Are you a hotel manager or employee? Here are a few tips on how to deal with guest complaints in your hotel.
Knowing how to effectively deal with guests’ complaints can have a direct impact on the success of your hotel. Guests’ reviews and recommendations or criticisms hold serious weight, especially on social media, so it’s in your best interest as a hotel manager to keep your guests happy.
Take good care of your guests when they are staying at your hotel, and address any complaints as they arise. If your guests have a good experience during their stay, they will be more inclined to share positive reviews with friends and online.
If a guest does come to reception or call the hotel management after their stay to complain, first and foremost, listen. Be patient and let them get it all out without interrupting or trying to counter each point they make. This will only make an already unhappy customer even more frustrated.
The best way to diffuse a tense situation and appease an irate customer is to keep your cool and be kind and courteous. A calm and polite demeanour will show the customer that you are making an effort to understand the situation and doing your best to try and resolve it.
As much as possible, you should try to take responsibility for a guest’s problem and find a way to resolve it. Customer complaints are opportunities to provide guests with great customer service, and often the way conflicts are resolved can leave a lasting impression—good or bad —for a guest and your hotel.
After a guest’s issue has been resolved, it is important that you follow up with them either by phone, email or mail to show that you still care about their experience with your hotel and to ensure they are happy with the outcome. This final positive interaction can make guests return to your hotel in the future, or never want to set foot there again.
