5 Steps to Cultivate Guest Confidence Post COVID-19

The hotel industry had high hopes from 2020; it was all set with new plans, emerging travel trends, and revenue strategies. But who would’ve imagined that things would take a downturn, bringing the industry to a halt?

What was predicted to be a $700 billion industry in 2020 is now estimated to be $396 billion in 2020. It is also 42.1% less than the previous year.

However, the travel and hotel industry is opening up as people are starting to travel. And to make the most out of this opportunity after a difficult year, hotels must understand that traveller expectations and demands have changed and they MUST boost guest confidence even during these times of COVID chaos.

In this article, we are going to look at some of the effective strategies on how to regain customer confidence post-Covid-19 and increase guest satisfaction.

Sentimental and Behavioral Changes in Consumer

Before we jump right into ‘how to boost guest confidence in covid 19’, let us understand how the consumer and traveler preferences have changed amid the COVID phase.

Be it about buying groceries at the local market, commencing work from the office, commuting in a metro, or even for a morning walk, people are thinking twice and more. And it’s the same when it comes to travel. There is a dramatic change in consumer behaviour — new habits and expectations have arisen, and spending patterns have changed.

However, there are also groups of people who are not seeking reasonable flights and hotels; rather, they are now more concerned about safety while boarding a flight or checking into a hotel.

So here’s what savvy hoteliers should do when it comes to reviving their hotel business and serve guests:

• Understand and respond to consumers’ changing behaviours
• Reimagine the customer experience and re-engage with customers 
• Take the necessary steps to build and maintain the trust of their guests
• Improve operational agility and financial resilience
• Turn to new-age technologies to cope with the new-normal challenges

Ways to Boost Guest Confidence and Enhance Trust

2020 has dramatically transformed travel and tourism. People are skeptical about travelling and staying in hotels. But there are ways to cope with it. 

Here are some strategies to boost guest confidence

1. Understand Your Guests’ Concerns

Empathy is said to be one of the most important traits of a business. When you intertwine empathy and business, you are able to nurture in a genuine way, you’re able to connect with the customers on an emotional level, and build a relationship.

This also applies to hotel businesses. Let folks know that your hotel understands the social circumstances and cares about the guests as well as the staff. 

How to do that? There are several ways to connect with your guests and one of the most effective ones is your social channels. Drop lines to your guests about the steps you are taking at your hotel to cope with the situation — be it retaining employees while there are major layoffs happening in the industry or be it offering discounted prices to your guests or be it just a personalized empathetic email to your guests.

Word to The Wise: Do not overplay empathy. Make sure your messages are brief and on-point and actually deliver value. Just like hotel businesses, individuals are going through tough times as well, so connect with them genuinely.

2. Educate Guests About the Circumstances In-Play

Marketing is your magic wand when you are on your hotel revival journey. But while you’re investing a lot of time and effort in marketing tactics like social media, websites, etc., do not forget to explore the education domain.

Without an inch of doubt, educating customers is one of the best ways to build relationships and develop customer loyalty.

Use your marketing channels like social media, blogs, emails, newsletters, etc. to educate your guests. Tell them about all the changes you are making to your hotel operations — whether it’s about the stay duration, safety protocols, facility closures, customer service availability, or anything that you feel your guests should know about.

That’s not all. Many hotels educate their guests about their property and services. However, it shouldn’t always be about that; delivering knowledge and value of things outside your business is also a good practice.

For example: Send a newsletter to your guests that include each and every information about all the tourist destinations that are safe to travel amid this COVID episode. Or, publish a blog on “What to look for when booking a hotel during COVID” or “Top safety measures every guest should take while staying in a hotel.” Just make sure, you are not driving them to book a room with you, but also delivering genuine value.

Remember, Empathy?

3. Assure Excellent Hospitality

Lately, many hotels have reduced the level of service quality. There are several reasons for hotels to take this step. It could be because of the cash crunch, employee layoffs or the lack of necessary technologies in their hotel infrastructure.  

But whatever is the reason, it is something that hotels should avoid. Hotels must stay true to their services and continue to deliver at the same level. Tweaks and adjustments in your operations can be done, but eliminating a service might adversely affect the brand image.

Even though there’s upheaval in how you operate, when you continue to provide the same level of services, you enhance the guest trust and definitely boost guest confidence.

This is where certain steps like operational adjustments and technological inclusions come into the picture. And that brings us to the next point.

4. Serve Guests in New Ways

Hospitality is one such industry that involves a lot of human touches and this is what makes it special. But the ongoing pandemic has dramatically changed everything.

Physical distancing is now our shared reality and hotels are advised to incorporate all the social distancing protocols. It seems like the new normal is the biggest test the hospitality industry has ever faced.

Managing an entire hotel without little to no human contact is definitely a challenge. But the hotel industry is getting back on its feet and they are starting to efficiently manage all of it.  

Here are some of the things you can do to serve your guests safely and boost guest confidence in a COVID-19 environment.

• Invest in health and safety: It’s not just a protocol, but even guests will demand higher hygiene standards. Install hand sanitizing stations, place masks, and even PPE kits (if required) in every possible corner of your hotel.
• Minimize the use of elevators: It is important for hotel owners to reduce the use of the elevator. However, if minimizing the use of elevators isn’t possible, hotels can set certain guidelines to regulate.

For example, hotels can set protocols such as more than two people are not allowed inside the lift, use of a mask (one time use) inside the elevator is mandatory, guests must stand on designated spots marked inside the lift, etc.

• Cleaning with colours: It is a colour-coded program where housekeeping inventory such as rags, towels and cloths with different colours are used to clean different items.
• Alternative dining options: Even if you have dining facilities at your hotel, try to look for an alternative. Delivering food to the room is also a good idea.
• The 24 hours window: It is a good practice to hold a room for at least 24 hours when a guest checks out. This would give the housekeeping staff enough time to clean and sanitize the room for the next check-in.
• Contactless check-in: Touch-free hospitality is considered to be a great option for hotels amid COVID. By incorporating such a system, you can mitigate the spread of the virus. (We will talk about the technology aspect in the next point.)

Word to The Wise

While you are doing everything possible to make your hotel the safest place for your guests and increase guest satisfaction, there is one more thing you must keep in mind — DO NOT get offended by harsh reviews.

People have a completely different sentiment at this point in time, so they might not be happy with all your efforts and can leave a negative review. But do not dwell over it and get offended. Rather, take a look at what the guest has complained about and try to fix it

5. Incorporate New-Age Technologies

One of the imperative things to consider when you’re trying to boost guest confidence is to turn to technology. Hotels must invest in digitalization as it would help them make their daily operations efficient and deliver a great guest experience.

• Contactless solutions: Many hotels around the world are doubling down on contactless check-ins and check-outs. The need for this solution is much more than ever.
  
  When you have a touch-free solution in place, you allow your guests to bypass the front desk — guests can check-in, choose their room, access their room, and check-out. There’s little to no human contact involved.
  
• Optical character recognition (OCR) technology: OCR technology helps in converting text into a machine-readable form. This technology can help you make your front desk operations faster.

For example, when a guest walks into your hotel to check-in, the front desk staff manually enters their details in the system. But when you have an OCR system in place, the front desk staff can simply scan the guest ID and auto-fill the required information. Also, the ID doesn’t have to change hands. Zero contact!

• Kiosk: These are another great device that makes hospitality really simple. When you have multiple kiosks placed at your property, guests can self-check-in — the hotel staff doesn’t have to come in contact with them.

#ProTip: Equip the kiosks with a thermal scanner to check guests’ temperature and OCR to scan IDs.

• Mobile App: Mobile app has been around for a pretty long time. However, hotels are now realizing their importance. A hotel PMS app acts as a blessing to both the hotel and its guests. It not only helps hotels streamline many operations but also helps in enhancing the guest experience.