Everything is becoming faster, more accessible, and more personalized. Hotels will need to adapt to satisfy today's travelers. This guide provides ways to surprise and delight your guests that generate glowing reviews.
How to create great hotel experiences for today’s travelers
1. What is the hotel guest experience?
Hotel guest experience describes the touchpoints and emotions a guest encounters when interacting with a hotel – beginning with the research and booking process and extending to and beyond check-out. A consistent guest experience influences a traveler’s overall perception of the hotel and the quality, value, and level of satisfaction they have with their stay. A positive guest experience can result in glowing reviews, return visits, and a brand reputation that contributes to ongoing growth.
Is hotel guest experience the same as hotel guest satisfaction?
Guest experience and guest satisfaction are related but distinct concepts. Guest experience describes the entirety of a guest’s interaction with a hotel, all the micro-moments that occur through human and digital channels, and the physical experience of being on-property.
Guest satisfaction is a point-in-time measurement that can capture how happy a traveler is with each micro-moment, as well as the entirety of their experience. Hotels who actively shape their guest experience and confirm satisfaction during a stay are more likely to meet and exceed guest expectations. The rewards include both a healthy business and the sheer pleasure of delighting guests.
Ideas to create a hotel experience that satisfies guests
The foundation of providing a great guest experience hasn’t changed — leave your guests feeling valued and delighted after every interaction. From pre-stay messages to room amenities, from staff interactions to the ease of booking – you need to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, technology continues to evolve and guest expectations rise, making hitting and exceeding goals for exceptional service an ongoing effort.
Focusing on great guest experiences supports yours and our shared ambition to delight guests across the entire traveler journey, strengthening our marketplace and driving success for you and our travelers. Every improvement helps increase your visibility and performance on our booking websites, giving you more opportunities to create connections with your target guests and foster loyalty.
This guide lays out the best practices to help you improve your guest experience and engagement before, during, and after a stay. Read on for suggestions and tips.
2. Principles to shape your guest experience
Guests are satisfied when their expectations are met and thrilled when you exceed them. Although this formula sounds easy, it can’t be left to chance. You should actively outline what your guests can expect and uncover opportunities to delight them — and then deliver at every turn.
We’ve outlined four key principles that will help you define a guest experience that stands out to guests and helps you grow your business.
Be consistent
You can create a positive overall guest experience by providing a consistent message and experience across every interaction with your business.
Don’t narrow your focus to the interactions that occur once a guest arrives —that’s actually mid-journey for them. Start with the expectations you set on your website and listings with travel booking websites and consider how travelers will experience your brand and level of service from the moment they book until they’re asked to leave a review.
Inconsistencies add friction to the experience and can result in disappointment. For example, if the booking is effortless but the check-in process is tiresome and slow – you’re delivering inconsistent experiences and seeding doubt in the mind of the guest about how much you value their stay. However, if booking and check-in are effortless, your staff is as warm and helpful as your pre-stay message, and the property and room amenities are exactly as expected – then you’re well on your way to delivering a great experience and earning a glowing review.
Be proactive
Our research reveals that 87% of guests would find it helpful to receive information from their hotel prior to check-in.
Proactive communication before and during a guest’s stay is a huge opportunity to influence how they perceive their experience and gives you the insight to delight them in simple, meaningful ways. From adjoining rooms for a family traveling to a baseball tournament to acknowledging a birthday get-away, doing all you can to create a seamless, personalized stay ensures you’re delivering a great guest experience.
Be responsive
The flip side of being proactive is being responsive to guest needs. This is never more important than when problems arise, as they inevitably will. How you acknowledge concerns and the speed at which you resolve them, will influence how guests feel about their overall experience. A quick response will reinforce that you value your guests and their experiences.
Don’t assume that you’ll know about every issue a guest has – no doubt you’ve been surprised by a negative review resulting from a situation you knew nothing about. Confirming guest satisfaction at key points in a stay will help you identify opportunities to go above and beyond and transform an okay stay into a great one.
Be authentic
Creating memorable, even transformative, experiences is why you work in hospitality, so let that passion shine through in every guest interaction. From warmly welcoming back repeat guests to providing insider tips on the best running paths, views, and things to do – you can make people feel special. Treating your guests as guests instead of temporary occupants of your rooms goes a long way toward differentiating your property and creating an experience people can’t wait to share.
3. Foster the human connection
Increasingly, hotels are adopting technology to better understand guests, personalize experiences, and be more responsive.
While these advances help create more seamless experiences, even with the most advanced, integrated, guest-centric technology in place, your staff remains your most valuable asset in creating an exceptional experience.
From welcoming guests to caring for your property – your team has a significant impact on how guests feel when they stay with you. Here are a few tips to ensure you’re maximizing your one-to-one interactions:
- Set expectations
- Encourage going beyond
- Create a safe environment for improvement
A knowledgeable, confident staff is the best way to ensure happy guests. Set clear expectations for a consistent experience and reinforce training with current examples of what responsiveness, quality experience, and problem resolution look like at your property. Ensure every member of your staff can interact knowledgeably with guests – offering recommendations and accurately providing directions, information on amenities, hours of service, and other basic information about your hotel.
The best moments to surprise and delight your guests typically can’t be planned for, so it’s important to empower your staff to seize the opportunity. This could mean giving front-line employees the freedom to invent ways of going the extra mile or the power to resolve complaints on the spot without calling a manager. Guests aren’t the only ones to benefit from this approach – knowing you trust their expertise and value their views will give your team the confidence to do their very best.
Use the feedback you receive from guests to demonstrate what a great guest experience feels like and explore how to better manage situations communicated in negative or mixed reviews. Publicly celebrate reviews praising individual staff members, handle negative feedback privately, and routinely look for ways to reinforce expectations and inspire your staff.
4. Design your strategy around the guest journey
It can be helpful to think about your guest experience strategy in three distinct phases – pre, during, and post-stay – just be sure to be consistent, proactive, responsive, and authentic in each.
Pre-stay: Set expectations, identify opportunities
When guest expectations are aligned with the level of service and amenities you provide, it’s much easier to provide a great guest experience. Begin at the beginning – when guests are shopping for a place to stay—and ensure you’re actively shaping expectations and delivering a consistent experience throughout the pre-stay period. Specifically consider the following:
- Your website and property listings
- Booking experience
- Pre-stay communication
The detail you provide about your property, rooms, services, and policies allow guests to assess whether staying with you will provide the experience they want. This is a pivotal moment for capturing a booking and securing a positive review.
Having the right, high-quality photos in your gallery is particularly important, as most guests will use images to evaluate and confirm their impression of your property.
Dive deeper: Get guidance on effective hotel photography and discover how to optimize your property listing to match guest search criteria with your property.
The speed and ease of booking a room will shape a traveler’s perception of the guest experience that awaits them. Travel transactions increasingly occur on smartphones or tablets, so having a mobile-friendly website and booking engine is essential to capturing direct business and letting guests know that they can expect modern tech amenities.
For online bookings, 57% of guests told us they value a site that provides the right price for the type of travel experience they want. Other important considerations include a site that is easy to navigate (49%), a quick booking process (45%), customer support (38%), a high number of listings (32%), and a variety of travel methods (27%).
The importance of this interaction extends to your indirect distribution channels, including the travel booking websites you work with, so evaluating the user-friendliness of shopping and booking on third-party sites is also worthwhile.
The moment you receive a booking, the guest experience begins. How quickly you acknowledge the booking, the warmth of your tone, and the generosity of the information you provide all shape a guest’s perception of their upcoming stay. Execute this stage of the journey well and you build goodwill prior to a guest’s arrival.
Taking time to collect information about why they’re traveling, when they’ll arrive, and whether they have any special requests will help you demonstrate that you know and value the guest and perhaps uncover an opportunity to exceed their expectations.
Dive deeper: Learn how one hotel engaged with guests to drive favorable reviews and repeat business.
During: Demonstrate you know and care
Once a guest arrives, the key is to demonstrate that you’ve thought about their needs, value their business, and care about their comfort and enjoyment. Creating consistency across interactions and aspects of their stay such as comfort, convenience, and cleanliness is critical.
- Check-in, check-out, and staff interactions
- Property and room amenities
- Delight and surprise
- Cleanliness
- Issue resolution
Check-in is another pivotal moment in the guest experience. A warm welcome, personalized if possible (e.g. happy anniversary!) and streamlined to quickly get keys into the guest’s hands (while leaving the door open for questions and conversation) is ideal.
The balance of efficiency and human interaction will vary by property. The goal is to define how you will be attentive to guest needs and ensure they feel known. Then educate your staff and deliver consistently across all interactions during a stay.
About 70% of guests told us they’re willing to pay extra for properties that have their favorite amenities and services. Hotel amenities guests would be willing to pay more for include spa treatments, an in-room jacuzzi, high-speed internet, upgraded room service, and a refrigerator.
The right amenities for your property, aside from being clean, well-kept, and safe, will often depend on the guests you want to attract. If families are a key audience, free breakfast and a pool might be essential. For business travelers, the fastest, most reliable Wi-Fi and discounted laundry service might set your property apart.
When it comes to amenities, two things are essential: setting accurate expectations for what will and won’t be available and delivering the basics extremely well.
Dive deeper: Learn more about hotel amenities and what today’s travelers want.
The opportunity to truly wow your guests with thoughtful touches exists primarily when they’re on-property. Using the information gathered prior to arrival and by paying attention during their stay, you’ll uncover ways to surprise and delight. From proactively sharing local knowledge to acknowledging special occasions with hand-written notes and in-room gifts, taking time to personalize a stay exceeds expectations and elevates the overall experience.
Dive deeper: Get more tips on delighting travelers.
Travelers repeatedly rank cleaning and sanitization measures as top considerations for a trip. Ensure that the cleaning practices you mention in your property listing are carried out and that guests are aware of how you’re keeping them and your staff safe.
Guest reviews for cleanliness will also carry important weight in your listing’s overall sort order and visibility across our websites. Review these cleaning guidelines and determine which should be implemented at your property.
How you respond to problems can make or break a guest experience. Expressing genuine concern and moving quickly to resolve an issue with a room or level of service can make up for a multitude of missteps. Going above and beyond when a guest has a personal problem – anything from a lost item to a family emergency – creates a deeper connection that is rewarding in its own right and fosters loyalty.
Post-stay: Reinforce experience, build reputation
A great experience doesn’t end when a traveler wheels their suitcase out your door. In fact, it may be the most critical moment to ensure your business benefits from the happiness and satisfaction you’ve created.
- Post-stay communications
- Engaging with reviews
Once a guest departs, send a note of thanks and invite them to review their experience. Go the extra step of explaining that reviews are a vital way for you to spread the word about your property and help you grow your business. Ask that if they enjoyed their stay to please provide a 5-star review.
This is an important step whether the guest booked directly or through an indirect channel. We will also solicit reviews on your behalf through our platform.
When you receive a review, whether the feedback is positive, mixed, or negative, it’s best to respond. This is part of managing your online reputation and helps you set the expectation of future guests.
Dive deeper: Discover best practices for responding to and maximizing your reviews.
5. Three tips for maintaining a great experience
With the foundation in place to deliver consistent experiences that make guests feel valued – it’s important that you constantly evolve your strategy to keep pace with changing expectations. Here are three quick ways to stay in tune with what guests want.
- Measure your progress
- Monitor your competitors
- Maintain a dialog with your staff
As part of our new search and sort factors, your guest experience factors play a significant role in where your property appears in search results. It’s essential to continually monitor your performance in this tool to ensure you’re reaching your target guests.
Your guest experience factors assess details such as your relocation and refund rates as well as your recent guest rating and review data to measure what guests love about your property. Use this tool to keep track of your progress and identify areas of strength and areas for improvement. The better the guest experience you provide, the better results you will have in our marketplace.
As part of their buying process, guests will evaluate several places to stay before making a booking. Those that consider staying with you will also likely vet properties similar to yours. Identifying your competitors and comparing their listings, rates, and reviews to yours will help you adjust your guest experience to stay competitive.
Our Partner Central tools such as Content Score, Rev+, and Guest Insights can do this competitive analysis for you.
As guest feedback comes in and reviews post, share and discuss them with your team. Invite a two-way conversation about evolving guest behaviors, spikes in new requests, and the trends you see in reviews and competitive offers. Encourage them to work together to find creative solutions that are proactive, responsive, and authentic to your values.
