Walking Guests The Proper Way

               Walking guests is a tricky and potentially devastating procedure in the front office arsenal. If not handled properly and with care, you will infuriate your guest and one infuriated guest can cost you many room nights should they choose to share their experience on TripAdvisor or Oyster.



               One evening while at a previous property, i witnessed a walk of the worst proportions. At 11pm a guest was walked. She had missed a flight, then had a delayed flight from the west coast to the east and on top of all that, her luggage didn't make it.  The cabbie gave her a hard time about the fare and was rude to her on her way to the hotel. All this escalated into a shouting match and a brick wall from the agent and even the manager once the guest found out this is what she was in store for, for the rest of her night.



               Selling out the property is important, but not as important as retaining guests. A lot of properties have this idea that people need hotel rooms and regardless of how they are treated, there are plenty of people traveling to fill rooms. This is sadly not the case and resting on your laurels of having a beautiful hotel, great location or a "regulars" client base will only cost you room nights.


Let's review this and find the positive ways to handle walks. The best way is not to have them, but this will help if you find yourself having to do them all the time.

• Proper Revenue Management! Don't go overselling like crazy! Any negative number on any sized property is asking for trouble!! For some of you this number is much higher depending on the size of your property. You wouldn't have to do any walks if you use your reserve rooms when necessary and conducted proper revenue management beforehand. Remember, just because you may have a few no shows every night doesn't always mean things will "wash" out and you'll be okay.

• Properly train your front office managers. Make sure they understand closing out the hotel versus bringing the property to a stop sell at a certain number. They are your revenue managers so to speak at that time of the night. They can manipulate the sell to bring you to sold out or close. If you do end up with an extra room or two, you can always avail yourself of apps like Hotel Tonight.

• Have contracted no show charges where applicable.  If you have regular business travelers you may be able to contract in no show charges. This way, even if you have rooms left over at the end of the night, the revenue is still captured as if the guest had stayed. You may be able to resell that room and capture excess revenue. Also, this frees up upgrade possibilities or rooms for any "just in case" scenarios that frequently occur.

• Don't forget to close out your OTA's! One of the worst things you can do as a revenue or front office manager is forget to close out your rooms allotment on Expedia, Booking or whomever you use for your online travel agent.

• Walk the proper people. Do you want to walk a two night stay? This means that they will have to repack all their things to return to your hotel for one night. Two night stays are the worst. One nighters can go and relax. Three nighters can come back and have two days. It's a big deal to people when they have to pack and repack. This can cause negative feelings quick, so make sure you pick the right people.
• Also, do you have any regulars that wouldn't mind staying at a different property? Sometimes you have regulars that are great people. You know them well enough and they have enough stays, that on occasion, if asked by the right person, they will go. They understand the hotel has needs because they feel they are a part of it.  Also, they know too that upon their return they will have an upgrade or something ready for them. Sometimes regulars are a better bet provided you have a great relationship with them. Then, you have regulars that aren't moving for anything. Knowing your guests and your regulars is an important thing when trouble like having to walk guests arises.
• Now some may disagree with the regulars idea. However walking a new guest who has never been to your property is a guarantee you will never see them again. This is language to the guest saying that on their first trip to your property, they are not wanted. That is not what you are really saying, however this is what the guest will come away with. This is why I advise against walking first time guests.
• Business travelers are dangerous to walk too. They are very loyal and will stay with a particular hotel or brand once they find one they like. You may lose a lot of room nights if you walk your business travelers. They are much less forgiving.

• Keep your walk hotel close, closer the better. You are already walking them. Don't send them across town in a city they may or may not have ever been to.

• Don't wait to walk. 11pm is way too late to walk anybody. 11pm is when you should be walking to your car after your shift. Start earlier in the afternoon. Reason being, people that have a flight in the afternoon arrive early. Their restaurant reservations or plans are for later that night. They are generally more relaxed, and usually have the time you need available to perform the walk. You have a better chance of finding acceptance from the guest during earlier hours. The later it gets, the worse off it will be.

• Offer good incentives upon their return on their next stay. You want them to be happy that they got such a great deal, that they will be more than happy to come back to you for giving them a good alternate option and a heap of goodies when they return.
• You want to try to add these options:
• Free Room Service Breakfast the entire next stay up to a decent value, or upon their return.
• Full time access to your club lounge or concierge level. 

• Keep contact with your walked guest. Once they have been walked, usually all communication stops. You want to remain apologetic and add value to their return stay, whether that be the next night or the next month.

               There are many different ideas on ways to handle walks. The best way is not to have them at all. Think of it in terms of how you would like to be handled given you are in that circumstance. If you have to do it, cover your bases.

LobbyFriend App. Friend or Foe?

This is the actual description from the Apple App Store and is available on Android as well.




Imagine connecting all hotel guests to one another and the hotel…LobbyFriend is “socializing” the hotel experience! Ever been stuck in your hotel room alone, not knowing what to do in a beautiful city after work? If you are a business traveler, adventurer, shopper, or simply on vacation looking to connect with new people and enjoy the moment, then welcome to the world of LobbyFriend where networking has never been easier. Founded by frequent business travelers, LobbyFriend™ is the first ever Temporary Social Network where users connect with each other while also being connected to their hotel during their stay. Enjoy LobbyFriend by socializing with other guests, taking advantage of exclusive deals, scanning the guest list to find out who’s at the hotel, and feel free to create or participate in all activities in and around the hotel. And remember, it’s temporary! You can only log in if you are checked-in and remain connected to the network even if you're not inside the hotel– so we make sure you enjoy the moment!


               As a hospitality manager, this app could bring the potential for many problems from our standpoint.

• From the hotel promotion standpoint it may be good to send out blasts to attract business from a "special of the moment" type of promotion. You'd want to drive them to your own social media platforms for that and proper promotion programs at the front desk can eliminate the need for a lot of this. Unfortunately, these programs do not exist too often and that is a shame. There is no better a place to promote your restaurant, bar or spa specials then at the front desk upon check in. Generally, other than a stop by the concierge on occasion, you will not converse with the guest to any meaningful length again.

• As a hotel professional it doesn't take long to understand what your guests want. Speaking for myself, in both a casual and business stay, I already have plans. Most business travelers are there for just that, and have dinner arrangements and meetings already planned. I don't see where they would have much need to leisurely check around to see who is at the hotel and such. As a leisure stay is concerned, it may be fun. However when I travel, I already know where I am going, which restaurants I am headed to and which activities I want to partake in. Whereas this app may be good for surprises people find in the city as they peruse it, a stop by the concierge fills the same need. Also, I am not interested in being part of a social forum during my hotel stay. I am too busy doing what I am there to do!

• Individual stay information is proprietary for hotels. Imagine if word got out that a guest received an room upgrade for whatever reason. He was previously in the same room category as others. This could spurn many more upgrade requests as guests ask why others received an upgrade and they didn't. As we in the industry know, there are many reasons why a guest receives an upgrade. It may be part of their package. They could be American Express. They may have over a certain number of stays and as part of a loyalty program, receive an upgrade. Or simply, they may have just asked and it was available, and the guest was nice so the agent obliged. You could have a person that paid $500 receive an upgrade, and then have an online client at $99 dollars a night expect the same. Then it becomes a debate on rate paid and before you know it, you have lost a guest's future business because they feel they were cheated. This will also jeopardize your upsell capability.

• Imagine if rate information was discussed. Can you as a front desk agent imagine the conversation on that one! "Why did they get this rate and I didn't", or "Why am I paying more for the same room as they did, and can I re-book my room for the same rate". I hear a lot of "I apologizes" headed for their ears. Once again, any kind of negative guest experience costs you a client and the constant setup of negative interaction for your front desk agents will cost you morale.

               As a general manager I would decline usage of this app. I may have a feature added to my own website with a ticker perhaps, or do something inventive with the in house programming. Also, if you have a concierge or guest relations department that is contacting arrival guests a week or so out, they should be promoting in house food and beverage specials as well as spa packages. I welcome your comments below.

   

Deficient Service Ethics Based on an Area's Percieved Nature.

               I feel compelled to write this article based on something I saw on the show
Hotel: Impossible and it's combination with something I have experienced myself.

               In my hospitality travels I arrived in New Orleans. After narrowing down the market to the few top hotels, I began my job search. One of the properties had a Director of Front Office position and my resume was perfectly suited for that position. I had already gone through several interviews with different members of the management team and was in a final interview with an assistant general manager.

               We had an hour long discussion on the challenges the property was having as far as service issues and ethics, and how it was costing them their next diamond rating. We also discussed how those challenges could be solved and a sort of game plan was laid out in pursuance of their goals.

               At the end of the meeting after a long pause, the manager states to me the following: I don't think your New York City resume and work ethic will work out here in New Orleans. I asked why not? His response to me and I'll never forget this: "Because here we do things on New Orleans time"


              What this meant was that the job will get done, but not when required by the guest or management. The job will be completed when the employee gets around to doing it. I was flabbergasted. I reminded him that "New Orleans Time" hadn't brought him his long sought after diamond rating.

               While watching Hotel:Impossible, the same thing occurred and I almost fell out of my seat. This exact statement was repeated in a different city.

               This is unacceptable. Hospitality is all about providing a combined product and service beyond the guest's satisfaction. The perceived relaxed status of a community or the fact that it is near the beach, it's cloudy and cold, or it's an isolated property provides no excuse. This attitude permeates the property from the top down affecting the entire operation.

               This is a cop out of ownership and management plain and simple, or just sheer laziness. With the highly competitive nature of properties these days, there is no time to waste in perfecting the guest experience.

New Trend in Resume Reference Lists

Here is a great link you should have a look at. Allison & Taylor is on the forefront of professional reference checking and employment verification. I have used them for reference checking on a few occasions. They are a great company for these needs. This is a great template on what they are seeing now as a trend in Reference List formats with employers in the workplace.

Sample of New Format Management Reference List