Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

8 Hotel Service Strategies for Earning 5-star Reviews

GUIDE

Royal Cliff Beach Hotel, Thailand

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

Introduction

Traveler reviews have had a disruptive effect on

traditional rating systems, making a well-run budget

hotel as likely to receive a five-star rating as an ultra-

luxury hotel. Whether it’s circles on TripAdvisor, happy

faces on Travelocity or stars on Google, Expedia, Yelp

and Facebook, traveler ratings today are shaped less by

luxury features than by how well a business meets

expectations.

While researching the ReviewPro webinar, Better Hotel

Reviews with Great Service, we asked representatives

from a range of top-rated hotels, from economy to

luxury, to share their strategies for earning five-star

reviews.

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Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

#1 Make Service the No. 1 Priority

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Travelers may choose a hotel for the first time based on

price, location or brand, but it’s the service that gets them

writing reviews and brings them back.

“At the end of the day, the service sets hotels apart”, said

Vitanart Vathanakul, Executive Director of Thailand’s luxury

brand Royal Cliff Hotel Group. “Guests return because they

want the waiter who can remember their preferences, the

same concierge to help recommend local attractions and

the same manager to welcome them back. For us, style,

design and technology are secondary in making a guest

repeat their stay and influencing them to write a review.”

Miguel Porras, Manager of Artrip Hotel in Madrid, would

agree. His 17-room, limited-service property is classified by

OTAs as a two-star yet has an overall traveler rating of 4.5

stars. In fact, the hotel ranks No. 1 of 456 hotels in Madrid

on TripAdvisor, outranking the city’s most luxurious hotels.

Porras estimates that 80% of this success can be attributed

to service.

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

#2 Provide Service Worth Remarking About

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To earn five-star reviews, hotels must start with the

essentials of quality, value and convenience and then go

beyond to provide “remarkable service”—service so

unexpected, special and memorable guests feel

compelled to remark about it in a review.

During the webinar, Darren Ross, COO of Magic Castle

Hotel and CEO of Service Freak Hospitality, gave us insight

into how his 40-room, three-star-category hotel holds

the No. 1 position of 347 hotels in Los Angeles on

TripAdvisor. “Our guests generally comment that while the

facility isn’t fancy, the service is extraordinary”, he said.

“And because people want to talk about extraordinary

experiences, good or bad, we get a high volume of

reviews.”

Remarkable service means different things to different

travelers, so being intuitive is a must. Says Vathanaluk of

Royal Cliff Hotels, “All of this needs to be done in an

unobtrusive manner as too much will lead to a negative

review.”

“Any hotel staff member can hand a guest a set of keys efficiently at check in. A great hotelier, however, can take that mundane experience and transform into a joyful and welcoming human connection that sets the tone for a great stay.“

Adele GutmanVP Sales, Marketing & RevenueLibrary Hotel Collection

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

#3 Focus on What You Can Control

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“We can’t control most of the limitations of our

building”, said Ross of Magic Castle Hotel. “We will

always be a converted apartment building built in

1957. We will never have an elevator, restaurant or

bar. What is within our control is how we make our

guests feel. We see ourselves as a customer service

company first, that functions as a hotel operator. We

are obsessed with service.”

• We know who we are and we’re always true to brand

• We focus on what we can control: service

• We provide service so extraordinary guests feel compelled to tell others

• Our managers lead by example

• We provide the basics, then blow guests away with extraordinary service”

Magic Castle Hotel’s Service Culture

“

Darren RossCOOMagic Castle Hotel

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

#4 Hire Employees Who are Passionate About Service

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“Starting with the interview process, we make our

expectations known to staff,” said Ross. “On their first

day, they understand that they need to perform.”

Adele Gutman, Vice President of Sales, Marketing &

Revenue at Library Hotel Collection, whose four

upscale boutique properties dominate the charts on

TripAdvisor in New York, would agree. Library Hotel

Collection is very careful about who they hire, she

told us. “We hire people who are naturally happy, kind,

and have a desire to please. When you have a person

like that, it is easy to coach them to be wonderful to

guests.”

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Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices7

#5 Train, Empower and Recognize Staff (I)

“Staff need someone to show them exactly what great

service looks like, feels like and sounds like”, said

Gutman of Library Hotel Collection. “Our staff feel so

comfortable and confident because they know exactly

what we expect from them. They can make decisions

on the spot without fear they may get in trouble.”

In Southern California, boutique collection Ayres Hotels

ranks No. 1 on TripAdvisor in an incredible 14 of the 16

regions in which they operate. Matt Hildebrant,

corporate director of revenue and marketing, told me

that his company’s training programs, performance

measurement, incentives and celebrations of success

all contribute to this success.

• Values: care, teamwork, results

• Hire the right people, train

• Lead from top down, including owners

• Measure, share feedback

• Incentivize, recognize, celebrate”

“Matt HildebrantCorporate Director -Revenue & MarketingAyres Hotels

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices8

#5 Train, Empower and Recognize Staff (II)

Royal Cliff Hotels brings in experts to give training

seminars. “All of our employees are trained to go out of

their way to look after each guest and to take

ownership of problems”, said Vathanakul. “We delve

deep into every review and use them to guide our

training. Every time a compliment is made, we share it

with the whole team and reward the respective

employee. For complaints we identify the source of the

problem and as a team we come up with a solution.”

• We exist to make our guests happy

• Analyze every review

- Share feedback with whole team

- Highlight what makes it exceptional

• Reward for positive mentions

• Act on feedback

- Take care of guests

- Take ownership of problems

- Work as a team to resolve

• Train

- Hire experts to give seminars to staff

- Use reviews to guide training”

“

Vitanart VathanakulExecutive DirectorRoyal Cliff Hotels Group

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

#6 Lead by Example

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“Fantastic service starts from the top down”, said

Hildebrant of Ayres Hotels. “Our owners instill our core

values in the team and our general managers lead our

team members on a daily basis and set an excellent

example to follow. By working together, we’re able to

provide excellent service and take care of our guests.”

Said Ross of Magic Castle Hotel, “We really live the

culture here—all of us. You can find me most mornings

talking with guests in the courtyard during breakfast

hours, helping plan their day, clearing dishes, and

being involved with the details of the morning. Our

other managers do the same thing.”

Happy Guests.Profitable Hotels.

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Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices10

#7 Listen Carefully, Respond Creatively

“We create unique programs that are cost effective,

but have a high impact on guests”, said Ross. “For

example, whenever we see people out by the pool, a

front desk agent puts on white gloves and serves

complimentary popsicles. Kids love it, parents love it.

Low cost, high impact.” A guiding philosophy is to

“listen carefully, respond creatively”, he said.

“We constantly monitor customer comments”, said

Vathanuluk of Royal Cliff Hotels. “This exercise has

revealed so many useful and interesting insights. It has

uncovered numerous hidden issues and allowed us to

identify the root causes of the problem. We alert

senior managers and the concerned department

immediately. Every guest comment, tweet and photo

gets a reply from us within 24 hours.”

Low cost, high impact services at Magic Castle Hotel

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

#8 Extend Remarkable Service to Social Media (I)

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During the webinar, Piper Stevens, VP of Loyalty &

Marketing at Loews Hotels & Resorts, which operates

upscale hotels in 16 destinations in the U.S. and Canada,

discussed her company’s initiatives to harness social

media as a service channel.

Loews streamlined Twitter activity from one feed per

property to one centralized brand feed. “We went the

opposite way of most hotel brands”, said Stevens.

“Having one Twitter stream allows for little confusion on

the guest front – there is only one place to go to inquire,

comment or complain. So from a monitoring standpoint,

we are more confident that nothing will slip through the

cracks”.

Loews also provides real-time service on social

networks. “Whether a guest is inquiring about luggage

storage or wants details on a package, we monitor our

digital channels very regularly”, said Stevens. “We assign

point people at every hotel who will be responsive no

matter the time of day or day of the week. "The brand

also recently introduced “Social Reservations”, allowing

guests to book stays via Twitter utilizing the

#BookLoews hashtag.

Stay humble and focused

Lastly, we asked Ross of Magic Castle Hotel how he

keeps all the glowing guest feedback from going to his

head. “It’s important to stay humble and to focus on the

guest”, he said.

For more information, watch the webinar, Better Hotel

Reviews with Great Service.

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices12

#8 Extend Remarkable Service to Social Media (II)

Assess where guests and potential are spending time from a Social Media perspective during each stage of the travel continuum.”

Dreaming Researching Booking Traveling Sharing

“Piper StevensVP of Loyalty & MarketingLoews Hotels & Resorts

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices13

About Us

ReviewPro is the leading provider of Guest Intelligence

solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide.

The company’s comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions

includes Online Reputation Management (ORM) and Guest

Satisfaction Surveys (GSS), which enable clients to obtain a

deeper understanding of reputation performance as well as

operational/service strengths and weaknesses. We provide

actionable insight to increase guest satisfaction, rankings on

review sites/OTAs and ultimately revenue.

The company offers the industry-standard Global Review

IndexTM (GRI), an online reputation score, which is used by

thousands of hotels worldwide as a benchmark for reputation

management efforts, based on review data collected from

more than 175 online travel agencies (OTAs) and review sites in

more than 45 languages. More than 30,000 hotel brands

worldwide are currently using ReviewPro’s solutions.

Request a Free ReviewPro Demo now

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