Ensuring Guest Satisfaction

Being a successful hotelier involves tending to guests' needs and ensuring an exceptional experience at your hotel for everyone who walks through the doors of the lobby. Hotels have to make every effort to provide zero disappointment in order to rise above the competitors. One negative comment by the guest can offset the effect of hundred positive reviews and have an adverse effect on the reputation as well as revenue of the property. Ashok Malkani tries to fathom how hotels can leave a positive impact on the guests.

Being a hotelier can be an a rewarding, but at the same time, an exhausting job as he has to ensure that guests have an exceptional experience from the time they walk through the doors of the lobby.

Travellers who plan to stay in hotels expect that all their whims and desires would be fulfilled by employees with a smile on their faces. The employees may, at times, find it difficult to fulfill the guests’ expectations. This could have an adverse effect on the popularity of the hotel.

To be successful, hotels have to make every effort to provide zero disappointment. The question arises whether a poor customer satisfaction always results in consumers shifting to competitors. Does brand loyalty prevent guests from shifting to another property?

Jaidev Dutta, General Manager, Holiday Inn Bengaluru Racecourse believes, “Every guest is unique in terms of his nature. Every guest’s reaction to dissatisfaction may not be standard at all times. Also each guest would react to a disappointment in a different manner. Some may be extraordinarily harsh while some may consider it as an excusable lapse. Having said this, one must also consider the loyalty of customer a brand. One case of dissatisfaction in one hotel is not what he would have experienced while staying at other hotels of same brand/chain and hence is likely to continue his loyalty towards the brand/chain. However, he may not want to visit the same property, where he experienced disappointment, again.

Sunaina Manerker, General Manager, Grand Mercure Mysore avers, “Customer satisfaction is based on a myriad of factors. Today most costumers understand that a certain issue could be a genuine error, which of course requires training and preventive measures, but is not reflective of the service standards of the property as a whole.