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How to Increase Guest Satisfaction with Messaging?

  
Travellers become guests as soon as they click the “book now” button. At this point, travellers open the line of communication between themselves and your hotel. But how do guests want to be communicated with, and what messages do they really want? Recently, we published the findings of a travel industry study, which identified a gap between how customers expect to communicate with hotels, and the experiences that hotels are actually providing. 
 
Clear communication between a hotel and its guests has a major influence on guest satisfaction, which can be measured by the difference between guest expectations and their actual guest experience. In our research, we wanted to identify the guest’s expectations in order to help hotels achieve this reality for their guests.

For the study, we surveyed 920 adults over the age of 18, all of whom travelled and booked an accommodation online within the past 12 months for business, leisure, or both. Here are some of the key findings:

●     The majority (80%) of hotel guests expect that the accommodation provider will initiate communication regarding their booking, and 80% also expect this to be sent via email.

●     73% of guests communicate through online communication channels, combining emails, social media, and text messaging; additionally, two-thirds say they prefer to communicate through written electronic means rather than by phone.

●     Guests who communicate through text messaging services and through social media report statistically significantly higher satisfaction levels over those who do not.

●     A large majority (75%) of guests want to communicate one-to-one with representatives on location and 91% would communicate issues during their on-site experience.

These findings indicate that hotels must begin communicating right at the moment of booking, and keep it up throughout the entire guest journey. By investing in guest messaging solutions, hoteliers can improve the guest experience, leading to higher satisfaction rates, increased guest loyalty, and ultimately, more hotel revenue.

To download the full study or to know how you can improve guest experience, fill up the form below –

This is a guest post by Valerie Castillo, Senior Director of Marketing at TrustYou.
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Three Things Hotels Should Not Ignore

The world of hospitality and travel has entered a new era of growth and transformation. Global business travel spending hit a record-breaking $1.2 trillion in 2015, up by five percent from the previous year. Healthy booking growth is forecasted to continue across the leisure and business fronts in 2017, but the spoils are not guaranteed to travel’s biggest or most-well-known brands. Here I find three most prominent things hotels SHOULD NOT ignore in 2017 –
  • RMS   

  • Social Media  

  • Reviews 

Revenue Management Systems

RMS’s are getting stronger day-by-day. The data sets are increasing every day. As the primary job of RMS is to forecast the future rates and for this they need past and current data. RMS companies get data from different sources and different places and based on that they do forecasting of future rates. At present the cost of data storage is low and processing has increased. As the amount of data is increasing day by day, hence they are getting more clear insights of hotel’s revenue management and forecasting is becoming more accurate  and precise. This is also one of the major reasons why the demand for RMSs has gone up. Almost all the big properties are using a Revenue Management system or rate recommendation tool today.
 

Social Media

Your hotel needs social networks because it’s a unique opportunity to stand out of the crowd of big chains, and achieve a greater number of followers. The number of hotels that are on Facebook and Twitter is growing every day; this is why you must join these platforms to compete with your rivals.

The challenge for hoteliers lies in how to influence their customers to share positive reviews on social networks and convert potential prospects into future guests.
Things have changed over the last ten years – today we are in an era of ‘now’. Consumers have evolved and become smarter – always connected to the Internet, everywhere. With the emergence of modern technologies and social networking, consumer taste and behavior have been changing and they have become very powerful. Consumers are taking decisions and dictating the reputation of an establishment.

With the advent of smartphones and mobile devices, consumers have easy access to platform through which they can make or break a hotel’s reputation through their comments and reviews. Today’s consumers are expert in communication – they are a content generator reaching millions of people through their social profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Blog etc.

Reviews

Now-a-days all potential buyers routinely sort through search results by customer reviews and star ratings before making a final buying decision. Things work in a similar manner in the hospitality industry. A recent research shows that more than 61% of vacationers now trust online reviews.

In another survey, 79% of hotel customers said that a good response to a bad review reassures them whereas, 78% of hotel customers said that a good response to a good review makes them think highly of the hotel.

Following things hotelier should do to manage their hotel reviews:

– Maintain Active Presence on Review Sites: Set your accounts on various review sites, such as Yelp, BBB, City Search, Angie’s List, etc.

– Create a Detailed Listing:  Hotelier should make themselves available over different platform and should select their descriptive categories carefully.

– Go on Social Media: Be on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels without being reluctant to encourage people to follow you on Yelp, TripAdvisor, or other review channels.

– Ask for review during Checkout: Be responsive during guest checkout and learn about what your guests feel about your hotel service when their memories are still fresh. If you receive a ‘yes’, encourage them to write about you to help future customers.

– Make the process Easy: Simplify the process of leaving a review or feedback. 

Internet and social media has empowered the consumers with information and changed their purchasing behavior. If earlier they consulted their friends and relatives, today they have millions to consult and take suggestions from.  

More than 90 percent of questions posted to TripAdvisor’s English-speaking forums are replied to by other travelers within 24 hours. Facebook has over 500 million active users, and TripAdvisor receives over 50 million unique visitors every month. 

As we move towards the age of consumer controlled brand conversations, hotels need to integrate customer feedback into their business approach and strategy planning. Ignoring the power of social media would be suicidal for hotels.
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The impact of guest review on Hotel Business – Part II

In my first article (see it here) I’ve discussed about how to understand guest’s emotional journey and hidden story behind guest reviews. Here is the second part of the article.

More positive reviews, more bookings and more revenue
According to a TripBarometer report by TripAdvisor, 90% travelers choose an accommodation based on ratings on a review site and 88% travellers are guided by online reviews and posts on TripAdvisor. Reviews with a rating on 4 – 5 generate more than double the conversion compared to a review with 1.0 – 2.9 rating on Expedia. Hotels that have a higher guest score typically will have better placement on the travel sites.  A better placement on the travel site means more bookings and more bookings mean a higher room rate, and eventually higher revenue for the hotel.  Identify what emotions your guests’ value at the key touch points in their journey with you and also those they want to avoid. No matter how difficult it is if you are not taking care of your guests’ emotion then you are doing a terrible mistake.


Go for Reputation Management Tool
As a hotelier, keeping track of who is saying what on which channel can be a nightmare.. Hence, it is essential to take an analytical approach to understand your strengths and weaknesses as per your guests and take a cohesive approach to address these issues. Guests share feedback on various review and travel sites – all this valuable information lay scattered and unstructured. Online reputation management tools play a big role in consolidating these guest reviews and presenting them to hotels in structured report formats. Usually, these tools pull guest feedback from various review websites including Qype, Holidaycheck, Yelp, Expedia, Facebook, Twitter etc. Data is then compiled together into review reports which include guest details (as it appears on the site) along with their feedback and the rating they provide to the hotel. A strong visible position on guest review websites indicate that your Price Quality Index is working well, that will enable you to make the right pricing decisions based on RevPAR performance.  This will allow the hotel to flex their rates based on a number of pricing strategies depending on booking levels. However, there are no short cuts. It is an evolving process that has to start today! As we move towards the age of consumer controlled brand conversations, hotels need to integrate customer feedback into their business approach and strategy planning.

















Contrary to popular belief, the greatest pitfall to customer reviews isn’t negative feedback. If all reviews are positive, or considered too similar, then the validity of the reviews can be called into question and the credibility of the brand put into doubt. The greatest mistake is actually not responding at all to your negative reviews, leaving your brand exposed and your customers find alternatives who give more attention to their needs.

So what’s the next step? Here are some suggestions for you to optimise the benefit of customer reviews:

– Encourage feedback, both on the brand website and third party platforms.
– Respond to comments quickly, outlining any action planned to address concerns.
– Ensure all reviews are genuine and never consider creating feedback artificially.

– Monitor brand noise across the entire web with regular online searches to ensure all channels are managed.


Francesca Stagi is Sales Manager at eRevMax.  She can be reached at francescas@erevmax.com
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The impact of guest review on Hotel Business – Part I

Being a part of the industry, hotel reviews are something I always take with a pinch of salt. Especially those on the extreme sides.  However, internet is a place for opinions and if many more people join in the chorus to say negatives about a property, then I would rather give it a miss instead of taking a chance. But does that really make it a bad hotel? 
Truth be told, if most people are un-happy with the property, then there must be something wrong with it. Guests are expressing their dissatisfaction as they have had bad experiences. And hotels need to take them seriously. As the first rule of the service industry says customer is the king, and in this age of hyper-internet activity, they rule.


Understand your guests’ emotional journey

While interacting with hoteliers and visitors at ITB Berlin this year, I realized that in coming years personalised content will going to be a priority for hoteliers. With 3 billion internet users and 1.96 billion social media users in the world it is no wonder that key hotel investment trends in 2015 would include the development of one-to-one relationship with guests through reputation management and personalized marketing. As a form of direct communication, customer reviews clearly identify what are the most important things to the customers and what’s not. This also highlights where the hotel is performing well and where there is more room for development. Engaging with your guest in a direct conversation can possibly expose a more personable side of the hotel, build a greater level of trust with the customer and in the course spread a positive brand story. With TripAdvisor now offering direct bookings from their platform, a strong social media presence along with intelligent meta-search marketing can give hotels a real chance of improving, increasing conversion rates.
The Hidden Story within Reviews
A recent survey by Laterooms.com suggests that 90% of travellers would avoid booking hotels labelled as “dirty” in online review sites. Sure, the situation might not be as bad as the guests made it seem, but the hotel cannot prevent the reviewer from expressing his/her opinion. However the beauty of online reputation sites is that most will give the property an option to respond. And it needs to do just that – Respond! More so for negative reviews. No hotel deliberately sets out to create negative emotions for guests, but it happens, and you need to know what those are so you can work out how to reduce their impact on your guests.

As revenue management evolves, it is getting away from simple rate management and is now incorporating customer relations and social media into its strategy. The more satisfied guests you have, the more likely they are to return and spend more money, as well as recommend you to others. Reputation has a positive correlation with the hotel’s overall Average Daily Rate (ADR) and revenue. It’s time now for the revenue management department to work hand in hand with the marketing team, if they are not already doing that.
In my next edition I’ll talk about how positive reviews and reputation management tool can can add more revenue to your hotel.



Francesca Stagi is Sales Manager at eRevMax.  She can be reached at francescas@erevmax.com

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Hyatt certifies eRevMax as the Preferred Channel Manager Partner

Luxury hotel chain Hyatt International has recently endorsed eRevMax’s RateTiger, citing it as the most cost effective, efficient and beneficial ARI system for assisting Hyatt properties across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia to meet their individual objectives whilst still maintaining the high standards associated with the Hyatt name. Along with Hyatt properties themselves, Hyatt franchises and partners, such as Hyatt Place, Hyatt House and Hyatt Residence Club will all be encouraged to implement RateTiger to manage their online availability, rates and inventory. Hyatt’s endorsement of RateTiger comes as more international hotel chains are opting for comprehensive systems which not only manage ARI, but also guest satisfaction and research.

Read full story here

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Three Strategies to Boost Direct Bookings and Still Appease OTAs

Travelocity, Hotwire, Priceline and other travel deal sites require hotels to pay significant commission fees in exchange for bookings. While this is an important revenue source for the industry, some hotels have experienced an increasing percentage of their business moving to these channels (effectively reducing the amount of undocked reservations they receive).

One primary reason for this trend is the assumption that these online travel agencies (OTAs) will always have the better deal. While rate parity clauses prevent hotels from publicly advertising rates for less than what’s on the OTA, there are strategies property owners can use to entice more customers to book direct.

Recently, my company interviewed several hotel management software and hotel marketing experts to help brainstorm several ways hotels can drive direct bookings. Here’s what they suggested:

Blog About Great Deals and Share The Posts
Your blog is a great avenue for both reminding potential customers why that moment is a great time to travel, and for pitching them on deals relevant to whatever event or season might be happening. You can send these articles to your email list, as well as optimize them with keywords that have high search traffic. This latter strategy can drive more organic traffic to your website. For example, “SXSW hotels” receives 170 searches per month, so Austin-area hotels could write blogs optimized for that keyword so they rank when people search for that term in Google. Here’s an example of a blog post advertising Spring time events in the area around The Sanctuary Beach Resort in Monterey Bay:

Hook Viewers with Strategic Design
Often, travelers shopping on OTAs visit the hotel’s website to learn more about the accommodations offered. This is your chance to capture those site visitors and stop them from going back to the OTA. This takes smart web design.

First off, make it as clear and hassle-free as possible to book. Provide “book now” buttons on every page that link to your hotel booking automation system. These buttons should be located at the top of the page so they are the first thing customers see. Also, include call-to-actions on every page that encourages visitors to “sign up for our email list for exclusive discounts,” or “Like on us on Facebook for special deals.”

Also, many customers assume they will get the “least desirable rooms” if they book on an OTA. So you need to show them what your best rooms look like immediately. This could convince them it’s worth splurging on your room rather than an OTA room. Make sure your most attractive rooms, views and balconies (if you have them) are front and center (like on your homepage). These images need to be professionally taken, high quality and show the best parts of your most desired rooms – soaking tubs, incredible views, large windows and so on.

By implementing these tips, savvy hotel managers can drive customers to their own website without upsetting their OTA and still reap the clear benefits of using OTAs. Rather than a battle, it can be a win for everyone involved.

Interact with Customers on Review Sites
Many times when customers use OTAs, they get a list of five or so properties in a similar price range. In addition to visiting the hotel websites, they might also go to something like Yelp or TripAdvisor. This presents another opportunity to draw customers to your own site, rather than having them go back to the OTA to book.

When customers post reviews about your hotel, you need to try your best to answer as many as possible, where they’re positive or negative. Review, a web-based tool by eRevMax, makes monitoring these reviews as easy as checking emails. The application scours all hotel review sites and collects every mention of your hotel in one location. It also lets you respond directly to guests without ever leaving its interface, cutting down time spent hopping from one review site to another for an effective hotel guest review management process.

Besides just viewing and responding to comments, the tool gives you a deeper understanding of your customers. You can see exactly what’s working and what’s not, trends among customers, and also how your hotel stacks up compared to your competitors.

How do you increase direct bookings? Let us know!


Alan S. Horowitz contributed to this report.

Ashley Verrill is an analyst with Software Advice. She has spent the last six years reporting and writing business news and strategy features. Her work has been featured or cited in Inc., Forbes, Business Insider, GigaOM, CIO.com, Yahoo News, the Upstart Business Journal, the Austin Business Journal and the North Bay Business Journal, among others. She also produces original research-based reports and video content with industry experts and thought leaders.