By Duve Team Stay updated on the latest Guest Experience and Hospitality Tech updates.
It’s no secret — guest experience is by far the most important factor that influences your hotel’s reputation and revenue.
But guest experience isn’t some vague feeling intuited by savvy hoteliers. It’s something that you can accurately measure, analyze, and take action on.
This article covers:
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According to two giants of the hospitality world, “The guest experience is not a product, it’s a story. It’s the story that we tell our guests, and the story that they tell others. (Marriott Hotel)”.
Or, as the Hyatt puts it; “The guest experience is not a one-time event, it’s a journey. It starts from the first impression and lasts beyond the last goodbye.”
The importance of guest experience cannot be overstated. An excellent guest experience is the foundation of your hotel business.
That’s because the happier your guests are, the more likely they are to stay again and spread positive word of mouth. And the less satisfied they are, the more likely it is they will leave negative reviews online that harm your brand’s reputation.
This brings us to the natural conclusion — we need to measure guest experience accurately and not just rely on our gut feelings. Next up: how to do exactly that.
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Guest experience is not a guessing game. Experienced hoteliers measure guest experience with metrics that show you how well you’re doing and where you can improve.
Let’s zoom in on these:
A CSAT allows guests to express their overall satisfaction with their stay or specific elements such as the room, service, or amenities. Guests are asked to rate their experience on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 representing a highly satisfied stay and 1 indicating dissatisfaction. CSAT is a straightforward approach to measuring guest satisfaction. While it provides valuable insights, it doesn’t quite capture the nuanced aspects of their stay.
NPS asks guests to rate how likely they would recommend your hotel to a friend or coworker. Based on their rating, guests are classified into three categories:
NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. NPS measures guest advocacy and loyalty, which are strong predictors of future growth and profitability. A high NPS means more positive word-of-mouth and referrals for your hotel business. The opposite is true for a low score.
Conducting surveys is a great way to get feedback from guests. Surveys can include questions about various aspects of the guest experience, such as the check-in process, room comfort, staff friendliness, and overall satisfaction. We’ll dive into what makes a great post-stay survey later in this post.
Monitoring OTAs like TripAdvisor or Booking.com can provide critical insights into guest experiences. Make sure you’re paying attention to recurring themes or issues mentioned in multiple reviews. Responding to negative comments is a great way to show prospective guests that you take their feedback seriously and are dedicated to improving the quality of their stay.
We recommend that you provide feedback forms within your hotel itself, such as in-room or at the front desk. These forms allow guests to provide immediate feedback during their stay, capturing their real-time impressions. Include specific questions about different touchpoints, services, amenities, and areas where improvements can be made.
Mystery shoppers are a great way to evaluate the guest experience by posing as regular guests. They can assess the check-in process, overall cleanliness, plus quality of service. Mystery shopping provides an unbiased perspective and helps identify areas that may require improvement.
It’s not just OTAs you need to monitor – it’s social media. Monitor social media channels and track mentions of your hotel or relevant hashtags. This can help identify both positive and negative feedback shared by guests publicly. Again, make sure you’re responding promptly to any guest comments and queries!
Web analytics tools can help gain valuable insights into guest behavior on your hotel’s website or app. Analyze metrics such as bounce rate, time spent on site, and conversion rates to assess the user experience and identify potential areas for improvement.
Think guest complaints, service recovery incidents, or maintenance requests. This type of operational data can reveal recurring issues and help prioritize areas that require attention to enhance the guest experience.
Don’t forget to talk to your own staff. Encourage them to provide insights based on their interactions with guests. Frontline employees can offer valuable perspectives on guest preferences, pain points, and suggestions for improvement.
We get it — that’s a lot of data points to take in.
But if you’re serious about measuring and improving guest experience in your hotel business, you need to diligently analyze data collected from these various sources, identify trends, and take actionable steps to address any issues or areas of improvement.
Learn More: How To Improve Guest Satisfaction
Guest data is a goldmine for hoteliers who want to measure guest experience. But that’s not all it’s good for. Gathering guest data can help improve their overall experience and drive up their satisfaction levels.
Disclaimer: Customer privacy is more important than ever. Make sure you’re open about what data you’re collecting and why – before you hear about it from angry guests on OTAs.
We recommend collecting guest data at different stages of their journey, such as:
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Once you’ve gathered and organized your hotel guest data, the next step is to analyze it. It’s only through analysis that you can extract meaningful insights that pave the way for improvements in your guest experience.
Here’s our guide to elevating your analysis process:
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Analyzing guest data is the key to unlocking your guests’ hearts and wallets. But make sure to respect their privacy and the law. Collect what you need, analyze it, and use it wisely.
Read More: 9 Practical Tips For Enhancing Guest Experience
The key to a good post-stay survey? Don’t ask too many questions. Keep it as short as possible – even if your guests had a great time, they lead busy lives and probably don’t want to spend thirty minutes writing a short essay about their stay in your hotel.
As one manager at the Hilton told Great Brooks Magazine — the longer the survey the higher the abandonment rate. Ideally, you want to craft a survey that guests can fill out in 5 to 10 minutes.
CMO, Duve
Email the survey to your guests after they check out. If any of the questions are coming back negative, then you can contact your guests to see what could be improved and pre-empt any negative feedback online.
Don’t forget to thank them for leaving you a survey. Even if it’s a poor review – reaching out to them will show them you care about making things right.
All of the above? That’s something we here at Duve offer — automated emails with your hotel’s branding to encourage them to leave a review.
Dear Guest,
Thank you for choosing our hotel for your recent stay. We hope you had a wonderful time and enjoyed our facilities and services.
We would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete this short survey and share your feedback with us. Your opinions and suggestions are very valuable to us and will help us improve our guest experience.
Please rate the following aspects of your stay on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent):
Check-in process: 1 2 3 4 5
Room cleanliness: 1 2 3 4 5
Room comfort: 1 2 3 4 5
Amenities: 1 2 3 4 5
Staff friendliness: 1 2 3 4 5
Staff professionalism: 1 2 3 4 5
Food quality: 1 2 3 4 5
Food variety: 1 2 3 4 5
Overall satisfaction: 1 2 3 4 5
Please answer the following questions:
Thank you for your time and cooperation. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you again soon.
Sincerely,
Hotel Manager
Dear Guest,
We’re so happy that you chose our hotel for your recent stay. We hope you had a wonderful and cozy time with us.
We would love to hear from you and get your honest feedback. It would mean the world to us if you could spare a few minutes to fill out this survey and tell us how we did. Your opinion matters a lot to us and will help us make our hotel even better for you and other guests.
Please rate the following aspects of your stay on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is very unhappy and 5 is very happy.
Check-in process: 1 2 3 4 5
Room cleanliness: 1 2 3 4 5
Room comfort: 1 2 3 4 5
Amenities: 1 2 3 4 5
Staff friendliness: 1 2 3 4 5
Staff professionalism: 1 2 3 4 5
Food quality: 1 2 3 4 5
Food variety: 1 2 3 4 5
Overall satisfaction: 1 2 3 4 5
Please answer the following questions:
Please answer the following open-ended questions.
Thank you for your time. We appreciate your feedback and hope to see you again soon.
Cheers,
Hotel Manager
Hotel in Italy
The best way to evaluate guest experience? Talk to your guests. Hoteliers use metrics like NPS to ask your guests if they would recommend you to others, CLV to see how much money one guest brings to your business over time, and Churn Rate to see how many guests leave you for someone else. Find which one works best for your business.
Survey tools help hotels understand what their customers want, like, and hope for. This way, hotels can adjust their services to match those wants and go beyond them. This can make customers happier, more likely to leave good feedback, and more likely to book again and bring more revenue.
When it comes to gauging your guest experience, there’s no better way than engaging in a good old-fashioned chat with your guests.
But let’s face it, with staffing shortages and the relentless blows of COVID, that’s easier said than done.
Fear not. Hotel technology swoops in to save the day. At Duve, we’ve honed our craft over the years, empowering hotels of all sizes to measure, analyze, and elevate their guest experience to new heights.
Hotels using Duve experience:
Join thousands of hospitality experts from around the world already benefiting from Duve. Let us give you a tour.
