Everything About Hotel Guest Journey to Enhance Experience

Read through "Guide to create 5 star guest experience" to know more about what are the main touchpoints in the hospitality sector. 

Why map a guest's journey? 

Mapping a customer’s journey for hotels helps you to build a coherent process, have a cohesive staff, and synchronise efforts. It helps you to:

a. Achieve higher return on investments (ROI),

b. Get insights into guest behaviour,

c. Create a robust brand image, 

d. Earn loyal guests for life and

e. Enhance services

Stages in hotel guest journey mapping: 

Stages in a hotel guest journey map are divided into three: Pre-arrival, during stay and post-stay. All three divisions are imperative for an enhanced guest experience.  

Pre-arrival

1. Influence a guest's research

The reach of social media is enormous and unparalleled. While deciding the vacation spot and accommodation thereafter, people get influenced by posts and engagement of and by the hotel. You need to have an active social media account. Engage with masses through visually appealing posts, carousels, videos, contests, etc. Leverage the power of social media. 

Furthermore, people seek reassurance. Hence, people read reviews. Positive and verified presence on sites like Trip Advisor adds to your advantage. You need to make sure that you are requesting guests for reviews. Additionally, address reviews, both positive and negative, in a thoughtful yet professional and timely manner. Show people that you care.

After research, a guest moves on to exploring the website of the chosen hotel. An easy to navigate, mobile-friendly website or application is what you need to have next. Make it a visual treat. Along with that, the content should be conscious, fresh, and updated. A guest needs to know all the local attractions, your services, amenities and add-on services. You should be able to cater to all needs and purposes of a guest visit, through your content first and services, later.  

2. Easy and customizable bookings

All lies in how much of smooth sailing the whole guest journey is. For starters, you need to have a seamless integration between your website or application and online booking tool/engine. This is pivotal for successful conversions. Moreover, it’s important to rework policies as per post-pandemic times. Flexible booking policies should be adopted to provide guests with more options. 

Additionally, guests should be given the option to curate room amenities at the time of booking. To choose a room with/without a balcony, on which floor, to curate bathroom amenities, minibar stock, etc., all could be customized.

Guests should also be given the luxury of pre-book services and packages. Go creative with the packages. They could be inclusive and personalized. Once a guest mentions his/her purpose of stay, packages catering to his/her needs should be suggested. You can further combine services provided by local tourist attractions with your own and curate a package for the same. Make these packages more attractive with add-on services. For example, bikes could be offered to venture into the unknowns sustainably or explore the knowns in the local style. Professional or semi-professional photographers could be arranged to capture precious vacation moments or intimate celebrations. 

3. Ecstatic guests make the best guests

Never forget to show your guest how thrilled you are to serve them. Communicate your excitement through their preferred platform. This way even guests look forward to the vacation. Firstly, send them a creative confirmation message, and then reminders with some interesting tips for their tour. If they have pre-booked any service or package, send them videos, pictures or testimonials of what awaits them. All this in a very creative, concise manner. 

Additionally, also send them brief messages or emails informing them about policies and procedures, and travel guidelines of the destination city/state/country. 

4. Ready the rooms well in advance

Make sure to ready the rooms at least an hour before the check-in. Ensure cleanliness and maintenance of hygiene levels in the rooms. Pre-stock minibars and make arrangements according to requirements. Early check-ins shouldn’t be a crisis and embarrassing situation for you. 

5. Hassle–free, contactless check-in and room entry

Travel isn’t a comfortable journey for everyone. Therefore, ensure that your tired guests do not have to go through stressful check-ins and room entry. You can use contactless check-in and keyless entry technology to simplify the process. 

Use eFront Desk, to enable contactless check-in/out and enhance the guest experience.

During stay

1. Forge a connection

As soon as a guest enters your property, you should try to connect with them to serve them better. They should feel seen and special.

According to a revenue hub report, around 71% of people love to hear their name. Therefore, greet guests well, using their names. Ask them how their travel journey was, and if there are any immediate requirements. Additionally, offer welcome drinks. These small gestures leave an unforgettable impact. 

2. Round-the-clock communication

Communicate with your guests even when they are in their rooms. Ask and deliver. You can use chatbots or simply communicate through WhatsApp or a preferred channel. Continuous communication would make it easier for you to meet guest expectations and needs. 

With Freddie, an AI conversational, smart, multilingual bot, ensure uninterrupted communication with your guests. Never miss a chance to interact and fulfil their needs. 

3. Always ‘on your toes’ staff

You need to make sure that your staff is attentive and proactive. They should be professional, polite, and well-trained. 

4. Notify guests about happenings

Guests should be well aware and updated about the activities taking place on the premises of your property. Update them about leisure /cultural/art/culinary activities using upsell tools. 

5. Automate bookings/reservations

Provide guests with the option of booking services or making reservations from the comforts of their room, if they have not done it at the time of booking. Use automated tools to do that. 

6. Send them reminders about their pre-booked services

If services have been booked at the time of booking, then send the guests reminders about the same. This could be done via a preferred channel of communication. 

7. Provide a calm, soothing environment 

No one wants to end up in a hotel where he/she cannot enjoy their private time. Make sure to provide guests with a space that is calming and intimate. Short yoga and mindfulness sessions could be offered as complimentary services. 

8. Be more aware during stay surveys

Know your guests better through during-stay surveys. Note that such surveys should be digital and as per a guest’s convenience. Fill in for any service gaps with the help of such surveys. 

With Heda, collect and study pre-arrival, during-stay, and post-departure surveys and enhance guest satisfaction. 

Post-stay

1. Smooth check-out

Check-out should be as smooth as check-ins. They are one of the last touchpoints and you don’t want to ruin things at the very end. Contactless check-out could also be undertaken by automating services. Furthermore, install equipment for cashless payments. These are aligned with the new norm. 

2. Ask for reviews

Do not forget to ask your guests for reviews. Good services would always fetch reviews. 

3. Send post-stay feedback

Collect post-stay feedback, vital to understand the effectiveness of your services. These should be digital to save time and effort. 

Know more about why feedback is important by reading the importance of hotel guest feedback.

4. Treat your loyal customers with offers/discounts/complimentary services on the next visit

You have earned loyal guests. Now treat them with offers or complimentary services that would bring them back with the same willingness. 

5. Stay connected

A guest leaving a property doesn’t make him/her less special or wanted. Show the guests that they were a treat and how much you would want to serve them again. Send promotional messages/emails to them. Share the achievements or news of expansions of your hotel and services with them. Celebrate the same with some offers or discounts. 

Use eMark-IT to send targeted, promotional, and campaign messages to your guests, via WhatsApp or emails. 

With the hospitality sector rapidly growing in its services and scope, it becomes important for hotels to smartly target all the touchpoints. With a plethora of options and an abundance of available information, hotels need to be clear in their thoughts and action.

Schedule a 14-Days Free Trial for All in one Hotel Management Software.

With guest journey mapping, a hotel keeps itself in the shoes of a customer. It attempts to reduce friction to the minimum and enhance the guest experience. It is a tried and tested technique. Maps make journeys clear and simple; hotel guest journey maps are no different.