What do guests want in their room? The answer is clearly going to be more than a bed with sheets that have been changed since the last guest checked out! For the purposes of this column I am going to assume you understand the minimum furniture and bathroom fixture requirements, cleanliness standards and a comfortable fresh residential (or at least non-commercial) feel to the room.
Recently (April 1998) Lodging Hospitality (LH) Associate Editor Carlo Wolff wrote an excellent short column on this subject. Apparently Lodging Hospitality which is part of Penton Publishing did a survey among travelers "culled from their Penton Executive Network, which includes readers of about three dozen business publications."
According to LH's findings business travelers favorite amenity was a newspaper at the door followed by basic cable television. Leisure travelers' first and second preferences were basic cable television followed by an iron and ironing board in the room. That surprised me as I expected people to care more about appearances when traveling on business. The iron and ironing board ranked sixth for business travelers.
What else, according to LH, was in the top five: in-room coffee maker; premium TV channels; and pay-per-view TV. The line up for leisure travelers was completed by: premium TV channels; in-room coffee maker; and pay-per-view TV. Pay-per-view was a distant fifth according to their findings. Surprisingly, according to Wolff, dataports in the telephones were not that highly rated by either group though, obviously, business travelers rated them higher than leisure travelers.
USA Today was the "overwhelming newspaper of choice" by travelers. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was second. In our hotels I've found that the demand for the WSJ is a function of average daily rate and level of service. As one might expect, higher level hotels typically attract business travelers who are more in need of the information in the WSJ unless the leisure market for a particular hotel is comprised of retirees who follow the market. Hotel chains are responding to this same type of information by making, and rightfully so, USA Today a standard amenity requirement.
How can you use this information? Act on it! If you don't have these amenities in your hotel get them now. Some are obviously good for all markets. In-room coffee makers is an example of this. The cost is so minimal but the guests appreciate them and they make a great additional feature to compete with both for new guests and return guests. Newspapers can easily be delivered to the door. In small hotels with limited staff the night auditor can do it. If USA Today is not available early enough in your area use the local paper or one from a nearby metropolitan area. Who knows it may be the home paper for a lot of your guests.
If your cash is limited, only put the iron and ironing board in the rooms you get the highest rate for. This is also true of the in-room coffee maker, though I encourage you to reach down into your pocket and get them for all rooms. If those "upgraded" rooms are about to sit empty, upgrade people to them. It will help repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising.
I mentioned earlier that these amenities are helpful in competing for new guests. Your reaction may have been to think of noting these and other amenities in advertising and that would be very important. Possibly a more important thing to do is mention them before quoting a room rate. Tell people what your price includes before quoting the price. Say something like, "Our price for that room includes a USA Today delivered to your door early in the morning, an in - room coffee maker with free coffee for you to brew fresh when you get up, and premium cable channels like CNN, ESPN and HBO. All that for only ..." and quote the room rate unapologetically. If you offer a free continental breakfast describe it in glowing but honest terms.
Sell your rooms by offering value before you offer discounts. Remember Average Daily Rate is profit.
In case you missed the Sunday May 10th Star Tribune Travel Section they had a little sidebar from Newsday quoting American Express Travel Trends Monitor. Here are some quotes on how vacationers choose their lodging: "Almost half (49%) look for a courteous staff, followed by cable TV (36%, fast check-in/checkout (33%), complimentary breakfast (32%), knowledgeable staff (18%)..." Remember the telephone inquiry and reservations call is that potential guest's only opportunity to evaluate how courteous and knowledgeable the staff is. Focus on the quality of telephone service while small hotels must keep in mind not taking attention away from people standing right there at the reception desk.
The same sidebar noted that only two percent of dissatisfied guests fill out the comment card placed in their room. Four percent never go back and 14% do nothing. That data sure doesn't give one confidence that we are totally aware of our guest's problems!
Human nature about complaining in hotels probably hasn't changed much over the years but I'm old enough to remember when direct dial in-room phones, color televisions were sought after amenities and USA Today, guest room voice mail and pay-per-view movies hadn't even been thought of.
SOURCE:http://www.hotel-online.com/Neo/Trends/Payne/Articles/GuestRoomWants.html
Recently (April 1998) Lodging Hospitality (LH) Associate Editor Carlo Wolff wrote an excellent short column on this subject. Apparently Lodging Hospitality which is part of Penton Publishing did a survey among travelers "culled from their Penton Executive Network, which includes readers of about three dozen business publications."
According to LH's findings business travelers favorite amenity was a newspaper at the door followed by basic cable television. Leisure travelers' first and second preferences were basic cable television followed by an iron and ironing board in the room. That surprised me as I expected people to care more about appearances when traveling on business. The iron and ironing board ranked sixth for business travelers.
What else, according to LH, was in the top five: in-room coffee maker; premium TV channels; and pay-per-view TV. The line up for leisure travelers was completed by: premium TV channels; in-room coffee maker; and pay-per-view TV. Pay-per-view was a distant fifth according to their findings. Surprisingly, according to Wolff, dataports in the telephones were not that highly rated by either group though, obviously, business travelers rated them higher than leisure travelers.
USA Today was the "overwhelming newspaper of choice" by travelers. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was second. In our hotels I've found that the demand for the WSJ is a function of average daily rate and level of service. As one might expect, higher level hotels typically attract business travelers who are more in need of the information in the WSJ unless the leisure market for a particular hotel is comprised of retirees who follow the market. Hotel chains are responding to this same type of information by making, and rightfully so, USA Today a standard amenity requirement.
How can you use this information? Act on it! If you don't have these amenities in your hotel get them now. Some are obviously good for all markets. In-room coffee makers is an example of this. The cost is so minimal but the guests appreciate them and they make a great additional feature to compete with both for new guests and return guests. Newspapers can easily be delivered to the door. In small hotels with limited staff the night auditor can do it. If USA Today is not available early enough in your area use the local paper or one from a nearby metropolitan area. Who knows it may be the home paper for a lot of your guests.
If your cash is limited, only put the iron and ironing board in the rooms you get the highest rate for. This is also true of the in-room coffee maker, though I encourage you to reach down into your pocket and get them for all rooms. If those "upgraded" rooms are about to sit empty, upgrade people to them. It will help repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising.
I mentioned earlier that these amenities are helpful in competing for new guests. Your reaction may have been to think of noting these and other amenities in advertising and that would be very important. Possibly a more important thing to do is mention them before quoting a room rate. Tell people what your price includes before quoting the price. Say something like, "Our price for that room includes a USA Today delivered to your door early in the morning, an in - room coffee maker with free coffee for you to brew fresh when you get up, and premium cable channels like CNN, ESPN and HBO. All that for only ..." and quote the room rate unapologetically. If you offer a free continental breakfast describe it in glowing but honest terms.
Sell your rooms by offering value before you offer discounts. Remember Average Daily Rate is profit.
In case you missed the Sunday May 10th Star Tribune Travel Section they had a little sidebar from Newsday quoting American Express Travel Trends Monitor. Here are some quotes on how vacationers choose their lodging: "Almost half (49%) look for a courteous staff, followed by cable TV (36%, fast check-in/checkout (33%), complimentary breakfast (32%), knowledgeable staff (18%)..." Remember the telephone inquiry and reservations call is that potential guest's only opportunity to evaluate how courteous and knowledgeable the staff is. Focus on the quality of telephone service while small hotels must keep in mind not taking attention away from people standing right there at the reception desk.
The same sidebar noted that only two percent of dissatisfied guests fill out the comment card placed in their room. Four percent never go back and 14% do nothing. That data sure doesn't give one confidence that we are totally aware of our guest's problems!
Human nature about complaining in hotels probably hasn't changed much over the years but I'm old enough to remember when direct dial in-room phones, color televisions were sought after amenities and USA Today, guest room voice mail and pay-per-view movies hadn't even been thought of.
SOURCE:http://www.hotel-online.com/Neo/Trends/Payne/Articles/GuestRoomWants.html
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