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Whether you run a hotel, a BnB or a pub with a room, it's important to remember the guest experience starts during the booking process. We surveyed more than 550 guests to find out what they look for when booking accommodation, to help operators focus their efforts on what can sway a guest to book a stay.
Stay on top of reviews
Our research revealed that 82% of guests find social media and other recommendations important or very important when deciding where to book. For business stays this was also a key factor, with 78% rating recommendations highly.
Managing social media pages and review sites effectively is essential in this digital age. Responding to guest reviews and comments on sites such as TripAdvisor will not only create the impression of a warm, caring team that values the guest experience, it allows you to act quickly on any pain points, improve your offering and smooth over any issues with guests.
With such a high number of guests revealing they turn to recommendations before booking a venue, creating a personalised, high quality experience for each and every guest is essential to securing those all-important five star recommendations.
The personal touch
When we asked our guests to compare personal touches with features such as automated check-in and in-room tech, personal touches came out on top. The survey revealed 63% of guests find personal touches important or very important in a stay while approximately half of respondents said automated check-in (47%) and technology in the room (51%) is not important at all.
It appears that in order to perfect that high quality guest experience, a warm welcome with the human touch at check-in is preferable to using technology. However, as our research found that automated check-in is important to 15% of guests, operators might want to incorporate strategies to streamline the check-in process. For example, collecting personal details just the once - at the time of booking - rather than again on arrival.
Among guests who chose to stay in pubs with rooms rather than hotels, 32% rated personal touches as being important or very important while 11% of those who stayed in Airbnbs stated the same.
Check your connection
Unsurprisingly, we also found that the majority of guests (76%) stated WiFi was important or very important when choosing accommodation with the figure rising to 90% among business stays. When it comes to reviewing your broadband speed or network provider to ensure you have a robust connection, there's no time like the present.
