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Building customer reviews into your hotel promotion

Building customer reviews into your hotel promotion

Building up your customer reviews is key to the promotion of your hotel. The results of investing in a great customer experience can be seen in your customer reviews. If you have a great all-round proposition, you are more likely to feel confident in asking for reviews.

Sites like TripAdvisor, TrustPilot together with listings sites like Trivago, Booking.com, LateRooms, Expedia and more all provide opportunities to leave feedback. You should also factor Facebook and Google reviews into your planning as places where good experiences can be recorded.

There are lots of good reasons to proactively seek reviews and to ask for them as early as possible. Therefore, if a positive experience is front of mind you want to capture that before the detail is forgotten. The more specific any feedback is, you can either use it in active promotion or use it to quickly address areas of concern.

There are lots of ways to encourage all visitors to leave positive feedback this includes:

  • Offering cards at check in and check out.
  • Adding links to receipts in the bar, restaurant and spa.
  • Putting stickers in windows and in rooms.
  • Sharing feedback and reviews around your venue to show customers you value feedback.

Online reviews are a critical component of the marketing mix for a hotel and hospitality businesses. Many people evaluate the selection online and take into consideration reviews before spending money on hotel stays, meals out, business functions or spa days.

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Why investing in your reception and front of house is a good thing for your hotel business

Any Google, TripAdvisor or Trivago search will present your hotel business together with related images. Many of these often feature the building itself.

Your venue must be clean and tidy, freshly painted and with the appropriate level of signage so visitors can find their way in and around. An old TV property show termed the phrase ‘kerb appeal’ and it is important as it can impact first impressions.

But, often the thing that carries the most weight is the quality of the reception carpet. Carpet is an expensive commodity and one which depreciates but one that can carry the brand and make an immediate and appealing visual impact.

Attention should be given to all the aspects covered in other sections

  • Signage
  • Digital screens (AV considerations)
  • The design of the reception desk and area
  • Art / wall hangings
  • Furniture
  • Internal lighting
  • Exterior lighting
  • External sculptures
  • Flowers

It is unlikely that you will find a bank to support funding for ‘soft assets’ such as front of house carpets, as they hold no residual value. However, a specialist fit-out finance provider will fund based on their inherent value to the business.

These secondary elements are important to creating the ambiance that leads to visitors having a better experience, such that they leave positive reviews, so you can build your business and its profitability.

A thriving hospitality business with sustained good reviews is more likely to receive awards and accolades – which in turn will lead to more customers. A virtuous circle which creates opportunities to re-invest and developing your offering and facilities further.

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Why investing in your hotel bedrooms is a good thing for your hotel business

In our hotel investment guide “Invest for Profit” we only focus on hotel bedrooms towards the end of the guide.

That’s because the number of hotel bedrooms and number of nights you have to offer are finite. There are, however, infinite ways to maximise the use of other areas of your hotel with revenue generating business.

That said, guest rooms are where most time is spent. investment in bedrooms can start relatively simply in terms of fixtures and fittings through to bespoke room design for specific clientele.

Investment in your bedroom portfolio is important and relative if you think about who you want to attract. Examples of the sorts of things you might want to consider for the different audiences and room types might include

  • Classic double rooms, with options for single occupancy.
  • Family rooms – which might be slightly larger, contain store-away beds, additional screens, decent audio-visual and be located away from the noisy function suites and bars.
  • Rooms for business travellers – minimal in design, potentially less space and including desks, additional sockets including USB friendly charging, appropriate lighting and the latest audio-visual technology.
  • Rooms for elderly / disabled guests – using the family room concept and situating them on the ground floor or near lifts for easy access, wider doors, walk-in showers, alarm cords and lower level height sockets and switches.
  • The wedding suite/bridal suite – a sumptuous room with soft furnishings, appropriate level of décor, high level of comfort, appropriate lighting, great views and technology.

It’s undeniable though that investing in hotel bedrooms – the place where anyone staying at your hotel is likely to spend the much of their time – is a smart move.

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Why is investing in your hotel function space a good thing for business?

Functions and events bring a whole different dynamic and audience to your venue. Using hotel function space for wedding business, birthday and other milestone occasions are an accepted way for independent hotels to improve revenue.

But considering business audiences can truly turn your venue into a seven-day operation and give you countless opportunities to realise additional revenue and reduce your overheads.

Opening up hotel function space for mixed use.

One successful approach may be to make your venue available to business networking groups. There are several national organisations always looking for quality locations and localised groups looking for regular breakfast, lunch and evening hospitality.

  • It provides regular ‘off peak’ custom. Some operate on a weekly or fortnightly schedule and can host anywhere from 20 to 80 delegates.
  • It keeps the kitchen and staff busy. Imagine that additional business every week in one corner of your venue.
  • It keeps bringing new people to your venue. This sort of approach also encourages a passive audience to experience and become advocates for your venue locally.
  • It stimulates further business. Attendees can be encouraged to leave reviews and some of these businesses return and run meetings and events of their own.

This is just one example of maximising hotel function space. Investment to support this kind of customer may come in the form of meeting room presentation, projection, boosted WIFI and meeting materials such as white boards, drop down screens and audio-visual equipment.

What other local businesses or groups could you accommodate during the day to increase function room usage and what investment would you need to achieve it quickly? What types of milestone events are you missing out on because a lack of the right facilities?

Further reading:

Why the time is right to invest in your hospitality business.

A mixed use hotel fit out finance case study.

Why is investing in your hotel kitchen a good thing for your business?

Why investing in your bars and dining areas are good for your hotel business?

 

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Why is investing in a mixed-use hotel business a sensible approach?

It’s likely you have some form of investment strategy when it comes to improving your business. However, before considering further or new investment, deciding on which areas to invest in and where to source funding, take a step back. A mixed-use hotel business is one of the best strategies to adopt.

The key to transforming the profitability of your hotel/restaurant business lies in thinking of ways to successfully use the space and the facilities on offer as optimally as possible.

If there are a wider number of uses for your hotel, it will be full more frequently which means it will be returning more revenue for continual re-investment and improvement.

Why is investing in a mixed-use hotel business a good thing?

  • You already have the infrastructure in place. It is being used and ready for increased use. The best way to increase revenue is to make better use of available assets.
  • A mixed-use hotel business allows you to build additional and quantifiable revenue streams.
  • A mixed-use hotel business helps owners and managers to access new and wider customer audiences. This might open up entirely new clusters at different times of day which may lead to repeat bookings, using facilities that might otherwise sit unused at certain times of day.
  • Optimising use of available space will directly impact on occupancy and revenue.

Impact on the kitchen

Firing up a kitchen costs £100s every day with the additional labour costs of having a chef not generating revenue if the dining room isn’t open until 6pm. As with other areas of the operation, if it is working harder it is making more from the facilities.

This may not necessarily be a direct contribution to the bottom line, but it certainly impacts overheads.

Impact on space and room bookings

Space is a valuable and expensive commodity in hotels and restaurant businesses. Empty, dormant rooms are a problem and need to be maximised. As a hotelier you are paying for a fair amount of space, either in rent or in energy costs, so consider transforming dead areas so they begin to make a return.

Whilst there are benefits to a marginal costing model on selling guest rooms and filling the hotel, discounted hotel rooms are less likely to deliver the type of guest with high discretionary spend.

Alternative finance looks at the sorts of things banks don’t always finance. They prefer the solid value of bricks and mortar. Specialist alternative finance providers will see the commercial value of business-critical assets, including fit-out.

Further reading:

Why the time is right to invest in your hospitality business.

A mixed use hotel fit out finance case study.

 

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