of the V.M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha