Meeting guest expectations. Making guest feel at home. Fulfilling guest desires.
NB: This is an article from Direct Your Bookings
If you have been working Hotel Industry long enough (which means more than 48 hours), you likely know that it’s ultimately all about the above statements. In theory, the more you accomplish to meet the above requirements, the more successful your hotel is going to be.
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And so if I asked you: “what’s the problem with meeting guest expectations, making them feel at home and fulfilling their needs and wishes?“, you’d probably feel confused.
In fact, nothing is wrong, except this:
And again:
Everything’s perfect, but boring.
So here’s the problem: whilst failing at meeting guest expectations will immediately trigger the worst possible reviews all over the places, succeeding at at it doesn’t translate in the same proportional amount of positive feedbacks.
If you think about it, it all makes sense and it happens to all of us in every circumstances: we don’t value the obvious, but we stumble upon the unexpected.
Put another way, surprising our guests with something unexpected is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s the #1 focus of any hotel marketing strategies.
The positive news is that going extra mile can be easy and can be free: all it requires is some creativity and some good and authentic attitude from the hotel staff delivering the surprise.
In this article we’re going to explore some very interesting examples of hotels who succeeded in their attempt to positively surprise their guests and, more importantly, how this translated in terms of marketing for the hotel.
Let’s dig in.
The Pillow Fort.
First, what do I exactly mean by “positively impact the marketing for the hotel?”
In simple words, this:
I first shared the above example 3 years ago at an event where I gave my speech about Google Analytics for Hotels, in the context of the bigger topic The role of Google in the Hospitality Industry.
At the end of the speech (1 hour long), I concluded with the above screenshot and my words were something like: “You know what? Forget everything that I’ve just said, forget about Analytics, about Google, about everything… that’s BS. The only thing that really matters is this: your guests.”
Little did I know then that few hotels across the globe had managed to really surprise their guests in the most creative ways. Ways that made me smile, but also think: in fact, the above example was triggered by an initial odd request by the guest.
Were there ways to proactively become memorable in the eyes and minds of the customers without having to wait for them to ask something special?
Of course there are. Here I’ve collected some examples that, I hope, will help you become memorable, too. Every. Single. Day.
