Hotel Room Service Complete Guide & Tips for Hotels

It can happen when the housekeeping staff they employed lacks expertise in delivering food items and fulfilling guest’s request.

But this is just one instance, and such a bad guest service isn’t found in cheap hotels, even luxury hotels with high brand value does this.

In this blog, we'll talk about what room service in hotels means, its pros and cons, and a few tips to improve your room service revenue.

An overview of hotel room service

Room service is a way for hoteliers to provide meals, beverages, and amenities to guests with a few taps and clicks. Guests order something, connect to room service, and hotel staff will bring it directly to their room.

It's obvious that after a long day of travel, guests usually come with a set of preconceived notions, and they expect hotel staff to provide top-notch dining experiences.

A research study states that there's a direct correlation between good room service and guest retention. If you provide high-quality room service to guests, they're more likely to return to your property.

But room service isn't confined to ordering a bunch of snacks and food; it can be requesting newspapers, toiletries, or other amenities that enhance the guest experience.

The guest service journey begins when they enter your hotel, with front desk staff and concierge representing the first impression of your service standards.

However, the hotel owner should ensure service remains consistent even if guests arrive late at your hotel when the clock is ticking 2 PM.

But if your hotel is not taking care of guests and staff is not available for them when they need it, it makes the stay experience WORST.

Though there are operating costs involved in providing hotel service, hoteliers need to ensure that they provide timely service to guests.

For example, if they're waiting for the last 30 minutes for breakfast, be ready to face their aggression.

What are pros and cons of hotel service?

Here are a few advantages of hotel service-

• You can satisfy your guests through quality room service. Guests can order anything they want at their fingertips, but it requires spending extra cash.
• If your hotel provides good room service, then it becomes a differentiating factor for you and makes your hotel stand out.
• It saves the time of guests as they don't have to leave their room to get a bunch of amenities. Let's say a business traveller stays at your hotel; they need not worry about leaving the meeting and can continue enjoying their snacks.
• When guests come to your property, you can promote other offerings such as F&B services.
• You can eventually turn your hotel into a full-service centre, meaning you can cater to guests with food, breakfast, meeting rooms, laundry service, etc.
• If your hotel provides in-room service, guests feel more pampered and intend to spend more at the property. Better room service can eventually increase your hotel's revenue.

Let's talk about disadvantages of hotel room service-

• It requires hiring more hotel staff and training them so they can provide impeccable guest service.
• Poor room service can affect your hotel's reputation in the long run. If guests feel dissatisfied, they will post negative things on social media.
• During low season, room amenities can become a cost for you if there is less demand for amenities. It won't be profitable for your hotel business in the long run.

What are the different types of hotel room service?

Here are a few types of room services that hotels can provide-

1. In-room dining

Here, guests can order their meals, ranging from pastries to full meals. They can simply place an order and get the food delivered to their room. Such in-room dining experiences provide comfort and privacy to guests.

Best part? Guests can request meals at any time of the day, which is good for those travellers who arrive at the hotel late at night. If you're not offering such in-room dining services, then your hotel won't be profitable even in the next 20 years.

Several luxury hotels are heavily investing in such services, and it also provides a premium touch and feel to guests as they get F&B options in their room without going to the front desk staff.

Krishan Aggarwal, VP of Hotel Openings, says that in-room dining has become a driver for increasing his hotel revenue; it's not just a value addition tool anymore.

He further highlights that at Taj Aravali Resort and Spa, they arranged dining experiences for guests to promote their restaurants, and it was indeed a great move.

2. Full hotel room service

Full hotel room service means when the hotel staff prepares food, they will arrange everything from setting up tables to providing food.

Usually, luxury hotels provide full hotel room service, and as everything is arranged by hotel staff, it's a bit costlier than limited room service.

3. Grab and Go option

Guests can order pre-packaged meals (snacks, beverages, sandwiches, etc.) and the hotel staff delivers them on the go.

This type of room service is better for those guests who want to have a fresh bite, so they can enjoy eating their meals without waiting in a restaurant.

4. Online ordering

Another type of hotel room service is digital ordering where guests can order food/beverages, pay online through an app or website. 

They don't have to leave their room, and through this digital room service solution, guests can spend more on this.

Thus, faster guest service results in better revenue per customer.

5. Centralized room service

This type of room service is mainly found in large hotels and revolves around collecting food from the main kitchen and delivering it straight to guest rooms.

There'sa high level of coordination between different departments such as front desk, kitchen, and housekeeping.

6. Decentralized room service

Here, the hotel provides mini bars and kitchenettes in guest rooms where guests prepare their own food, and then the waiter serves the food in a pantry. 

From there, each guest has to come to collect the food from that central kitchen.

This is commonly popular in boutique hotels.

Strategies to improve your hotel room service

While most hoteliers think that room service can be improved through comfortable bedding and high-quality food, there are strategies that hotel owners generally ignore.

1. Invest in the right staff

Your staff is the face of your hospitality business. They're the ones that interact with your guests, so make sure they should be friendly, possess problem-solving skills, and know how to deal with guests.

Proper training should be given to them so they can even upsell/cross sell to guests and can drive more revenue for hotel.

Ensure that they take feedback from guests, regularly follow up with them, and ask them about service gaps so they can improve room services that meets client expectations.

2. Have high-quality food

Here are some tips that can help you improve your food and dining service at your hotel-

• Offer a variety of dishes for guests to choose from.
• Your menu should include food items that consider dietary restrictions.
• If there's a menu change, make sure to inform your guests regarding the same.
• Pay attention to how you're serving them food.
• Update your menu regularly and include seasonal dishes as well.
• Monitor your inventory level to ensure that food doesn't go out of stock.
• Invest in technology and provide guests with the flexibility to order anything at any time of the day.

3. Take guest's feedback

Taking feedback from guests is super important these days so that you can know what their expectations are, identify service gaps, and improve room services.

One way to take their feedback is by sending them feedback forms, checking social media reviews/comments, and leaving physical cards in rooms to see what they feel about the quality of room service.

Another way is to use guest feedback software for doing a quick pulse check. You can send customized feedback forms to them and get insights on a single dashboard.

If there's negative feedback, the hotel management software will automatically raise tickets to the right department.

4. Provide extra touches to guests

You can make your guests feel special by sending extra love and offering complimentary items such as drinks, snacks, flavours, or chocolates.

Provide a welcoming environment to them by sending them bouquets or greeting cards/handwritten notes to mark their special moment as complete.

You can offer them discounts or vouchers so they can try your other amenities as well. The purpose behind adding personal touches is to create a lasting impression on guests.

How to improve the revenue of your hotel room service?

Bad hotel room service dissatisfies your guests and results in loss of revenue.

Here are some popular ways through which you can increase your room service revenue-

1. Promote packages or run promotions

Every guest wants to feel special and get more by spending less. One way is to tie your room service and create bundled packages to earn more ancillary revenue.

For instance – if a couple visits your hotel, then you could create an enticing offer for them such as combining a romantic package with other services such as meals, drinks, and spa treatments so guests feel they're getting more value for money.

At the same time, the hotel earns additional revenue through such promotions and offers.

2. Provide them with an online ordering system

Most guests prefer to order and pay online through an app rather than calling the front desk staff every time. Best part? They can track their order and communicate with staff about when the order will arrive in their room.

Research studies state that 73% of travellers intends to choose hotels that have self-service technology. This means mobile ordering has become a trend, and hoteliers are tapping into this trend to meet guest expectations.

3. Upsell your hotel services

When guests make a reservation, you can do upsells by promoting other add-ons such as spa treatments, dining packages etc. When guests stay at your property, you can have AI-powered chatbots with which they can interact.

For instance – Freddie by BOTSHOT can engage with guests and do upselling on your behalf so that you can make the most out of each guest.

4. Invest in digital marketing

Promoting your hotel in-room dining experience online, creating landing pages, sharing snackable content on Instagram, and posting your hotel offerings is the sure-shot way of getting more revenue for your hotel.

How BOTSHOT helps to increase your Hotel Room Service Revenue?

Providing good room service isn't about providing expensive food or bedding, it's about-

• Offering a smooth check-in/check-out experience
• Customizing the guest's stay
• Having a well-trained and always available housekeeping team
• Front desk staff knowing how to communicate with guests
• Ensuring that all your guest complaints are HEARD
• Investing in the right technology

At BOTSHOT, we provide FREDDIE, an AI-powered chatbot which provides round-the-clock support to guests, takes feedback from them, and solves their repetitive queries. 

More than that, guests can order anything such as food or ask a chatbot to arrange a transportation facility and even upsell your services.