Thanks to the proliferation mobile, hotels guests today are embracing ever-more complex and experience-driven ways to enjoy their stay. In other words, benefits like mobile check-in, concierge services, room service and daily deals are just the beginning. Loyalty must expand beyond a hotel's four walls. Thanks to the technology guests rely on elsewhere, they've become what's called "always-addressable consumers" - individuals whose brand engagement occurs anytime, anywhere, on any device. And as data shows hotel brand loyalty up for grabs, lodgings large and small must consider new loyalty and mobile tactics to attract, engage and retain their guests. READ MORE

Service scripting is widely used throughout the hospitality industry as mechanism for ensuring the quality of a service transaction. However, strict scripts may not be appropriate for all service interactions, while allowing employees to depart from the script at will invites potential service failure. Thus, the challenge for managers is to match the level of scripting to the type of service to both maintain guest satisfaction and complete the service transaction. The key elements in this calculus is the employee's use of the script and the guest's reaction to it. READ MORE

The 1985 PBS documentary, Search of Excellence, adapted from Thomas J. Peters' and Robert H. Waterman Jr.'s landmark book, looks at eight American companies and what makes them thrive. In general, they succeed because they make both their customers and employees happy. The same thing is true today. In the film, one of the business owners, Stu Leonard, attributes the success of his Connecticut grocery store to his belief that only satisfied customers come back. No surprise there! While that is good to know, it doesn't answer the important question that all businesses, not just hotels, face every day: So just how do we satisfy our customers? READ MORE

As travelers become more and more informed and reliant upon mobile devices and online trip planning tools, the importance of actively managing your property's digital presence is vital in retaining and broadening your customer base. In this article I will show how the use of social media platforms can provide your service team an opportunity to actively manage relationship building within your target markets, simplify in-house transaction and customer management, and strengthen your loyalty marketing strategy. READ MORE

When my feet were hurting after three hours of delivering a workshop in Doha, Qatar in the Middle East to over 100 hospitality and concierge professionals, I asked my host, Randy Santos, the Les Clefs d'Or Chef Concierge of the InterContinental Doha, if he minded if I took my shoes off for a few moments before I went back on stage. About five minutes later, he had some hotel slippers delivered to relieve my aching feet. He sensed, even though I was working on his behalf, that there was SOMETHING he could do to relieve my pain and in turn, enhance my own guest experience taking place in his hotel. READ MORE

Customer Experience Management is more than a department; it is an approach to how the hotel or resort is managed. CEM encompasses everything. The way in which customers experience the brand or hotel determines the success of the business. The opportunity is for hotel managers to view CEM strategically by focusing on each of the nine separate opportunities to influence the way future guests, current guests and past guests experience the hotel; and by creatively designing a relevant mix of the six different types of experiences. This strategic approach to CEM results in building emotional bonds between customers and the brand, ensuring guest are delighted, demonstrate loyalty and become advocates. READ MORE

No business has been unaffected by the economic downturn of the last few years. Most often, the state of the economy IS the state of the hospitality industry. Though the current recovery of hotel industry, overall, has been stronger than that of most businesses. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says as the US economy inched forward, the travel segment experienced a “robust recovery.” In 2011, PwC reports, the hotel industry experienced an 8.2 percent increase in Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR), just 2 years after it reported a 17 percent dip. READ MORE

I recall when I was getting my feet wet in the lodging industry, how we had so many changes in ownership/management, and how each new manager had a different strategy/approach to position the hotel and it's the brand according to the local market and also, the levels of service it provided. This was a very confusing panorama for staff members, as well as for external customers. Does this sound very familiar to your operation? Let's discuss further experiences and solutions on how to position our properties appropriately, ensuring that we are on the right track to viable operating levels. READ MORE

The purpose of a recent Market Metrix global hotel study was to analyze the reasons why guests select a particular hotel or casino. The results offer insight into the current behavior of guests around the globe and market opportunities for companies who have a deeper understanding of guest preferences and decision making. This study is based on results from the Global Market Metrix Hospitality Index (MMHI), and includes surveys responses from 40,000 American, European, and Asian travelers during 2012. We focused on several questions that ask guests why they selected a particular hotel or casino on their most recent visit (refer to insert for more information about the MMHI). READ MORE

Prior to the digital age, traditional market research practices involved collecting consumer data mainly either by mail, telephone or in person. The arrival of the internet, however, revolutionized how consumer data was collected, and now, the online channel is a key driving force behind most consumer initiated feedback and behavior. Today, companies have access to more data about their customers than ever before, and therefore have the opportunity to not only improve their product offering, but also to personalize their brand experience both online and in the hotel. READ MORE

Online reviews have yielded an interesting by-product, a wealth of data about customer preferences. Historically hotels have relied on surveys to ascertain levels of customer satisfaction and find areas for improvement, but customer sentiment from public reviews can provide a more detailed view of how to please customers. Learn how sentiment analysis can overcome the bias from traditional surveys, by evaluating customer driven feedback rather than customer responses. See how hotels are shifting focus away from surveys to reviews and improving operations, creating detailed incentives for managers, and getting closer to customers. READ MORE

How can an esoteric African philosophy affect best practices in customer service and guest-experience management? Customer-service thought leader, Holly Stiel, defines Ubuntu - a humanistic philosophy based on the interconnectedness of all humanity. With an emphasis on its profound and practical implications for business, she differentiates between transactional and interactional relationships, presenting a strong case for the latter. Ms. Stiel also describes how Ubuntu creates a strong foundation for diversity training. As an underpinning for a hotel's hiring and educational practices, a culture based on Ubuntu enriches the lives of both guests and staff, which cannot help but boost the bottom line. READ MORE

One of the best methods for ensuring a good night's sleep is through a hard day's work. For hotel operators, though, those 40 winks are promised to the guests. The hard work, meantime, never ends. Delivering a guest experience that is compelling in every way, from the website to checkout, is not an accident, and it never goes on autopilot. Hotel managers must continually upgrade their own standards based on consistent customer feedback gathered through every guest touch point. Fortunately, technology enables us to gather and analyze data from the moment a reservation is made to the morning a guest departs. READ MORE

Satisfying a traveler encapsulates all manner of operations on your property. However, the core of this will always be person-to-person interactions between visitors and members of your staff. Therefore, a prudent exercise to heighten guest satisfaction is to breakdown your guest services into individual interactions then ensure that each and every one culminates toward a positive experience. READ MORE

Staying calm and keeping guests as comfortable and reassured as possible is no easy feat when facing an impending natural disaster. The anxiety and fear felt by our distressed neighbors and guests were also felt by my staff and I. Only through proper crisis planning can one expect to get through an event like this. The treat was coming out of it as champions! What a reinforcing reminder this event was on how much empathy plays such a big role in our industry. To serve our guests and ensure we were taking care of their most basic of needs without power in the hotel and destruction all around. Gladly, we ended up with many new friends and fans. What's the best way to handle the needs of your guests, partners, and team members? Be ready because when the power driving the technology goes away - That is truly, back to basics. Throw the book away and learn how you too, can have one of the most rewarding experiences of your career as I did by staying calm and executing a plan to deliver more than just the basic needs of your guests and team members. READ MORE

Many people are familiar with the service-profit chain concept which stipulates that engaged employees lead to loyal guests. However, the most motivated employee can become frustrated and ineffective when he or she is placed in a system that inhibits service delivery. A national study showed that most hospitality employees are tepid, at best, when offering their opinions about the service climate under which they do their jobs. Problems especially lie in the fact that employees are typically not rewarded for good service, are not empowered to resolve problems without consulting a manager, training is focused more on operations than on guest service, and managers are often out of touch with guest needs. Perhaps most critical is the fact that many hospitality organizations adhere to policies that are not guest-friendly, thereby frustrating customers. The paper offers best practices for creating a positive service climate that will allow employees to do their best to satisfy their customers. READ MORE