Hotel guest service

The appropriate provision of services at a hotel makes it possible to improve guests’ opinion and influence their loyalty to the accommodation. It means that a number of return visits will increase and a hotel will have a better profit.

Do you know how to get the best results in servicing clients, to use the most effective methods and what technologies to apply?

Consistency of guest services in a hotel

A quality guest service in a hotel is provided in accordance with the servicing standards. IH&RA, UNWTO, ICCA, UFTAA/FUAAV, PATA have developed general requirements and criteria for providing services at a hotel. To implement the standards, a hotel has to have clear technology of servicing guests and provide the staff with detailed step-by-step instructions. Thus, it is important not only to draw up the papers, but to monitor the work of the staff. All methods of providing services have to be tested in practice and to be corrected if it is necessary.

The concept ”hotel services” includes full range of services, main and extra, such as check-in, book a hotel room online and pay for it in advance, or other services such as getting slippers, having breakfast in a room and calling a taxi. This implies a certain course of actions according to the rules.

Read more about this in our article Types of hotel services

The service procedure begins with check-in and finishes with check-out, so it is a cycle of consistent, repetitive actions. It is also important to take into account specific, extra services for the clients before their arrival at a hotel.

This universal set of services the clients have to be provided with, at any time. Every service is followed by a number of requirements and rules that must be carried out in order to increase client loyalty and therefore, it may result in higher profits.

The list of services may vary, but the basic steps are always taken in a certain order.

In general, the provision of services at a hotel has four stages:

1. The time before arriving at a hotel (booking a hotel room, prepayment).
2. Arrival at a hotel, registration and check in of a new client to a room.
3. Providing a client with the services during staying at a hotel.
4. Check out, including final payment.

Detailed information on booking, registration, checking-in and checking-out will be reviewed later in special articles, wait for the announcement.

If necessary, the last preparations are made before the arrival of a guest: cleaning a hotel room, advance booking of extra services from external partners, meeting a guest at the airport or railway station.

When a guest arrives at a hotel, a new stage of registration and check-in begins. At this particular time, a client gets the most important impression of a hotel, so this process should be quick, convenient and pleasant. Politeness, benevolent treatment, attention to clients needs and immediate acceding to the request are the basic components of positive impression.

Staying at a hotel is the longest and the most important stage, it will be discussed below.

The last stages are final payment for staying at a hotel, extra services and check out. If it is needed the guests can be taken to the airport or railway station.

Guest service while staying at a hotel

Hotel accommodation is the main service provided by a hotel. If a guest stays at a hotel more than one day, or in some cases, a hotel room has to be cleaned not only after guest check out of the room. Daily apartment service includes bed linen and towels change or additional change of bed clothes, replenishment of consumer items (in particular hygiene items). You should follow the rules of cleaning not to disturb the guests:

• to perform cleaning in a hotel room you should obtain guest approval or do it when they are absent;
• room attendants have to clean a place quickly and not to be distracted by personal stuff;
• do not touch clients’ personal things or read their notes;
• cleaning schedule for premises has to be set up in accordance with the time of the day when there are fewer guests at a hotel;
• do not leave equipment and cleaning tools in places for public use, put them in a storage space;

It is better to clean up the suites, starting with:

• a bedroom
• a living-room
• a dining room
• a study
• a hall
• a bathroom.

Every room should be cleaned clockwise or counter clockwise to achieve the best result. The working capacity of the light switches, sockets, telephones, TV sets, refrigerators and other equipment has to be checked. If malfunction is detected, the appropriate service has to be informed. Sometimes guests damage the appliances, so the hotel manager has to solve the problem together with them.

Besides providing the main services, room and board, clients are offered extra services, the variety of them depends on the category and hotel specialty. To increase clients’ loyalty special offers, discounts or additional programs are developed for regular customers.

Special article will discuss the details of a client loyalty program later, wait for announcement.

Clients have to be satisfied with personal services while their staying in a hotel. These services should be provided not only according to client’s demand (a guest asks about it), but a hotel suggests extra services and clients choose what they like to have. According to the world standards, servicing guests at a hotel means to anticipate every desire of a client but not only to satisfy the demands. Be aware, the services do not have to be imposed!

The list of available services, their prices, working hours and another useful information must be put into the client’s folder or be placed in the lobby and on every floor in a hotel.

We will tell the details about hotel information folder and give a sample of it in a separate article later, wait for announcement.

Enterprises that provide services (repair, laundry, hairdresser, chemist’s) should occupy offices on the ground floor in one building to be convenient to use. Hotel clients have to get an opportunity to order the most popular services from their room. Every hotel room must be equipped with the telephone and also have special signs to be put on a door that say for example: clean the room, need a shoeshine, wake at a certain time, do not disturb.

Some of the most popular services are often included into the room rates (breakfast, for example), a client can get the others for free or has to pay for them.

All the services should be provided on time (it depends on the type of service, if it is given immediately, at a certain time or round the clock after the order). One of the most important things that influences the client’s respect to a hotel is the order fulfilment in time. So, if extra services are provided at a hotel, it is of great importance to develop special arrangements for each service.

To get a better quality of services and have minimal expenditure, you should think about automation of a routine work. Despite the extra expenses and the necessity to train the staff OtelMS hotel management system pays for itself in several months.

To learn more about hotel automation and the problems it can solve

Certain categories of customers: features of serving

VIP client service at a hotel

Though a hotel does not change its standards for different categories of clients, VIP client service demands particular attention. Very Important Persons are political leaders, businessmen, famous artists or other powerful people. Loyal clients who bring considerable income to a hotel can join the VIP category over time. The common things for this category of clients are the requirements to have high quality services, more expensive extra services and high capacity to pay.

Client service of VIP guests at a hotel of higher class obeys specially developed procedure. All the demands of the guests have to be fully realized while their staying at a hotel. Not only services but the slightest things should be in compliance with a high international standard. In spite of having difficulties in the work with VIP clients, there is a financial and branding benefit. They generate income and promote positive perception of a hotel. There is the individual approach to every VIP client, as a result the loyalty of a guest increases. It is important to save necessary information about client’s personal preferences, tastes, habits and extra services that are often ordered. Sometimes exceptions to the rules should be provided (for instance, getting a service without prepayment, special requests or wishes that are not included into the list of standard services). Experienced managers, who have been specially trained, are sent to communicate with VIP clients. The staff of a hotel has to behave professionally, emphasizing the guest’s status.

Of course, not every hotel, in a process of its development, can be used by the category of VIP clients. However, they have to be ready for servicing VIP guests because the first important client can spoil the reputation of a hotel or become its loyal client in future.

Services for foreign guests at a hotel

Hotels do not usually take into account the specifics of foreign guests stay there. Knowledge of foreign languages is not the only problem (to have a good command of English is mandatory for hotel managers nowadays). Besides languages, foreign guests have their cultural characteristics, eating habits and special requirements for a hotel room.

If a hotel welcomes foreign guests, special arrangements should be done. Text-based materials, signs, menu, signage or signboards have to be translated into as many languages as possible. A manager, who is fluent in a foreign language, has to serve foreign guests and communicate in their native language.

When a client books a hotel room in advance, it can’t hurt to find out about the country the guest comes from, the cultural difference, modes of communication and accommodation equipment.

Quality servicing of corporate clients at a hotel

Travelling alone or in a group, corporate clients try to order a full range of available services. if a VIP client demands high quality service, a corporative client orders the services that are seldom bought, for example, a conference hall, an individual waiter to service business negotiations or to choose optimal route, while travelling around the city.

A company often signs mutually beneficial contract with a hotel for the accommodation of the personnel and gets a discount according to the corporative tariff and guarantees to support the occupancy of hotel rooms for a definite period of time. The category of these clients make major reservations not only for accommodation but also for corporate functions (seminars, conferences, trainings). The guests, invited to take part in these activities, (there can be about a hundred of them) would become potential clients of a hotel if the service was good.

Corporate clients use different ways of booking and payment for the services compared to ordinary clients, so they should be offered cashless payments or even to place an order with deferred payment.

Though, these clients are solvent, but they are glad to have the most profitable discounts because they are counting their money.

Corporative clients cannot apply a standard cancellation policy, they need special annulment, it means to call off the booking without penalty even on the day of arrival.

Improve the quality of services

Automation of a hotel is direct investment into business. Such investment would pay off in the form of improved services that attract more new clients to a hotel and create positive opinion.

Don’t forget that any hotel management system should be upgraded periodically. Time is moving forward, so the services, which have been provided before, might be disconcerting for clients.

Next article will be about detailed information on the improvement of hotel services, wait for announcement.

Next week there will be useful information on the types of services provided by a hotel.