Why Continuous Learning Is Essential To Your Hotel's Success

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Plain and simple, change is constant – when it comes to both digital marketing and the world around us. Your hotel guests change constantly and so do their wants and needs. Ensuring that your hotel evolves along with your guests and paying attention to detail can pay huge dividends in the hospitality industry. Personalization is key to guest retention; knowing what makes your patrons come back, and upselling those aspects and amenities time and time again, is what can set your hotel apart from the rest.

While paying attention to your guests is the number one priority, instilling a culture of continuous learning early on among your hotel staff is also a key element to your hotel’s success. The more your staff learns and continues to learn, the less out of date your hotel will become. Evolving with your guests will become routine and, in return, you will better understand their wants and needs – this will pay off for your hotel in the long run.

If you concentrate on the details and make a point to learn from the guest’s interests and what they entail, the happier the majority of your customers will be. This established trust on both sides can encourage your guests to reach out to you and let you know when something is or is not working. This relationship will help eliminate the negative or less popular aspects of your hotel and can help you focus on the specifics your guests really like.

The second your hotel shifts away from what is attracting travelers, potential guests could, unfortunately, stay elsewhere. We know that you care about your customers, but they may not feel the appreciation as much as you think they do. Here are a few skills and techniques to adopt to keep your hotel’s business stream steady and hopefully even grow your revenue as time goes on.

Be Present Where Your Guests Are

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The experience begins long before your guests actually arrive in person. Well before your guest is sitting in front of you checking in, you should be ensuring that their research and booking experience is seamless. Promote and encourage the best parts about your hotel online and how your hotel will make them feel nothing short of comfortable. In the example above, you can see that The Hotel at Midtown is catering to its guests by showing off a few of their favorite features front and center on the amenities page. Building and maintaining a positive presence online is crucial. If you are catering your hotel’s website to the right audience with your unparalleled amenities, you can not lose.

Not only being present, but being active on all social media platforms is important. Make sure to note the popular platforms where your target audience are present. The more exposure your guests have to your hotel’s awesome feed, the more likely they are to stay with you. Gain more loyal followers by uploading fresh and exciting content regularly. If you gain a devoted group of guests, the more you can use your social media presence to your hotel’s advantage. Depending on your hotel’s goals, partnering with an influencer could also be a solid option for getting the word out there to gain new customers and establish a few patrons. Paying attention to the content your guests engage and interact with and building off of that to continue success on and offline can lead to success for your hotel and a content guest.
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If you are not sure where the majority of your guests like to spend their time on social media, ask them as a step in their online booking process. If not there, try conducting a poll via an Instagram Story or Facebook post. For example, What is your favorite social media outlet? Then watch the results fly in.

Once you know your platform and have a pretty good idea of who your audience is, try having some fun. Interacting with your guests and finding out even more about them is always helpful. In the above example, Blue Magnet did just that by asking our followers what their favorite holiday jam is. It is important to use the answers guests provide, so users know your team is reading and listening to their answers and that their voice is being heard. For example, implementing their feedback at your hotel or sharing their answers on your story with a comment, like “Great Idea!” Generating an online community through your hotel’s social channels is a huge step in the right direction.

Use Your Guest’s Feedback To Make Future Decisions

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Maintaining relationships with your guests through reputation management and fixing the issue at hand, or at least addressing it as soon as possible, is vital to your hotel’s progression. Use feedback as a learning opportunity and try your best to not make the same mistakes again. According to 2020 Social Media Marketing Trends it is crucial to quickly respond to guests now more than ever. Putting your customers satisfaction first will always pay off and guests demand quicker responses as social media grows. In the above photo, you can see an example of proper reputation management. When you respond in a timely manner with a positive attitude, your guest can see that you not only acknowledged their comment or suggestion, but took the time to thoughtfully reply and really listen to what he or she had to say. This shows the care and quality that is put into your services and the hotel as a whole. Direct responses that address the comment positively and quickly will lead to a happy guest and eventually an overall better rating.

Ways Around The Simple In-room Survey Or Questionnaire

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Make providing feedback fun for guests to encourage online interaction with your hotel. Social media has become incredibly interactive, in-part because the majority of people love it. Social media allows people to be seen and heard, in whatever way they wish. Another thing social media fanatics rave about is the ability to connect with their favorite brands, and hotel brands are no different. Social media can associate positive feelings and reputations with your hotel.

Interacting with your guests every chance you get is the perfect way to engage and learn information, and if you are really lucky, book a few stays. For example, an Instagram Story asking the question, Did you like our specials at our on-site restaurant this week? Then give them the option to answer simply: yes or no. Gain valuable information from the interaction and use it to your advantage, because not everyone feels inclined to pick up the pen and answer a few boring questions on a piece of paper that comes along with their room key. As time goes on, you will get a feel for what your guests like and where their interests lie. This is when your questions can get more detailed.

In the above example, Blue Magnet used an Instagram story to gather information. This Instagram story helped us get the word out there about our internal blog, while simultaneously using the answers provided for further review. If the results showed more people voted “no” than “yes,” we would have to further evaluate and find a solution for progress.

Ultimately listening, learning, and interacting with your guests will grow your business. People want to be heard, and your guests are no different. So respect their opinions, address them, and build trust. With that being said, taking action sooner rather than later can help benefit your hotel in multiple ways, and in return bring in more business.

Blue Magnet Interactive Is Here To Help

We know that learning from guests is not always as simple as it seems, especially when your hotel staff is already stretched thin and have a million other things on their plates. Whether you are looking to set up informational campaigns on social media, running email surveys, or simply need a little direction, Blue Magnet is more than happy to help assist you with all of your digital marketing needs. Afterall, a positive guest experience on and off the screen is one of the best ways to continue to build a positive reputation and strong brand.

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