Being the host to maybe thousands of guests a year can be rather intimidating, can’t it. But this is what thousands of hotel owners across the country have to do. Mastering it isn’t easy, and there will probably be more setbacks and complaints than with any other business you might think about setting up. Even if you’re in the hotel industry now, you might not have even perfected your hosting skills. There are always things that you could be improving, and the standards that customers expect will always be changing. But, that’s what makes the hotel industry so fun. It’s ever changing, and always demanding, keeping owners on their toes for pretty much the duration of owning the building. So, whether you’re just about to set up your own hotel or B&B, or if you already have one, here’s how you can perfect your hotel game.
Focus On The Finer Details
The finer details are what your customers will be focusing on the most, so you need to make sure you’ve got just as much of a keen eye for detail as they have. So, let’s start with the detail of decor. Just like in a home, decor should be a really big focus for you. The more modern and inviting it looks, the more credit you’re going to get. You need to remember that the quality of your hotel determines the star rating you’re going to get, and the star rating determines how much you’ll be able to charge and the clientele you’ll be bringing it. So, you need to make sure you’ve got high quality hospitality carpet, high quality linen and furniture for the rooms, and a team of staff who will complete high quality levels of cleaning for you. Cleaning is half the job of running a hotel. Whilst having guests brings in the income you need to survive, they can be a really messy bunch who leave everything to be cleaned by the hotel cleaners. You also need to focus on the finer detail of what colour schemes you’re going to use, what mattresses you’re going to use, and even what complimentary soaps and shampoos you’re going to leave. You must always leave complimentary items, it’s the main rule of running a hotel. If you want brownie points, make sure the items you give are always vegan. It can really offend those that are vegan if they know the products you’re supplying have been used on animals at some point!
Focus On Improvements
Maintenance and improvements should always be your top priority, especially maintenance. The amount of hotels that just leave things broke for weeks on end is ridiculous, especially as they still use the room for customers! So, it might be worth hiring a maintenance man, or even two depending on how big your hotel is. Have them rotate shifts to make sure the hotel is always in perfect condition, and that they’re on call to help with any customer complaints during the night. As for improvements, these can be found where your customers are commenting about your hotel. There are plenty of websites that they all flock to do so, and some of the improvements they could be suggesting might be so minor, yet can make such a difference to customer satisfaction.
Amenities
The more amenities you have, the more people you’re going to attract. Bigger hotels are full of different amenities such as a swimming pool, bar, spa etc. But we understand that going for something as big as a spa is a tad expensive. So, what you need to do is weigh out the costs and figure out whether it would be worth it if it brought in more customers. Sometimes the revenue in the long run is going to outweigh the initial costs. So, have a look at some of the amenities you could choose from, and work your way slowly through a list of ones that you can install. That way, if one installation of say a gym doesn’t pay off, you can hold off adding anything else until it does. Just always make sure what you’re adding is done to the highest standard, with top of the range facilities to attract customers prepared to pay higher.
Learn From The Best
Learning from the best is something you should always do, no matter what we’re talking about in life. But the hotel industry is full of some of the best to learn from. Think of some of the nicest hotels in the world (use Google if you’re struggling), and take little bits from the way they run their hotel, and implement it to your own. It could just be the way the handle their customer service, the extras that they offer, or the way that the management runs the hotel.
