As much as the landscape in the hospitality industry changes, some things stay the same when it comes to setting expectations for the average hotel stay.
NB: This is an article from Infor
One of those things is the mandate to create a sense of welcome and comfort. Much of this is about an approach to service. The technology and process part of that equation is what tends to change over time. New features, functionality, and consumer culture trends tend to intertwine and inform each other. Some of the specifics have changed even since the beginning of our decade.
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So, what are the essentials of an exemplary guest experience during a modern hotel stay that provides a solid and flexible basis for hotel businesses to achieve the central mission of welcome and comfort? Let’s look at 5 of them.
1. Clarity at the booking stage
The sense of welcome and comfort must start as soon as a prospect engages with an offering. Whatever the booking channel happens to be – OTA sites, direct bookings on a company websites, apps – the offering has got to be clear, current, and competitive at all times and across all channels.
Automated functions help to enable hotel revenue management and pricing teams to ensure that all prospects have everything they need to make the best possible decision. They need to know what they’re getting at the rate they’re getting it. That information must be accurate wherever they find it in the moment. When prospects have that clarity, it’s easier for them to feel great about the booking process rather than being in doubt about it.
2. Easy customization of the hotel stay
Personalization is a significant and ongoing mandate to best serve the experience of modern guests. Hotel property management systems that include robust guest profile information is one essential component to supporting this. But personalization is best managed by allowing the guest as much control as possible along the way to enable easy customization.
This is ideally prompted by hotel PMS reservation software functionality, prompting the consumer at the booking stage to select add-ons, upgrades, and other information. Guests are different with diverse requirements and with specific reasons for booking their stay unique to them. Rendering control to them at the booking stage supports that while also enhancing revenue potential.
