How to create a great first impression on your hotel guest?
How you welcome your guest to the hotel can determine the experience they have at the hotel.
A guest will experience your hotel in 6 distinct phase arrival, dinner, down time, sleep breakfast and check out .
An arrival experience will set the tone to create a great first impression about your hotel
Arrival for guest begins even before they arrive at the hotel.
Website and App Experience
In this day of online presence, your website must convey a welcome tone and display the best features about your hotel .
If you are affiliated to a brand, your role in the website may be restricted to only providing content based on a specific template .
But if you are an independent operator, you can really let your brand identity shine with the website.
With WordPress and templates you can make a beautiful website, but this is a place where you should not try to save on money. Hire a professional web designer with expertise in setting up hotel websites so that they integrate booking engines etc correctly.
Reservation agents
They are the first people who will talk about your brand and answer questions. Train and Empower them to handle guest support along with their usual responsibilities of taking a reservation. They should be able to handle first level of support and provide assurance to guest they will be looked after well.
While reconfirming the reservation a day or two prior to arrival a trained agent can help uncover the unsaid needs and wants of the guest and suggest plans that can help the guest.
Arrival at the hotel
A speedy check in with the correct room blocked as per guest preferences will help set the tone for a great start to the guest stay.
If you are able to get the guest to the room within 5 minutes of the arrival you can be guaranteed a great guest review for the arrival experience
Welcome amenities
Depending on your hotel strategy a welcome note or an amenity can also send a message to the guest they are indeed welcome to the hotel.
Welcome amenities need not be expensive. It just needs to convey gratitude for using your hotel. It can be as simple as a welcome pastry platter to something over the top like a souvenir from your location
In conclusion
First impression starts way before the guest arrives at the hotel. You can create a great first impression on your hotel guest by
- Planing your professional website and creating a welcome tone
- Recommend relevant upsell while doing reservation reconfirmation
- Do a quick check in
- Plan for a personal amenity