6 Hotel Mistakes That Destroy Your Guest Experience

The guest experience continues to be one of the main concerns for hoteliers. How do you improve it when the guests’ expectations are constantly changing? In this article, you’ll find six tips to avoid common mistakes that can destroy your guest experience.

Guest Needs Are Constantly Evolving

The times when all that cared was the location and good service are long gone. Today’s guests are more complicated, and they aim for much more than that.

Creating an excellent hospitality experience nowadays depends on how fast you answer their questions, how many ‘one-click’ experiences you can provide, and how personalized your approach is to engage them.

6 Crucial Mistakes That Are Destroying Your Guest Experience

In order to keep up, not only should you stay informed about the latest trends in guest behavior and hospitality, but you also need to get to know the new basics of the guest experience and make sure you are tackling them. Here are 6 commonly made mistakes that can negatively impact your guest experience.

1. Not Planning Your Communications

You can either be sending too much or not sending anything at all. But the important thing is that both approaches will provide a not-so-delightful guest experience.

Your communications should aim to create a guest relationship. This means communicating with them with relevant information across the entire guest journey. And to be successful, you need to plan what you will say, draw the journey and make sure it includes relevant and personal messages aimed at the right people at the right time.

The results? Not only an excellent guest experience but also higher guest engagement and satisfaction.

In fact, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte to analyze the guest experience, only 66% of guests reported being satisfied with how the hotel engaged with them, showing plenty of room for improvement.

2. Offering Irrelevant Information & Services

Even when discussing ways to get to your hotel or offering services to your guests, every message should be relevant and add to the guest’s journey.

When you offer a couples massage to a business traveler, it is clear that you are not using your guest data in the correct way. The insights you get from your guests should help you give them personalized recommendations, become their local friend and offer relevant services to their target group.

This not only boosts the guest experience but also helps you build a relationship with them, which will impact your guest loyalty.

Pro tip: With multi-channel hospitality CRM software, you can easily segment your data automatically. This saves time and enhances guest satisfaction.

3. Making Your Guests Lose Time

Time is of the essence! One of the most annoying parts is starting the vacation period by having to stay in line in the hotel lobby, waiting for someone to make you sign documents. Or until they bring the key to the room.

This automatically takes away part of the magical experience you promised your guests. Think about the processes that can be automated or how you can save time. Perhaps it is about implementing a contactless check-in solution or using digital keys instead of physical ones.

What about service requests? If they have to call reception to order something extra, you are already asking too much. Why not give them the opportunity to do it through a guest app?

4. Having a High Customer Effort

Do your guests need to fill out a massive form to get in contact with you or make a special request? Can a reservation in your hotel be completed in 3 simple steps, or do they need to follow a 10-step process? What is the process for canceling a reservation?

According to Zendesk, 65% of customers want to buy from companies that offer quick and easy online transactions. And this includes hospitality.

Why? Because customer effort is critical to satisfaction. The simpler, easier, and clearer your communication and processes are, the happier your customers will be and the better experience they will have.

To start addressing this issue, you can analyze your processes, from the most important to the least. Think about how to simplify it, eliminate steps, and keep just the necessary items.

5. Not Caring about Personalization

Your guests are different from each other. And personalization goes beyond adding their name to the messages you send.

According to the already mentioned survey by Deloitte, only 65% of guests said they are satisfied with how well the brand knows and remembers them, their preferences, and their needs.

This clearly shows that many hotels are not considering the power of personalization. If you ignore what they prefer, you are already sabotaging your guest experience and satisfaction.

One clear example of how to use personalization has to do with the channels they use to communicate. Not all of them read their emails, just like not all are interested in receiving a WhatsApp message.

Another example of how personalization is relevant is when you send instructions on how to reach your hotel by train, for travelers that arrive by train, and by plane for those flying to your location.

The more personalized your communications and your services are, the better the experience.

6. Creating False Expectations

If you write information about your hotel and facilities that is not correct, you will be offering something you cannot deliver. This is a key point not only when talking about the guest experience but also about guest loyalty.

If your hotel says they have a highly implemented gym, but all guests can see are dumbbells and a cycling machine, don’t you think they will be disappointed?

Another example is when promising access to a complete spa treatment, but in the end, it’s only a jacuzzi or a massage table.

You don’t need to lie to create a good guest experience. Be truthful, offer your guests accurate information, and give them the power to choose.

The best strategy is to pay attention to the whole guest journey, and how you can improve at every stage, from an operational and a guest satisfaction point of view.

Free Guide: How to Personalize the Guest Journey for the 2023 Guests