How to measure and improve hotel guest satisfaction

The satisfaction of your guests is paramount to the success of your business. But how do you know if your guests are satisfied, and how can you improve the satisfaction levels of every visitor? Just because a guest has not complained does not necessarily mean they were happy with their stay and will return or recommend your establishment to others. And how exactly do you quantify ‘satisfaction’? Let us take a closer look at the ways to measure and improve hotel guest satisfaction.

Why is guest satisfaction so important?

Happy guests are both returning guests and recommending guests. Offer a great, personalised service, and you will gain customer loyalty. Anyone visiting a hotel wants their stay to be stress-free and enjoyable. Provide this, and they will remember their smooth and pleasant visit next time they are looking for accommodation in the area. Ensure guests are fully satisfied, and they will also spread the word on your behalf. Business travellers may recommend your hotel to colleagues; holidaymakers might share reviews online or post photos on social media. Keeping your guests happy makes for a pleasant environment all around, for both your guests and your staff.

Hotel guest satisfaction also has a direct impact on reputation and revenue. Satisfied guests become brand ambassadors. They are more likely to recommend the hotel to friends, family, and colleagues, resulting in positive word-of-mouth marketing. Their repeat business is an endorsement of trust, and they are more open to upselling opportunities. Furthermore, happy guests lead to favourable online reviews, a key decision-making resource for travellers.

What factors can impact guest satisfaction?

There are many factors that can impact guest satisfaction, and it starts from the first moment the customer contacts your hotel. It could be a minor query sent via the website. Reply promptly and politely, fully answering the questions, and you are paving the way to guest satisfaction. Your guests will have certain expectations regarding your hotel. You should always try to exceed these expectations. They will expect a clean room, so provide a room that is spotlessly clean, with a welcome greeting card and a complimentary bowl of fruit or bottle of wine. Going the extra mile and adding those little extra touches make a stay at your hotel extra special. The same goes for guest communications.

Procedures should all be quick and efficient. Streamlining processes as much as possible for fast check-in, convenient check-out, and ease of booking extra services such as making restaurant reservations will all add to guest satisfaction. Be consistent with your branding and clear with your communications. Guests should always be well informed, standards of service kept high, and staff well-trained to offer the very highest level of friendly and knowledgeable customer service.

How to improve guest satisfaction: key areas to explore

The key lies in understanding and implementing practical, impactful hotel guest satisfaction ideas. Here, we delve into actionable strategies to enhance hotel customer satisfaction. Below are a few top-level ideas that can kick-start your process of identifying best opportunities at your hotel and generating ideas for maximising them.

• Personalisation: Guests crave unique experiences, and personalisation is a foundation for that. Hotels should leverage data to tailor services to individual preferences. From room amenities to personalised greetings, these small touches make a significant difference.
• Seamless Technology Integration: Technology should simplify, not complicate. Implementing user-friendly solutions like mobile hotel check-ins or AI-driven room controls enhances the guest experience by offering convenience and autonomy.
• Responsive Communication: Ensuring guest satisfaction means being available and responsive. Whether through in-room tablets or conversational AI solutions, facilitating smooth communication channels between guests and hotel staff is crucial.
• Experiential Offerings: Going beyond the basic amenities, hotels can create memorable experiences through local partnerships, unique culinary offerings, or wellness programs. These experiences increase guest engagement and also encourage repeat visits.
• Employee Training: Ultimately, the human element defines guest satisfaction in hotels. Regular training ensures staff are equipped to handle diverse guest needs, ensuring every interaction adds positively to their stay.

Implementing these strategies demonstrates a commitment to not just meeting, but exceeding guest expectations, firmly positioning you as an expert in knowing how to increase guest satisfaction in hotels.

How and when should you measure hotel guest satisfaction?

The entire customer journey provides you with many waypoints where you could, and should, measure guest satisfaction and act on the data gathered. Being proactive is key to high levels of guest satisfaction, and dealing with problems quickly and efficiently is incredibly beneficial to the way in which guests perceive your business. Identify the waypoints on your guest’s journey. They may approach your hotel with a query first. It may be a simple question regarding room types or the style of food you serve. Deal with this quickly and efficiently, and this may lead to the next waypoint, making a booking. You then have another opportunity to communicate with your guests by sending a personalised reminder message. Through check-in, in-stay communications to check-out, and follow-up communications, the number of opportunities to perform highly and exceed expectations is high.

Examples of measuring hotel guest satisfaction

Hotel guest satisfaction analytics provide invaluable insights, allowing you to tailor your approaches effectively. Let’s explore key guest satisfaction metrics and how they inform decision-making.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): This metric measures the likelihood of guests recommending your hotel to others. A high NPS indicates strong guest loyalty and satisfaction.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): CSAT scores are derived from guest feedback on specific aspects of their stay. This direct metric helps pinpoint areas needing improvement.
• Online Reviews and Ratings: Monitoring online platforms gives real-time insight into guest perceptions. Positive reviews not only boost reputation but also provide a platform to address and rectify any negative feedback.
• Repeat Visit Rates: Tracking how many guests return is a tangible measure of satisfaction. High repeat rates signify successful guest satisfaction strategies, resulting in increased guest loyalty.
• Average Response Time: In checking guest satisfaction, response time to guest inquiries or issues is critical. Quicker responses typically correlate with higher satisfaction levels.

By effectively utilising hotel guest satisfaction analytics, hoteliers can make data-driven decisions. These insights enable continuous improvement, ensuring each guest’s experience is not just satisfactory but exceptional.

Increase your availability to suit your customers 

Not everyone will want to contact your business during standard working hours, and of course, not all your guests will live in your time zone. One way in which expectations can be exceeded is to offer round-the-clock assistance. This can be tricky if you only run a skeleton staff during the nighttime, but with the help of HiJiffy’s specialised hospitality conversational AI solutions, you can be available 24/7 and in more than 100 language. Did you know that over 85% of hotel queries are successfully handled by HiJiffy solutions? Research show that conversational AI is a great fit for guest communications and travellers already expect a certain level of technological advancements to be part of their journey.

Take the journey beyond check-out

A guest has had a great stay, you have treated them like royalty, their room was spotlessly clean, the chef cooked them an amazing meal, and then they left happy. It is easy to congratulate yourselves for a job well done and move on to ensuring the next guest has an equally brilliant stay, but that should not be the end. Once a guest has left your hotel, you have many more opportunities. You can ask for feedback or encourage the writing of an online review. If the guests allowed you to contact them with marketing information, you can keep in touch with special offers and news, you can provide information on loyalty schemes or offer a discount on a future stay. 

Take all the data on board

Good customer satisfaction software will give you the capability to combine all the data gathered from various sources and analyse it, providing you with reports and insights that make sense. The more data you can gather, the more realistic your overview of your hotel guest satisfaction levels. By being open-minded, and looking for the problems, you can solve the problems and look for ways to make the best aspects of your hotel even more amazing. 

Summary

Measuring hotel guest satisfaction can be an incredibly complicated process. With so much data from a wide range of different collection methods, it can be easy to become overwhelmed, and the time it takes to compile and analyse the data to make it useful can be simply not worth the effort. That is why HiJiffy’s solutions are so invaluable. The system integrates seamlessly with the hotel management systems you already use, bringing automation to many aspects of your business and making sense of all the gathered data without the need for endless spreadsheets. Want to know more? Book a demo with our team to see how your hotel can benefit from our solutions.