I am one of those people who always needs to know why I should do something before I am motivated to do it; Question everything: that’s what I have always been taught, so when I am traveling and I receive one of those emails from my hotel asking for my feedback, it makes me wonder: who is going to read this, and what are they trying to get out of it?
My first optimistic thought is: “Oh, the staff wants me to write a glowing recommendation about how amazing everything in the hotel is, so that they can impress their management.”
My next, slightly more pessimistic thought is: “If that’s the case, the big guys upstairs want to know who isn’t performing and is dragging the hotel’s reputation with their dead weight.”
Obviously, the motivation for hoteliers isn’t as black and white as what goes through my head. The reality is much simpler. They want to know your honest opinion. Your feedback is valuable because it gives insight in how they can improve their reputation, tailor to their offers to the market, and solve issues affecting the average guest.
Improving a hotel’s reputation:
It is a tried and true fact that by increasing the number of the hotel's reviews, you accordingly increase the overall hotel rating.
According to research, 81% of these reviews are positive. One can deduce that with over an 8:2 ratio of positive to negative reviews, positive reviews are compounded with new incoming positive reviews. This leaves the hotel less susceptible to that one angry guest who would have miserable even if they are treated like king they think they are.
Tailored offerings:
Surveys are a hotel’s chance to perform market research about whom? Their target market. Market research is incredibly expensive and time consuming, so by utilizing the biggest feedback respondent resource, hoteliers can effectively discover more details about the expectations of their guests and how to maximize their strengths to convert potential travelers.
Plus, when your guest feel’s like their opinion matters or will make a difference on their next stay, they are more likely to have a positive impression of the hotel. This also means they are more likely to leave a positive review which goes back into improving the hotel’s positive reputation.
Solving guest issues:
So far, I have deliberately tried to avoid saying the words "post-stay surveys", as it can be more than that. Hoteliers would prefer to get feedback when they have a chance to make a difference. When I get an email that asks how my current experience is, I either ignore it until I have an issue that I feel like bringing up, or I can let them know what is bothering me.
Simply put, I want the hotel to show that they are making an effort to make my experience even better, through open communication. It is as simple as sending out post-check-in messages or emails asking if everything is going alright so far. Savvy hoteliers take full advantage of the capabilities of their tools like Checkmate or TrustYou Stars survey solutions, and stand out for all the right reasons from those who simply make little to no effort.
Of course more and more arguments can be made for why a hotelier wants my feedback, but for the above reasons, I am more than happy to oblige. I want to help spread the good word about an awesome hotel that has a tailor-fit matching my desires and on top of it all, a hotel that values my opinion.
TrustYou has just released a new free online ebook titled “Designing Smart Surveys: A Hoteliers Guide to Soliciting Feedback”. It covers these topics from a hotel’s perspective, with an explanation about why it is vital for hotels to request feedback, and includes actionable advice to create outstanding surveys. Download it for free here.
About TrustYou
TrustYou’s Mission is to positively influence travelers’ decisions. Reviews and user-generated content rank #1 in influencing travelers’ hotel selections and industry reputations. Digesting all of these opinions, however, is beyond any one person’s capacity. Each day things become more complicated because millions of new opinions in thousands of formats and dozens of languages enter the fray. TrustYou searches, analyzes and distills hundreds of millions of opinions scattered across this vast, fragmented market. Our products are extensively used by suppliers " hotels, accommodations, restaurants " to provide travelers with better services and enhanced offerings by monitoring, surveying and acting upon all worldwide guest feedback. Travel intermediaries " OTAs, meta-search, destination marketers " use TrustYou’s Meta-Reviews™ to help travelers purchase wisely. TrustYou’s Meta-Reviews™ are based solely on verified travel reviews. They do not include data from TripAdvisor.
