With such a high level of competition among hotels, it is a challenging task to provide top-notch service, meet the requirements of the clientele, and gain new visitors at the same time. Hotels have to come up with the craziest ideas to catch an eye of the guest: unusual design or location, robots, exotic menu, etc.
But if you pay attention only to the outdoor decoration of your house instead of strengthening the foundation, it can be ruined once at an unexpected moment. The same rule is for business: start with basic things to move to a higher level. So, what to do to make your hotel work effectively?
1. Organization
Any department should have particular standards of work. Excellent service begins with small, unimportant at first sight details: not only how to smile or what to say at the reception but also how to serve food or make the bed, etc. Moreover, new employees will get into work faster if they have specific requirements. Following these rules, your hotel will manage to provide a repeatable high result for guests and maintain a well-organized workflow.
2. Always say “Yes”
It is essential that your clients feel you are trying to make your best to provide them a comfortable hotel stay. If the client asks to fix some problem, the staff should strive to say yes and not shift the responsibility to another department. The highest priority is the comfort of guests. People are likely to return to the hotel knowing that they don’t have to ask twice there and their requests will be not just heard but also fulfilled.
3. Listen to the staff and appreciate their work
The atmosphere at the working place plays a significant role. Wearing a mask of an irritable and explosive big boss, you are unlikely to gain the trust of employees. Successful hoteliers recommend to be open to workers so that they feel free to make suggestions on how to improve your hotel’s service. Moreover, building normal human relationships with the staff, you can count that these people will help you in a tough situation.
Another vital thing to remember is that everyone wants some acknowledgment. It takes quite a little time to say several kind words to an employee, but he/she will get inspired to keep doing the job well.
4. Surprise your visitors to appear on their social media accounts
It is not enough to have just clean and cozy rooms and friendly personnel. More and more people seek bright impressions while traveling, like a large open-air pool with a view on mountains or a separate forest hut with glass walls. Think of some creative things which could attract new guests to your hotel and make them want to share some pictures of it on social media.
For example, Richard Branson, a successful entrepreneur and one of the richest people in the world, found out an interesting trick to entertain visitors of some special event: they received a salacious invitation proposing them to “sleep” with Richard. The idea was that people could take a photo with an image of Branson entwining them on Virgin’s custom designed room beds and share it on their social media accounts.
5. Keep an eye on new technologies
Following new trends in the hotel industry, your property will gain a good reputation. When people see innovations, they are likely to tell their friends and colleagues about your top-notch service. Also, you will avoid working problems, familiar to every hotelier: double bookings, chaos in payments and invoices, etc.
The digital market offers a wide choice of solutions for proper hotel management nowadays. On the one hand, you should definitely find a perfect product. On the other hand, it takes a lot of time to read about popular software programs and come to a decision taking into account that, actually, most of them are very similar.
According to experts, you should pay attention to the following characteristics when choosing the right PMS:
- Accurate reporting in real-time;
- Integrated booking system;
- Instant paying;
- Integrated channel manager;
- It is compatible with your website.
These are only several main things every PMS should have.
Apart from the most popular products (Cloudbeds, WebRezPro, Guesty, Innkey, etc.), you can consider using younger projects. They offer the same package of Hotel Management Software features (sometimes even more) but for a lower price. Also, you can count on superior customer support due to the smaller number of their clients than the leaders on the market have.
Takeaway
These tips should help entrepreneurs to find the right to deliver hospitality, and encourage them to reach new heights. But the main secret of success is still a strong motivation.