When hoteliers brainstorm ways to improve their hotel’s bottom line, naturally one of the first strategies that comes to mind is to reduce wasteful spending. While this is an important exercise, spending money unnecessarily is not the only way hotels are compromising their profits. There are numerous pitfalls within a hotel that can impact revenue streams, and regardless of whether they’re accidental or intentional, they’re nonetheless consequential. The good news is that most of them can be prevented.
As you work to cut costs, drive revenue and optimize the full value of your hotel, it is important you also develop strategies to help your hotel avoid these common pitfalls.
- Not Prioritizing Customer Service: The quality of the guest experience is largely reliant on having the right staff in the right place at the right time. If it’s hard for guests to get the information or assistance they need in a timely manner, it makes the hotel seem uncommitted to hospitality. This leads directly to bad online reviews, negative word of mouth and one-time-only guests, all of which can translate into a loss of revenue making opportunities.
- Charging Unnecessary Fees: It drives guests crazy when hotels create unnecessary fees (like charging for wi-fi) or wildly inflate the prices of things like minibar items. This makes the hotel seem like it’s trying to extract every penny from guests. No matter how nice the stay was, the lasting memory is the $10 can of soda.
- Falling Behind on Social Media: Social media is one of the places where guests form their earliest impression of a hotel. If a property has neglected to keep its profiles updated, it’s lost a valuable marketing opportunity. Worse, if a hotel has made no attempt to mitigate or manage negative online reviews, they could be scaring away a lot of potential bookings.
- Headaches at the Front Desk: Visiting the front desk to check in and out or get assistance is one of the more tedious aspects of staying in a hotel. The longer guests have to queue in line, wait while attendants find information or fight to get their needs addressed, the worse it reflects on the hotel overall. Expediting the experience or even eliminating it entirely lets guests focus on their trip first and foremost.
- Failing to Update the Property: It does not take long for a property to look outdated and feel uncomfortable. It’s not feasible to do major renovations every five years, but it is important to regularly replace mattresses, repaint walls, spruce up decorations and add to the list of amenities. If hotels don’t give guests a reason to come back, they will happily seek out alternative lodging options.
- Restricting Dates and Times: Some hotels make it unnecessarily difficult for guests to travel on their own schedule. They arbitrarily set blackout dates and unnecessarily restrict check in and out times. All this does is make travelling more stressful overall, a feeling which is unavoidably reflected in the guest experience.
- Disappointing Housekeeping: Nothing sours a stay like coming back to a dirty room. Housekeeping must be exceptional, but more importantly, it must be consistent. No guest wants to have a room attendant offer towels at 7am or disregard a do-not-disturb sign.
- Forgetting Guests on the Next Visit: When a guest returns to a hotel they want the experience to feel familiar and to be rewarded for their loyalty. This is why it’s so disappointing when a hotel neglects to treat regular guests as the VIP they are. Discouraging people from becoming loyalists does deep and lasting damage to the bottom line.
Some of these pitfalls may seem like obvious mistakes to avoid, but it’s easy for them to get lost in the shuffle as busy periods take over, staff becomes fatigued and budgets are constrained. Doing everything possible to deliver a stellar guest experience is not easy or inexpensive, but the effort ensures guests leave happy and impressed, both ready to recommend and eager to return.
It’s easy to be your best with RoomKeyPMS. Our suite of hospitality solutions streamlines day to day operations while maximizing the potential of any property. Contact us to explore how RoomKeyPMS can resolve your challenges and optimize your opportunities.
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