How Can You Offer Luxury Hotel Experience on a Budget?

Growing up, my friends would always tell me about their weekends and how much they enjoyed their stay at a 5-star hotel.

But I come from a humble background, and staying in a luxurious hotel was no less than a dream.

Today, thanks to my profession, I get to visit and stay at some of the finest hotels (sometimes, even with my parents).

However, not to forget that having a luxury hotel experience on a budget isn’t that easy; these hotels are expensive. At times, it even feels like highway robbery, and because of that people don’t opt for such hotels.

But what if budget and not-so-luxurious hotels use this scenario to their benefit?

They will be able to offer a great experience to their guests at a reasonable price. Not just that. Once the little birdie spreads the word, these hotels will attract more guests.

In this blog, I will cover all the points to help your hotel provide a luxurious experience on a budget. Implement the points strategically and see it for yourself.

Sounds like a plan?

The Demand for Luxurious Experience

The demand for luxury hotel experience on a budget isn’t something new. People always had a knack for properties where they can experience top-level hospitality. Be it the ambience, service, food, or just the stay.

However, the craze for luxury spiked when travel restrictions were lifted.

People were locked in their homes for a long time and now, they are more enthusiastic than ever to step out of their abodes. While many people are inclined towards experiencing adventurous activities and staying at offbeat locations, many just want to check into a hotel that offers comfort.

However, not everyone is financially that strong to afford top class hospitality in some 5-star or 7-star hotel. Or maybe, they don’t want to spend a hefty amount.

This is a great opportunity for budget hotels to tap into that guest segment.

Now, many of you must be wondering… is there really something called budget luxury?

To be honest, I am not sure whether the term ‘budget luxury’ exists. But, take it from me, the demand for luxurious hotels at a reasonable price is REAL. And many hoteliers around the world are spending enough time and money to create a luxury hotel experience on a budget.

How Budget Hotels Can Provide Luxurious Experience?

Luxury doesn’t mean expensive rooms and amenities. You can easily provide a luxurious experience in a budget. All you need is a strategic approach. And in this section, I will put some points for you to get started.

1. Make your hotel easy to find

The first and foremost thing to focus on is to make your hotel visible on the web.

Meaning, when someone Googles your hotel name, it should show them your property. Be it on an OTA, GMB, or your website.

We have some of the amazing resources that will help you ace your online game. Do check them out. You’re guaranteed to get amazing results.

• 7 Strategies to Optimise Google My Business for Hotels
• Tips for Hotels to Improve OTA Rankings
• SEO for Hotels: A Complete Guide for 2021
• Make Your Hotel Website Mobile-Friendly
• Strategies to Improve Image SEO for Hotel Websites

2. Make the booking process fast and simple

Another thing that luxury hotels have is a seamless booking process. This is one of the factors that actually sets them apart.

Budget hotels don’t really focus on this part. The prime motivation for them is mostly to drive in bookings. But, is that possible when you don’t have that tech infrastructure to acquire bookings?

Budget hotels or the ones who are trying to offer a luxurious experience must invest in a hotel PMS, channel manager, and booking engine.

These tools allow you to acquire booking in a much better way. Not to mention, they also make it seamless for the guests to book a stay at your hotel.

3. Adhere to COVID protocols and offer contactless hospitality

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic abysmally affected our lives, people are keeping their safety as a priority.

They might be travelling more than ever, but the safety aspect has never faded.

This is when contactless hospitality emerged to make it easier for guests and hotels.

Contactless hospitality solutions empower hotels to let their guests select their room, check-in, avail of all the services, make payment, and even check-out, with little to no human involvement.

Meaning, guests don’t have to be in a queue at the frontdesk or wait in the lobby.

So, if you are aiming to offer a luxury hotel experience on a budget, make sure you adhere to all the COVID protocols and deploy some sort of contactless solution.

4. Train your staff to develop intuitive qualities

Apart from all the things you do with your hotel’s ambience, amenities and services, there’s this one thing that many hotels overlook — staff training.

It is important that your hotel staff has some intuitive qualities to provide a great experience to the guests. What I mean by intuitive qualities, is that the staff should be able to understand guests’ concerns empathetically and provide the best resolution.

If you look closely, you’ll see that most of the top hotels are known because of the way their staff works and interacts. After all, they are one of the first points of contact in a hotel.

5. Take your maintenance game to the next level

One of the top qualities of a luxury hotel is the seamless operations and maintenance (O&M) process.

If you want to provide a luxurious experience and sell more rooms, you must revisit your O&M. Take all the necessary action to streamline maintenance and enhance customer satisfaction.

Now, there are two types of maintenance:

• Preventive maintenance: This is to keep a hotel’s assets functional.
• Reactive maintenance: This is to restore an asset to its functional state after a breakdown.

Make a list of all the assets that require maintenance and assign your concerned department the tasks accordingly.

O&M is a very vast segment. Let me know if you would like to read a dedicated blog on this topic.

6. Turn that boring waiting area into a social lobby

This point reminds me of an incident from 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

I was on a holiday in Nepal. Before leaving for Mustang, I thought of staying in Kathmandu for a night. Upon making my reservation online, I reached the hotel and they made me wait in the lobby.

I didn’t mind waiting as I could see the frontdesk was occupied. But the lobby was so boring, I decided to step out and look around. When I came back and asked the frontdesk staff whether I could check-in, she asked me to sit again.

They said they were looking for me, but I wasn’t present so they were again busy with other guests.

If the lobby was a little interesting or had something for me to spend my time, I would happily wait there. But unfortunately, they didn’t have anything; just couches and magazines.

That’s the moment I decided — if I ever start a hotel, I will make sure the wait is a fun place to be. I would place some sort of eatery, vending machine, a little space for kids, a huge TV, Wi-Fi etc.

You can also steal these ideas; anyway, I won’t be opening a hotel anytime soon.  

7. Work on the rooms

A great number of people judge a hotel by the rooms they provide.

I have stayed in some top hotels (thanks to my profession) and all of them have a different vibe in their rooms.

Some of the hotels had not-so-great services, but the rooms just surpassed my expectations.

Well, you don’t have to do something out of this world to make your rooms premium; just a few hacks, and you’re good to go.

Trust me, if they like your room, there are chances that they are going to come back or at least, advocate for your hotel.

Here are few things you can do:

• Use good quality bed linens, pillow covers, blinds etc. They don’t have to be expensive; you should just pick the ones that feel premium.
• Make the room smell good by placing room fresheners with an aesthetic scent. Make sure that the fragrance is light and not overwhelming.
• Toiletries make a massive impact on the guest. So, don’t forget to get some premium toiletries.
• Make your guests feel good by placing some free snacks and treats. Whenever they feel like eating something, they should feel that “thank God, there’s something good to eat”.
• Also, a premium hotel room is mostly minimalistic. It doesn’t have a lot of things, but the ones they have are useful and well-placed.

8. Revamp your menu 

Let’s talk about food now!

Whenever I stay in a luxurious hotel, I always look forward to the food. I have this concept cemented in my head that the food is really nice and they have a lot of options to choose from.

This also reminds me of a funny incident.

So, when I was going through the menu and settled on two items — chickpea curry with fried flatbreads and cheese, and flour dumpling boiled in sugar syrup.

I was a bit excited to taste them. Because, of course, the names were so sophisticated. But when my food came, it was ‘Chole Bhature’ and ‘Rasgulla’.

You don’t have to do that. When I say revamp the menu, I mean the food, not just the names.

Include some varieties. Don’t forget to add some local and exotic dishes.

9. Offer services such as gymnasium and spa

If you have space and budget, you can set up a gym, a spa, or anything else you have in mind.

These kinds of services attract a lot of guests and drive a sense of luxury.

Again, I have personally seen top hotels with these services and they are always in demand.

However, this is optional and can be overlooked. Because it does take a bit more effort to set them up and operate.

10. Offer quick resolution to problems

This point is not only about a luxury hotel; rather, every property needs to focus on this.

When you’re in the hospitality business, you have to ensure that your guests are satisfied with your services. If they aren’t and have some complaint or query, it needs to be resolved as quickly as possible.

Therefore, make sure all your staff (including the management) is well versed with each and every aspect of the hotel.

Spread the word that guests are the kings, and their experience is your priority.

11. Make payment and checkout as quick and seamless as possible

Any discrepancy and delay in the checkout process is a red flag.

Any guest who experiences this is going to leave a bad review. People are always in a hurry at the time of checkout. The reasons are obvious; they want to board their flight on time, or they may be running late for a meeting, or they need to attend an event.

Therefore, it is crucial to make the checkout process as quick as possible.

I recommend you deploy a property management system that comes with extra functionalities like contactless check-in and check-out.

This is going to help you big time.