It is no secret that the hospitality industry or hotel industry has been feeling the pinch of recent economic downturns. As a result, hotel owners are scrambling to find ways to make their properties stand out from competitors and woo guests back. One way to do this is by improving the guest experience through increased customer service and amenities at check-in. But what exactly is it about hotels that customers care about?
In this blog post, I will tell you about what guests expect from hotel owners during their stay in hotels? I will also tell you about the types of guests because this will really help you to improve your services as per the expectations of your guests. So let’s find out what your guests want from you.
What do hotel guests care about?
The answer to this question varies from guest to guest. Every guest has his own liking, disliking, and preferences. It depends on the ranking of the hotel. Similarly, it also depends on what type of guests is your hotel aiming at. For example, if your hotel is aimed at people who prefer to spend their days in the pool and enjoy drinks at the bar, they will care more for things like pools and bars.
On the other hand, if it is aimed at business travelers, most of their time will be spent in rooms or meeting rooms. So they would most likely care more about things like speed of room service, availability of rooms, and cleanliness. However, if you ask me for a simple answer to the question, “what do hotel guests care about?” then I would say that in general, every guest expects comfort, hospitality, luxury, location, great customer service, and value for money from a hotel.
What are the categories of guests who stay in hotels?
The following are some categories of guests staying in hotels. Each category has different preferences and demands. Therefore, if you know your guests well then you can serve them well.
- Business Travellers
- Leisure Travellers
- Families & Couples
- Groups of Friends
- Party/Couple of Friends or Solo Traveller
- Honeymooners
- Seniors or Elderly
- Corporates/VIPs/Celebrities
Now let’s try to find out the types of hotels and what guests expect from these hotels.
Hotels can be categorized into three types on the basis of their services and prices. These are:
- Luxury hotels or resorts
- Middle-class hotels
- Normal hotels and motels
What do guests expect from luxury hotels or resorts?
Luxury hotels are hotels for those who have money. Most of these hotels are five-star hotels and resorts. These have luxurious rooms with nice interiors and other facilities. Such hotels have higher rates which are normally charged during holidays or weekends, etc.
Luxury hotels offer a variety of services to their guests as all other hotels offer. However, they offer them with style and lavishly. In addition, they also offer a wide range of amenities, such as swimming pools, fitness centers, spas, and restaurants. Major tourist attractions have these 5-star hotels for elite guests. Luxury hotels are more eco-friendly and implement environmental-friendly policies and practices. For example, they are not using single-use plastic, replacing PVC hotel key cards with environmentally sustainable BioPaper hotel key cards, and recycling water and materials. These hotels are the destination of business travelers, honeymooners, corporates, VIPs, and celebrities.
The following are some of the expectations of guests in these luxury hotels or resorts:
- Guests want luxury and comfort with great customer service from these luxury hotels. They care about things like food, location, room service, cleanliness, WiFi speed, and availability of facilities in the room.
- They care about things like pool parties, or nightclubs and bars if their hotel has such types of facilities.
- Guest expect these hotels to be implementing environmentally-friendly practices.
- They expect matchless premium housekeeping services from the housekeeping staff of the hotel.
- In these luxury hotels, guests expect 24-hour front desk assistance from the front desk manager.
- Guest expect a memorable experience in terms of customer services and basic amenities from these five-star hotels.
What do guests expect from middle-class hotels?
Middle-class hotels are the type where most of us stay. These hotels offer a simple service and basic amenities at an affordable price. They normally have all the facilities available to their guests. These facilities may include a bar, a restaurant, an outdoor swimming pool, or a gym. In fact, many middle-class hotels have been upgraded to offer luxury facilities as the economic conditions of the people have gradually increased.
Such hotels can be located in any part of town, especially near the city center or market areas where most people work or shop. Leisure travelers, families, couples, seniors, and groups of friends like to stay in this 3-star hotel or 4-star hotel.
The following are some expectations of guests from middle-class hotels:
- Guests expect simple services from such three-star or four-star hotels. They would not expect as much luxury and style as they get at the Five Star hotels. Hence, all that they could afford is a simple room with basic amenities like AC, TV, and a clean bathroom.
- In these hotels, guests expect clean rooms and bathrooms which are well maintained by hotel staff on a regular basis. Clean towels and bedlinen would further add to their satisfaction.
- Guests expect good hospitality from these four-star hotels. They want these hotels to attend to all their needs in a prompt manner without inconveniencing them by asking too many questions or making them wait for long periods of time.
What do guests expect from normal hotels and motels?
Normal hotels are cheap lodges offering little comfort but basic amenities to their guests. These are located in distant parts of town with low property rates. They have a limited number of facilities available to their guests. However, basic amenities such as a TV and a bathroom with running water are available in all rooms.
The following are some expectations of guests from normal hotels:
- In these motels guests usually do not expect much from the hotel staff as they do not offer any luxury. For any guest who wants special facilities, such as air conditioning or hot water, they have to pay more for them.
- Guests don’t expect much comfort and good hospitality as their budget is limited to just a room with basic amenities for themselves and a few of their close friends or family members.
- As far as customer service is concerned, guests expect good customer service from such hotels.
- Guests expect cheap fares of rooms and meals in these hotels.
What environmental-conscious guests care about during their stay in hotels?
Whenever anyone stays in a hotel they leave behind many things that usually include bath towels, bed linen, kitchen utensils, and bathroom amenities. These are either replaced or washed by the hotel staff before new guests check-in. However, many hotels now offer environmentally friendly practices to their guests as well as the local community where their hotels are located.
Guests now choose hotels with environmentally friendly practices. These would include recycling waste materials, using renewable sources of energy like solar or wind, and treating wastewater before releasing it into the environment, abandoning single-use plastic, replacing PVC hotel key cards with eco-friendly BioPaper key cards and etc.
Environmental-conscious guests expect these types of hotels to be located in environmentally friendly areas where they can engage in some outdoor activities. They want to be active and enjoy themselves during their stay in such hotels.
What do you need to do to attract guests to your hotel and make them loyal customers?
Now that knowing what your guests and potential guests care about, you should have a plan on what needs to improve and enhance your guests’ loyalty to your hotel.
Based on the above-mentioned details, the following are some of the best ways of enhancing your hotel’s guest loyalty:
- Add a personal touch to your services. Ensure that your hotel employees know guests on a first-name basis and address them using their preferred names.
- Offer incentives to your return guests from time to time. One way of doing this is by offering them discounts on services.
- Be reasonable with your prices and ensure that they fit well in the budgets of your guests. Where possible try to compete with other hotels by cutting down on your rates if you know that there is a competitor offering similar services at a lower price.
- Provide detailed information about how to reach your hotel, its facilities including the restaurants and bars, as well as events that are taking place in your hotel. This is especially important for business hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, resorts, and other places where people usually stay overnight.
- You should also be ready to engage in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter Instagram blogs, etc. This will help you stay current with the latest news about your establishment as well as customer opinion. Good customer reviews on these platforms will attract more guests to your hotel.
- You should also engage your guests by offering them a list of local tours and activities they can enjoy as part of their stay in your hotel or resort. You can offer discounted rates for these tours to those who book through you, reducing the overall cost of such tour packages compared to what they would have paid if they went on their own.
- Provide a list of the best places & key attractions to see and things to do in your area.
Conclusion:
A hotel can be run successfully in many ways, but to stand out in the competitive industry they are in, it is very important that every hotel makes sure that they put their guests’ interests at the center of all their operations.
Above all, you should make sure your staff especially hotel managers knows how to handle complaints quickly and kindly when they come up so that your customers feel their concerns have been registered and acted upon.
Every customer, whether they are a loyal guest or a brand new one is looking for the same thing from your hotel- A great stay with some amazing services. Make sure you pay attention to what will make your guests happy and provide them with the best experience possible so that your hotel becomes the first choice of people looking for a place to stay.