Earning Guest Loyalty – The Contribution of Technology

Discerning guests with available cash have a vast choice of hotels and resorts at which to spend it and earning and retaining their loyalty is key.  DXI Caribbean has been looking at the hospitality industry through the eyes of the guest and shares within this article a taste for how much they believe technology can play a part in capturing guest loyalty.

Clearly, guests must be made to feel welcome and valued at a resort or hotel, but overall guest experience is as much about providing facilities as it is about delivering a courteous proficient service and having a great location. 

Achieving & Maintaining the “Wow Factor”

There is no doubt when spending our hard earned dollars we all love to experience a “wow factor” and in the case of a resort preferably in more ways than one.  Guests love to tell others about the good things they experience during a trip but equally, if not more, they tell the bad things too and often to many more people.

Those travelling frequently on business or who have a need to do business even when primarily on vacation all too frequently feel the “urrgh factor” through inadequate communications tools.  An inability to obtain a decent Internet service can be a big source of frustration.  The horror when a guest realizes a few weeks after returning home just how much those exorbitant cell phone roaming charges came to is not a pleasant memory, albeit one not directly under the control of the property.   If the in room TV offers them only a handful of decent TV channels when it’s time to relax it is not ideal, especially when some do not have a sharp image.  The “wow” on their arrival from seeing the beautiful million dollar water feature adjacent to the lobby or the breath taking idyllic turquoise ocean can fade quickly!

Is it HSIA or not?

Like it or not, the Internet plays a major part in the lives of the majority of us.  Most regular travelers take for granted that they have at home and in their offices a reliable and efficient connection to the web.  Therefore, arriving at a hotel to find that WiFi is at best patchy (or only in public areas) and when getting connected it runs slow is frustrating, especially if advertized as High Speed Internet Access (HSIA)!

Now we recognize this is a difficult issue.  Improving WiFi coverage has a cost and so does buying more external bandwidth from the local telecoms service provider.  However, buying better or more exotic ingredients for the restaurant kitchen costs more too, but we bet your F&B Team doesn’t price a gourmet dish the same way as it does a sandwich.  So why not start thinking along the lines of setting different fees for varying levels of Internet service?

Our experience of staying in lots of hotels suggests that free HSIA often does not necessarily equate to good HSIA and indeed in some cases expensive HSIA doesn’t either!  Some guests will perhaps only wish to check their emails now and again whereas others will wish to connect to their corporate facilities and work efficiently.  Some may wish to use web based conference facilities (such as Skype) or stream music or video, especially those visiting with their children.  In many ways they are competing with your hotel telephone system or movies on demand service so why not charge them for this higher tier of service?

Consensus in talking with frequent travelers suggest that they are more than happy to pay for HSIA but if doing so then that’s what it needs to be (High Speed Internet Access)!  It is simple and relatively inexpensive to install a device to manage allocation and charging for different levels of Internet service.  Improving WiFi coverage may not be as expensive as you think.  It is even possible to lease such devices or revenue share with a vendor, so why not make money and also have happy guests?

Making money from the hotel telephone system once again!

Turning to the hotel telephone system, let’s think this one through.  In the good old days, before the prevalence of the cell phone, hotels would make good money from guest calling.  On the mainland US and in Europe cell services are fairly cheap but we all know just how expensive roaming can be when we travel overseas.

With the evolution of telecoms a resort can buy international minutes very cheaply and whilst maintaining a very significant mark-up can offer a good rate to their guests.  As with HSIA, selection of the correct equipment represents a small investment or can be leased or even bundled into a deal with the minutes provider.  With a correct approach to marketing and guest awareness the phone service can once again become a profit center.  There is no shame in telling guests just how expensive their roaming charges will be and just what good value making calls from the hotel system can be.

Meeting Expectations for In Room Entertainment

Now this is an interesting topic because delivering a “wow factor” in the room was once easily achieved by providing a nice television with an interactive program guide and access to pay per view movies.  However, as the availability to guests in their homes of hundreds of channels, many with high definition (HD) content delivered on large flat screens and with surround sound, becomes more common the TV in many hotels looks rather dated.  Of course, there’s a double whammy because the technology savvy guest is able to pull down video on demand movies at will across the Internet; even more reason why properties need to consider tiered HSIA fees!

There are few easy or low cost answers to this issue.  However, at the time of TV refresh a window of opportunity opens and there are many options that can be pursued.  However, a good quality TV display receiving a low quality signal does little to impress and runs the risk of creating the “urrgh factor”.  It is easy when developing a new hotel or resort to build in the right (IP based) infrastructure to allow delivery of HD content at a reasonable cost, but most existing properties do not have in place these building blocks.  All is not lost as there are techniques to get round this problem but determining an acceptable level of investment really does need to sensibly match your rack rate and the market your hotel aims to capture.

Is Your Property Delivering to Guest Expectations?

It is important that you take an objective look at the services being delivered, but it is not always clear what your guests really think because all too often they will complain to folks back home (or worse via Internet based hospitality consumer sites) but not to your team.  Some of the issues discussed above may help you take a look at your product through the eyes of your customers.

If you need assistance or wish to understand more about some of the initiatives and opportunities open to you then DXI is always happy to help.  If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it but it is important to know whether it is broken!