Brochures and a website can make a hotel appear spectacular but when the service doesn't deliver on its marketing promises, the guest experience can be miserable. And the sales effort has just failed.

Your website. RFP's. Advertising. Internet marketing. Pay Per Click. Public relations. They're all important sales and marketing tools that communicate your marketing messages. 

While most hotel owners are finally beginning to understand the importance of investing their money in marketing, dedicating capital to training employees to deliver the service promise that was communicated in the marketing messages in the first place is more difficult. 

Sure, brochures and a website can make a hotel appear spectacular, but when the service doesn't deliver on its marketing promises, the guest experience can be miserable. And the sales effort has just failed. 

Consider this all-too-common scenario: 

A hotel sales manager meets with a tour operator or meeting planner to book a piece of business. The group is in-house and an attendee arrives at the front desk. Sure enough, the hotel is beautiful. It's just gone through a multi-million dollar renovation. It's everything the sales manager promised… the lobby is attractive and inviting, the employees are well dressed in crisp new uniforms, the guestrooms are spacious and well-appointed, the bed is comfortable, and you wish you had that flat screen TV at home.   But the guest can't activate the Bose radio and CD player, so he calls the front desk. 

The front desk clerk cannot clearly communicate how to work the Bose, so he tells the guest to call housekeeping, adding, "I've never slept in the rooms, so how would I know how the radio works?" The guest becomes frustrated: sure, the hotel is beautiful, but the staff doesn't know what they're doing, plus, they're rude!  

The guest does not return. The sales manager now has to find another customer.  

[And don't forget… in this age of immediate communication and the world wide Blog-osphere, this powerful guest has the ability to share his negative experience at your hotel – loudly, quickly and globally.] 

Unfortunately, those employees who have the greatest guest contact may still get the least training regarding guest service, hospitality, and the operation of the hotel as a whole.  

In fact, once initial orientation and training of hotel employees is conducted, how many independent non-branded hotels keep up with the actual training? Do these hotels have documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's)?  

This type of training includes educating all levels of employees who contribute to the sales and marketing message. 

Fixing a service problem after the fact is expensive, time consuming, and you may have already lost that guest. Prevent service issues by establishing SOP's that are well- documented and agreed upon by department heads and staff.  

Don't lose focus of the marketing promise that inspired guests to stay at your hotel in the first place! 

HVS Marketing Communications can assess your sales and marketing efforts as well as your service delivery to help you document your SOP's, train for enhanced service, more effectively market, and increase the revenue generated by a solid investment in both training and marketing. www.hvs.com