Setting expectations for happier guests
22 Comments
For some odd reason, I receive a few emails like this each week from unhappy travelers – guests at hotels that aren’t listening:
Dear Josiah, I am trying to find out how and where to lodge a complaint about X Resort in Nassau. After doing ALOT of homework we felt confident we had found the perfect destination. What a MISTAKE! We saved for months (it is VERY expensive) spending a fortune on what we were told was a first rate, luxury, top of the line hotel “experience.” We have looked at X Resort for years, and have seen tv ads and were convinced that these resorts were the best. It’s a mistake to think that just because a hotel charges exorbitant rates they must be great. I guess their good marketing image fooled us big time. Our experience there was a disaster. It is down right awful to feel so cheated and deceived. We believed what we were verbally told about this resort as well as all the amazing descriptions on the X web site.
In my experience, the #1 reason for guest dissatisfaction is failed expectations.
Or as Dave Power III of JD Power & Associates said:
Guest satisfaction = expectations – perception
The hotel hyped up their offering, embellished what they could provide, and then the guest felt lied to. Failed expectations lead to:
- complaining on Twitter
- one-star TripAdvisor reviews
- negative word-of-mouth offline
- poor online reputation
- ultimately, lower revenues
But wait: isn’t our job as marketers to put a positive spin on everything? If it worked in Mad Men‘s Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, it’s no longer that way.
In fact, the best way to build trust may be to share a negative up front.
Eric Karjaluoto writes in Speaking Human:
Most companies don’t like to admit their flaws, but [Canadian cough syrup] Buckley’s does. As a result, we take notice…Most of us are more willing to believe something is good once we’re aware of the bad parts.
This may require you to openly admit what don’t do, aren’t good at….Trust doesn’t happen when it’s built on partial truths. You’re going to have to embrace your flaws, mistakes, and shortcomings to build real trust.
Of course, there are some flaws that should be fixed, but…
Sharing a negative can qualify your audience
This is the power of negative reviews: it forces people to form an opinion about you. It helps them decide if you have the type of hotel they’re looking for.
Mihir is trying this now with his Mitaroy Goa Hotel:
But wait, how do I balance this with positive information?
Let your guests tell the story! When you build your marketing communications around what others have said about you, no one can accuse you of embellishment.
Include guest reviews in your marketing. Use the actual testimonial as the copy for your advertisement.
Practice the mindset of guestsourcing for generating website and promotional content.
It’s all about honesty
I could use buzzwords like “transparency” and “openness” to communicate this, but I think it comes back to a much simpler concept: honesty.
- Is your website honest?
- Are your photos honest?
- Are your sales people honest?
- Are your press releases honest?
- Is your advertising honest?
Are you setting the right expectations for your hotel?
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Great post and great response, Josiah ! I would like to think that I inspired this blog post in some way.
Whenever I tell people about my Goa Hotel, they always ask me questions like “Do you have a pool?” or “You only have 4 Suites ?”
I could lie and tell them that I offer all the facilities possible or I could be ashamed that my Goa Hotel only has 4 Suites instead of 400.
Instead, I chose to turn a perceived “negative” into a positive in each of my conversations, emphasizing all the advantages that a small and intimate hotel can offer my target customers – Couples Only !
Will this work ?
Only time will tell…
Cheers
Mihir
You did indeed inspire this – thanks! I’ll be interested to see how this works out for you.
Interesting article here Josiah.
This a complex issue, but most definitive a challenge the Hotel industry can face and meet head on.
You mention honesty. I am also a fan of consistency. You set your Window of opportunity to deliver excellent customer service every time. I thought Mahir had an awesome definition of his Window of opportunity.
Beside the factor you mention there is also outside factor that effect the customers expectations. Things like Reservation Call Center, Travel Agents, Publications, Word Of Mouth etc. I worked for a Hotel in Charleston, SC. And there are some beautiful beaches in Charleston, but they was no where in sight from our hotel. Had several guests coming down to front desk asking about the beach view. Sometimes it can be caused by basic misinterpretation. Of course then you have to be honest, not provide a lot of excuses. I apologized to the customer for being provided with incorrect information, and offered to check some of the beach Hotels for availability. And asked if I should hold the same room preference for them if it was available.
Interesting touch about negative promotion or give some of the limitations a higher focus.
Personally I am working on a twist focusing on ‘Be A Friendly Guest’..
Cheers.. Are
I’m a HUGE fan of consistency:
http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/consistency/
The big challenge is how to blend consistency with personality. How can we let our colleagues character show through and still be reliable? One answer might be to have systems and procedures, but allow character to be displayed in the way each step is carried out.
You also mentioned beaches – don’t you love when a hotel uses extensive beach photography, and they are far from a beach? That’s just asking for disappointed guests…
Are, Thanks so much for sharing your experience working with a hotel in Charleston, SC.
Can you tell me a little more about how these guest expectations came about ? Did the hotel website or booking staff mention that the rooms had beach views ? Did the Travel Agents mention it ?
And what about the photos of the hotel on the hotel website or other third party travel websites ?
It is really interesting to go on TripAdvisor and see how many hotels purposely hide details or give wrong information just to get a sale.
I am trying out a new (?) concept of honesty with my Goa Hotel and experiences such as yours really help.
And it is Mihir not Mahir by the way. Quite a few people get that wrong
Cheers
Mihir
When I see photography on a hotel website focus primarily on city landmarks, it makes me wonder how bad the hotel itself is
Hi Mihir.
Sorry about misspelling your name.
My experience was that in a lot of the cases it was based on misinterpretation. So it was a mix between what image the guest really was looking for, and what they had been provided with. And at the time our website had a lot of images of Charleston beaches. They changed this later on when there came new management team.
Like Josiah points out this could provide some confusion, and give the guest a wrong image of the hotel. I also had the opportunity to work as an Reservation Agent for Intercontinental Hotels Group, and then we was often depending on the information provided by hotel. To me as an European near by mall, near by beach, near by… means in many cases within walking distance. So sometimes there is cultural misunderstandings. And there are Hotels here that has their central reservations outsourced to other countries.
I also like honesty and tell it as it is. Then you have a greater opportunity of delivering consistent great service. And really like how you set it up this gives you a clear image of what you actually are delivering, and you are capable of deliver excellent service within your window of opportunity.
Sometimes you knew it was the guest that was trying pull a quick one.
Most travel agents did a really great job assisting guest with the proper information that would create the right image of our hotel. The biggest problem I experienced when was when overseas guest had booked some package deal that included nights at the hotel. Then a lot of info that would benefit the Hotel was left out. And this could create some challenges especially during peak season.
Channels like TripAdvisor is challenge for the Hotels. One thing is that proper information is left out for the quest to make qualified decision, but the biggest problems with these channels is actually the feedback system there. Feedback there can be given by a disgruntled employee, or some in the management team make Hotel look better. Often you see that negative feedback weighs higher then positive feedback.
I am all in for feedback either positive or negative, but the feedback on these channels you often don’t have an opportunity to do the proper follow up with. So for my purpose I focus on feedback, but also come with creative suggestions for the Hotel when needed.
And I agree with Josiah that one of the challenges with consistency is personality. I had one of my housekeepers she just had a tremendous personality and she was really great with our guests. And I am all in for cross-training the personnel. So I thought she would be great for doing some days at front desk. And she was very enthusiastic about it. But she would not handle confrontation, we did intense training and I tried some OJT with her. I discovered she was just very happy as housekeeper, and this was where her personality really shined.
One thing I have said in other forum is that I would like to see more of in Hospitality Schools and on internal Hotel training is to train people on story telling and how to become better listeners.
Finding out what makes your employees most happy and shine like a star is a challenge, but I see it as a positive challenge.
Cheers.. Are
Honesty is a simple concept but it’s a big issue because consumers cannot even rely on photos as photos also are sometimes misleading.
Photos can be very misleading. That’s why I love the reviews produced by Oyster.com – they call out a lot of dishonest photography.
Hi Josiah,
actually I agree that on your website you have to be honest:
- Show real view from the windows of your hotel
- Show real photos and videos of the hotel
- Write the right information about everything, from breakfast to the pool, from sea view to furniture.. do not exaggerate with bold adjectives like “faboulous”, “wonderful”, etc, etc, unless the things you descriube are actually amazing. Photos will tell the story if there is one!
But I don’t think you should show your negative sides (and negative sides in most cases are subjective in my opinion): you have just to stress your USP, your unique selling proposition.
Obviously the Charlestone Hotel should write on the website the view from the bedrooms is on the nice landscape around and not a seaview… but maybe it would better take advantage of its main features (the spa, the pool, the atmosphere, etc.) and underline them.
If you want your customers remember your hotel for a particular feature, all your website have to talk about it!
At last, try and describe honestly all the features of your hotel anticipating all your guests possible questions and doubts, so they’ll find what they expect for!
A hotel’s USP is very important, and probably should be the focus in your communication.
Obviously you don’t want to highlight a true negative feature (that everyone would hate) until it’s fixed.
But I see value in disclosing a minor drawback if it helps qualify your audience and set the right expectations.
Margherita,
I think the key here is to not stop after showing a perceived negative attribute (e.g. no beach view from Charleston Hotel).
The key is to take a negative attribute and then quickly turn it around into a positive.
I used this with my Mitaroy Goa Hotel to good effect, turning a perceived negative (only 4 Suites) into a positive (small and intimate atmosphere).
As Josiah rightly says, Most of us are more willing to believe something is good once we’re aware of the bad parts.
Cheers
Mihir
“Most of us are more willing to believe something is good once we’re aware of the bad parts.”
I think that’s very true….thanks again for recommending Speak Human!
Josiah, I’m glad you enjoyed Speak Human.
You are doing a great job of Speaking Human yourself by the way
Did you buy the book or read it for free on http://www.speakhuman.com ?
Cheers
Mihir
I bought the book – I like my paper copies
It’s pretty long actually….I’m only part way through.
Hahahahaha I thought you would have read it on your brand new iPad ! When are you going to find an actual use for it ?
But on a more serious note, I love the idea of reading a book (or parts of a book) for free on the internet.
Speak Human has its own designated website with enough chapters to SPARK INTEREST as well as REDUCE THE RISK that you won’t like the book.
I think it’s a great module.
Have you thought of replicating it for your blog / Insider’s Circle ?
And more importantly, how can we use this concept for the hotel industry…
Hmmmm, now theres a great blog idea…
Cheers
Mihir
Thanks for the advices… I’m a copywriter so I’m always searching for new ways to show the best features of the hotel without creating wrong expectations.
I’ll definitely try this: “The key is to take a negative attribute and then quickly turn it around into a positive” and see what happens!
cheers, marghe
I would really appreciate it if you could share your experience with us, Marghe.
Cheers
Mihir
Thanks for such a good post…. it was really good advice from everyone. This post is beneficial for everybody!
Hi Are
Thanks for sharing your insights with us. As Villa Begur says, I am sure it will be beneficial for all of us.
I think it is Josiah’s aim to develop Hotel Marketing Strategies into more of a forum than a one way blog and slowly, it is getting there.
Cheers
Mihir
This is a very informative article. I am glad to have discovered your blog. I will definitely promote this blog among my circle of friends.
Great article and the blog is very imformative, i hope to see more blogs like this in the very new future!