As the pandemic restrictions got lifted up, the hospitality sector saw an incredible boom in tourism. Travel fever is all over the place and it’s going to stay for a long time, because after spending a year indoors, people have started to value their freedom. And they want to experience it even more by traveling to places that have never been before.

Hotels across the country have sold-out signs hanging on their front doors. Sure, the business is running on the profitable side for most hotels, but maintaining quality standards and providing personalized services have gone for a toss.

As a hotel manager or owner, you may want to rethink your whole strategy to better match it with how you improve the guest experience and what customers expect from a business like yours.

Hire the right people

Your hotel staff makes up more than 60% of the customer experience. Customers are more likely to rebook a hotel that has kind and friendly staff rather than a hotel with fancy suites but obnoxious staff. It stands to reason that you should hire the right people who understand how this industry works and have a calm temperament with a high threshold for anger. Hotels with bad reputations often have staff with a quick fuse. That said, you need to make your hiring process more stringent by putting candidates through a series of situations to test their patience. Rules are simple. If they lose their patience, they lose.

Surprise Presents

Most hotels offer surprise gifts to assuage rattled guests. If you do that, chances are your gifts may not be well received under such circumstances. A better strategy would be to give surprise gifts to every customer regardless, during their stay or upon arrival. When your customers feel honor-bound or obligated to your sweet gesture, they tend to overlook itsy bitsy problems and give you 5-star ratings. 

Shuttle Service or Airport Transfers

Offering private airport transfers is a great way to treat your customers like royalty. Imagine your guests get down at the airport and now they are struggling to find a cab. And you know how cab experiences can get really nasty. By the time your customers reach your hotel, they are almost on the verge of an outburst. And a small mistake might push them over the edge. By providing an airport pickup service, you let your customers form a positive opinion about your hotel even before reaching there. 

Delicious Breakfast

The first few things that you do in the morning set your intention and mood for the day. And nothing cheers up like a wholesome, delicious breakfast. While it is considered a good practice to offer complimentary breakfast, some hotels can’t afford it. And it’s important to make it clear at the time of booking. This will save you a lot of hassles and customers’ backlash.

Bathroom Hygiene

For most customers, especially after pandemic, hygiene is the top priority among other concerns. While it’s easy to clean up the room and replace linens, it takes extra effort to make the bathroom neat and presentable. If your hotel’s bathrooms don’t look like they were built yesterday, you are not living up to the expectations. Also, to make your bathrooms look presentable, buy wholesale containers to store essentials like shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, and soap. And make sure these containers are transparent so that your staff knows when it’s time to top up.

Ask your guests

Sometimes all that you do and offer is not enough for your customers. Unless you can read their mind and deliver what they want on a platter, you will want to come up with a feedback strategy that can help you identify the pain points and feature requests without taking too much of your customers’ time.