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No need to say it: as a host, your biggest fear is to see a bad review appearing on your profile. And yet, this catastrophe can happen every single day. As hospitality experts, handling guest relations is one area we specialise in! But make no mistake: a guest complaint isn’t the enemy, it is actually the biggest opportunity to build on the customer experience.
See the glass half full: a guest complaint is our most valuable source of information to get to know guests. This unsolicited feedback doesn’t require a deep search: it is delivered right to our doorstep! Seizing this opportunity allows us to have a full understanding of their needs, of mistakes that have been made and areas of improvements to grow your reputation as a host!
Resolving an issue is one of the most reliable ways to improve retention rates. It is a key opportunity to strengthen relationships with guests. An unhappy guest can become more loyal if he feels that we are willing to provide a service that goes above and beyond the average. Taking a complaint seriously and handling it from beginning to end often results in increasing the guests satisfaction and improving your reputation as a host!
A complaint doesn’t always mean a trouble, it is a way for guests to let us know that they experienced a problem. The important thing is to not become defensive! This is the crucial point when a guests complaint isn’t well-received. Most of the time, customers don’t like to complain and feel uncomfortable when doing it. Ignoring the issue or reacting badly to it leads undoubtedly grows frustration and worsens a situation that could have been resolved easily just by paying true attention.
Understanding the customer perspective means more than just resolving an issue. It means establishing a consistent flow of communication with them, starting with enabling them to contact you. Even though it feels every interaction is turning digital nowadays, human interaction still results in the highest satisfaction factor in customer service.
Efficient and responsive guest support is essential so that guests can feel someone is actually here to listen! This is why we insist on being present at every guest touchpoint, starting with our Front Desk where guest can interact with our teams at the very beginning of their stay. Remaining available at any time with a dedicated guest relations team is another key asset in following and improving the guests’ journey.
The very mission of our guest relations team is to find out what guests want, provide a solution if they encounter a problem and keep in touch with them to check that all is well. The idea is to learn from a complaint and see it as a useful experience to personalise the service further in the future.
