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.
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