The Guest and Customer Experience

Yesterday I provided better room descriptions to Days 1-4 after working on a list of what I expect regarding a hotel stay. I made a list of what issues I notice in hotels. I’m still struggling with how to exactly set up my star rating chart to use throughout the book. 

This morning my mind is back on the hotel experience. I watch shows on TV like “Hotel Impossible” and “Resort Rescue” and they are always stressing The Guest Experience and the more I think about this, the more important the topic and for me, and The Guest Experience should be with capital letters. 

How important it that for business? I would think very important in this competitive world. But I am wondering about staff mentality to this topic. It’s almost like for most of them, they are going to a job, and do not care about the guest experience. They may smile and say welcome, but there is no warmth to the greeting and can be a “here’s your key now go away” feeling. Often I felt I was interrupting them when a big TV was blaring away in the lobby and I’d walk away with the impression that the desk people would rather be watching or listening to TV than taking care of guests. (That noise also made it very distracting while checking in or out.) 

This attitude of creating a great guest experience extends to any kind of customer service. And as my thoughts about this now are growing, they actually tie into my initial ideas of making this book more interesting than the last. 

One goal was to pay more attention to those who help travelers enjoy their journeys. This includes staff at visitors’ centers, tour guides, wait staff at restaurants, clerks in shops and stores, and, of course, desk clerks and housekeepers in the restaurants. Those people can either create a great experience for the traveler or leave us feeling a bit disappointed.