April 28th, 2010 §
John Ely wrote an article that was featured in Hotel and Motel Management. The article provides a view into a stay at a conference hotel in which he experienced very good customer service. However, he observed a problem between the guest service staff and another guest, and this experience still sticks out in his mind.
On the one hand, his observations are likely understandable by most of us. Humans seem to allow the tarnish of one small event to upset the shine of a beautiful object.
On the other, as I read, I couldn’t help but pity hotel managers worldwide. For the most part, guest are a pain in the neck and necessary evil.
Oh, of course, 90% of the guests in the hotel are pleasant and may not even require any guest service interaction. But, the other 10% seem to have very interesting and unreachable expectations.
So, guest dissatisfaction is a way of life and will be until the end of time.
In the end, I commented to a friend of mine that I can’t believe that an industry as mature as hospitality would feature this article at the top of the daily newsletter. Let me be clear. I don’t begrudge Mr. Ely’s observations nor recommendations. I just came away from the article wondering why it is so hard to consistently deliver on this concept.
What do you think? Was this article something that is “just in time to make our hotel better,” or is it discouraging that the industry needs to remind us of the mundane tasks?
April 23rd, 2010 §
This week, I read with interest the press release from Marriott touting its award for the Courtyard GoBoard.
Read the article HERE
The content is good and the application is generating interest. From most accounts, the GoBoard starts out as a curiosity for guests, but their appreciation level grows as they use the simple touch screen interaction.
Hoteliers generally want to proclaim that their guest service staff sets them apart and provides value to the traveler. Surely, this is the focus of hotel management day in and day out.
So, what happens when you provide less personal service and more technology solutions?
It would seem that this is a good combination, especially among the upcoming, tech-focused generations.
Does a guest receive a favorable interaction point with the hotel just through a touch screen information source? Yes.
Does this pattern provide lower-tier hotels with the ability to add service and compete with some of the higher-end brands? Yes.
Is this advance in guest service technology good for the industry?
In a word, yes.
Keep your eye on the merger of technology through kiosks, smartphones, and services provided through the guest laptop. It’s what we do every day and the market is growing by the minute.
September 7th, 2009 §
Creating a great guest experience is fundamental to building successful long-term guest relationships and brand loyalty. Hoteliers in the current environment are requiring a holistic view of their guests to understand who they are and what their needs are likely to be. This requires integrating business intelligence (BI) into virtually every facet of their properties’ guest touch-point activities.
Current hospitality industry market intelligence supports the trend that Hoteliers require more than just the traditional static, backward-looking reports: They require insight to support collaborative analysis, forecasting, and decision-making so that their analysis and planning can help drive more ineffective business decisions – and ultimately enterprise financial performance. This requires an integrated and feature rich solution that provides complete and accurate information that is easily accessible to management and workers throughout the company.
Key challenges facing hospitality industry executives include:
Hospitality organizations typically run different BI applications for different business and support activities throughout the company.
Dissimilar systems may be used at headquarters versus property level, due to franchise-owner models as well as to the industry’s high level of merger and acquisition activity.
A high proportion of legacy and proprietary applications are still being used, typically without appropriate application interfaces and advanced business intelligence functionality.
The benefits of successful business intelligence are as follows:
A solution that stores all guest interactions, which provides timely business intelligence to the property on demand. For example, hotels receive accurate and targeted guest usage patterns, spending behaviors, and service preferences data. Hoteliers and brand managers can utilize this intelligence to support the success of future marketing events and campaigns etc.
Business intelligence can be used to benefit the property in a great many ways. For example, a property or brand of hotels can strategically partner with service providers that draw the most attention. Providing the hotel and service provider the opportunity to create joint marketing relationship to enhance both brands and increase revenue.
The information can also be used in one-to-one marketing. The hotel can create marketing campaigns based on usage and spending habits.
