Bring Guests Back Again, and Again with a Great Brand

As a boutique or independently owned hotel manager or owner, you want to use your brand strategy to build loyal, returning guests. Getting guests in the hotel and servicing their stay for the first time is just part of the battle. Another major part of your brand strategy should be to get guests excited about the experience they had at your hotel, so they want to come back again and again. This article is all about ways you can enhance the hotel experience and use brand strategy to build guest loyalty.

There are 9 recommendations which can enhance the guest experience at your boutique hotel. These brand recommendations are intentionally built around people and culture.

Often times when hoteliers think of elegance, they think of the cost. Just the fact that your hotel is independently owned, and/or a boutique destination already sets the tone for an elegant guest experience. An elegant guest experience is an experience where your brand strategy comes to the surface. The guest has an experience which is pleasing, graceful, stylish, and most importantly consistent. Elegance is perceived differently by nearly every person; however, most often elegance is referred to with only two words, unique and simple. Invest in your brand so the guest experience is unique and simple. Don’t over complicate the experience.

Your brand represents your hotel’s culture. As such, the customer experience and service should be a significant part of the strategy. Independently owned hotels overlook the concierge service offering to guests far too often. However, the ones which get concierge service right, stand out and create loyal guests. Good concierge services help guests have an amazing experience outside of your hotel. Concierge services should recommend, arrange, and reserve services for guests from your hotel partners who also represent your brand culture. By doing so, the experience is carried into the local community and outside of your hotel. You’ll find that guests will seek out your fun spot when they come back to town. This is a strong indicator of brand loyalty.

People should be central to your brand strategy. Employees are people and should be empowered to make decisions as such, even though there could be an error. When employees are empowered to service guests, the guest experience benefits every time. While errors are possible, rewarding your employees when the right behavior is caught is ideal over calling out the things they did wrong. As a hotelier, this will build up a culture of belonging. You want your employees to feel like they belong with your brand story.

Guest loyalty should be recognized and rewarded. One example of how boutique hotels can deliver this experience is to really know their guests. Welcome back Mr. & Mrs. so and so, are you back in town to visit your folks? How are they doing? It is important that your staff is genuine and not reading a computer screen. Hotel customer relationship management tools can help track this type of information. But it is up to your staff to know who is showing up each day. This example is a reward doesn’t cost much. People love to be remembered and recognized much more than just getting some points or a free bottle of water.

A personalized marketing strategy goes along with rewarding guests. Knowing your guests makes all the difference to creating brand loyalty. When you email them or post promotions on your social media sites, try to make those messages as personal as you possibly can. Sending an email with “Dear {insert name}” can kill everything you have already done in creating the guest experience in person. However, personalization of your messaging should also go beyond the first line of an email.

One of the best ways to know about issues with your hotel is to invite guests to tell you and rewarding them when they do. For example, you can call the guest once they get to their room to check and make sure they have everything they need and to get quick feedback about their room. If they mention something isn’t right, fix it if you can. If you can’t fix the issue right away, tell them you’ll have maintenance look into the issue. However, in both cases reward them with dinner or a drink for telling you. Again, you are looking to reward behavior that can improve the guest experience.

Brand alignment is not an easy task. However, when your core objectives are clear it becomes easier. You are building a culture. A culture of what your brand, staff, vendors, partners, and guests want to be part of. As this alignment occurs over time you will notice how customers tend to want to join the cause and experience they had again and again.

Knowing everything you can about your guests is important as mentioned above. Why they come to town, what did they do while they were in town, what things do they enjoy, what are their hobbies? Understanding these will help improve your guest experience. Such feedback will help you attract new guests using the language that is the right message. A message they can relate to. Guest feedback is everything to building a great brand strategy.

Far too often boutique hotels are booked through outdated technology and made by phone only. Booking your hotel should be dead simple. Guests typically avoid friction. Think about how many times you tried to buy something in a store or online, but then just left the shopping cart. The line was too long, or you had to re-enter data that the merchant should have already had. When it comes to booking a room with your boutique getaway, it must be easy.

Hotel managers or owners can use brand strategy to build loyal, returning guests. These tips will ensure you execute on your mission to get guests excited about the experience they have had at your hotel. This excitement results in guests that tell others about their experience, in fact, many will post about things immediately on social media. Happy customers cost so much less than those who had a poor experience. However, raving, loyal customers help grow your brand in the hotel space and revenue.