Tag Archives: Guest Reviews

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Sometimes It’s OK to Break the Rules”

Training helps, but the real issue is employee selection and retention. It’s important to hire people with a deep desire to serve, even if that means breaking the rules once in awhile. On the other side of the coin,Happy travelers GMs and department heads must have the smarts and the empathy to know when to applaud and reward a rule-breaking employee and when to coach a worker who might have stepped over the boundaries of acceptable empowerment

One of my favorite guilty-pleasure movies is “That Thing You Do,” a Tom Hanks-directed tale of the rise and fall of a one-hit-wonder singing group in the 1960s. In one scene, the band arrives in Hollywood to appear in a movie, and as they emerge from a cab in front of the since-closed-and-demolished Ambassador Hotel, the doorman greets them.

“Hi, my name is Lamarr, and this is my hotel,” he tells the new guests.

It was a throwaway line in a confection of a movie, but it demonstrates the important principal of empowerment that remains highly relevant in the hotel industry.

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Filed under Employee Practices, Guest Issues, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Training

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Increase Hotel Profits by Keeping Your Employees Happy”

Customers often base their spending behaviors solely on their perception of the service. This is particularly true in the travel industry. Happy hotel maid at work in hotel roomQuick and efficient check-ins, a welcoming and accommodating staff, honesty and brand reliability are essential. When combined, these ingredients create the ultimate recipe for profitability.

The hospitality industry is thriving, but with that success comes responsibility. Hotel and restaurant owners need good management practices in order to remain relevant and realize sustained profits. Effective management includes overseeing employee satisfaction. Research has shown that there is a direct connection between employee contentment and customer loyalty. This is why it is important to take an interest in each staff member’s happiness.

In an accommodation industry, the key to customer satisfaction is high-quality service. However, employees who are unhappy often lack the motivation to provide such service, which results in disgruntled customers. This trickle-down effect can adversely affect a company’s revenue. Studies have proven that the attitude of an employee is directly related to a customer’s spending. Essentially, happy employees create happy customers.

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Filed under Employee Practices, Hotel Employees, Management And Ownership, Risk Management

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Hotel Housekeepers Are at Great Risk for Sexual Assault From Guests”

“Women described men who insisted they close the door while cleaning, grabbed their hands as they handed over change and asked where they could “find a girl.”housekeeper-387x580 Kensbock and her colleagues identified a few factors that put women in the hotel industry at a heightened risk for sexual harassment, including the “gendered” nature of their work as housekeepers and their lack of power relative to the guests…Most of the women in Kensbock’s study coped with harassment using passive strategies, like humor or deflection. Though the hotel management had protocols they could follow to report inappropriate behavior, women—fearing guests would retaliate by leaving negative surveys—rarely complained.”

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of assaulting Nafissatou Diallo, the maid who was sent to clean his hotel room, hospitality workers thought the story seemed all-too-plausible. In a New York Times op-ed, Jacob Tomsky, a veteran of the hotel industry, wrote that housekeepers are assaulted by guests “more often than you’d think,” and that their employers don’t offer much protection. In a recent account on xoJane, an anonymous woman describes a decade’s worth of sexual harassment in different parts of the hotel industry—from working the front desk to cleaning rooms. It’s so systemic, she says, that the women developed coordinated strategies to cope with it—like enlisting other housekeepers to stay with them when they’re assigned to clean the room of a “known pervert.”

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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Reviews Increasingly Drive Booking Decisions”

The next step for the industry is taking those positive and negative reviews into account when setting rates. ratesreviews_featureMolinari said Las Vegas Sands isn’t quite there yet but noticed software developers are innovating in the space…Davis said she has developed her own metrics and is taking ratings and reviews into account when determining her price positioning, although she admits her process is a bit subjective and does not rely on a specific algorithm, such as a software program might.

Online reviews increasingly are affecting booking decisions, although not all traveler segments behave the same way, according to research and various industry sources.

Multiple studies recently have highlighted the importance of guest reviews and ratings in the booking funnel.

A study conducted by TrustYou and Donna Quadri-Felitti, clinical associate professor at New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism, concluded that guest reviews have a significant impact on hotel conversion rates as well as the rates that travelers are willing to pay. Given equal prices, travelers are 3.9 times more likely to choose a hotel with higher review scores, the study showed. And when hotel prices are increased for hotels with better review scores, travelers are more likely to book the hotel with the higher score despite the higher rate.

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Filed under Guest Issues, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Social Media, Technology

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “8 Ways to Improve Guest Satisfaction”

“…The days are gone, Craig said, when travelers respond to “fantasy photos and fairy-tale descriptions on a website.Happy travelers If you don’t deliver on your promises, guests will be disappointed and that leads to backlash…it doesn’t matter whether operating a 2-star, 3-star or 5-star star hotel, it’s important to strive to exceed expectations. He said all guests arrive with expectations, so operators have a choice…”

An organized and diligent approach to the management of social media and online reputation is a sure way to improve a hotel’s guest satisfaction scores, speakers said Tuesday during a webinar.

“We have very discerning guests with high expectations, so online reputation management is very important in the luxury hotel segment in which we operate,” said Anna Kavelmann, corporate coordinator of digital strategy for Geneva-based Kempinski Hotels, during a webinar titled “Guest satisfaction: 8 best practices,” hosted by ReviewPro.

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Filed under Employee Practices, Guest Issues, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Technology