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Monty Bennett

Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board at Ashford Inc.

The Ultimate 2023 Guide to Elevating Guest Satisfaction

If you’re in the hospitality and hotel industry, you know that the key to providing an exceptional guest experience is understanding what guests want. and then exceeding those expectations. That means using technology to simplify boring, sexy, and exciting aspects of the guest experience. It also involves listening to and responding to feedback.

Guests are a lot more tech-dependent than ever before, which means hoteliers have to think about how they can use technology to enhance guest experiences. The best way to do this is by implementing technology that ensures quality and consistency throughout the entire guest journey, whether it's digital checklists, room inspections, spot checks, or silent shoppers.

2023 is sure to be a huge year for travel and hospitality. With reopened country borders, incredible new hotel openings, and revamped destinations around the world, travelers are more excited than ever to explore. For example, Beyond's Punakha River Lodge in Bhutan will open its doors this September. In addition, the iconic Atlantis resort is undergoing a massive renovation to make it the best it can be.The hotel will feature a new Paranza restaurant, an expanded casino, a high-limit slots lounge, and more. In addition, 157 new suites are coming to the Cavalier Resort. There are plenty of new places to visit this year, whether you're planning a honeymoon, vacation, or trip of a lifetime.

The hotel industry is becoming more and more dependent on technology. The right guest experience technology can help hotels deliver a seamless experience and enhance customer satisfaction.

Cloud-based systems, mobile technologies, and intelligent automation are among the most important hospitality technologies.These technologies can help hotel owners and managers streamline business processes, increase efficiency, and save time and money.

AI and machine learning are also helping to personalize experiences for guests. They can also automate tasks such as ordering and inventory management, which helps hotels reduce labor costs.

Communication is another area where technology can be used to enhance the guest experience. It enables hotels to communicate with their guests in a personalized way, whether through SMS, email, or instant messaging.

The hotel industry has a growing dependency on mobile technology. This technology is allowing hotels to offer convenient and efficient ordering and payment systems, as well as enhanced customer engagement through loyalty programs and personalized offers.

The name of the game when it comes to elevating guest satisfaction is making guests feel welcome. And when guests feel welcome, they are more likely to recommend your property to their friends and family. It will pay off greatly to have a staff that takes the time to learn about your guests and understand their needs and desires. It also helps if you have a well-planned and implemented guest experience program in place, like the one pictured below. The best way to do this is to have a regular team meeting to keep everyone on the same page. The results are better service and happier guests. The above-mentioned meetings are also a great opportunity to showcase your award-winning hospitality team in the best possible light.

How Can the Hospitality Industry Increase Customer Engagement

The hotel business is critical to the economic activity and progress of a country. Many other industries benefit from it.

Tourism is one of the most important segments of the hospitality industry. It might range from short-term vacations to extended stays.

With so much competition, hotels must strengthen their customer engagement tactics in order to stand out.

Making it simple for your consumers to interact with you is one of the finest methods to enhance client engagement. Email, social media, and live chat are all examples of this.

Furthermore, you can utilize your website to communicate with your consumers both before and throughout their visit. This might assist you in increasing reservations and generating income.

You can also design a unique experience for each of your guests. This will increase their likelihood of returning and referring your company to others.

Another strategy to improve customer service is to make sure your personnel is properly trained. This can result in lower turnover rates and more employee satisfaction.

Creating a personalized experience for each customer is one of the most effective methods to boost customer engagement. This may boost reservations, guest happiness, and loyalty.

The hospitality industry is diverse, encompassing sectors such as food and beverages, lodging, travel and tourism, and entertainment and amusement. Each industry has a variety of professions with differing skill and degree requirements.

Hotels, restaurants, spas, and other hospitality-related businesses all require staff who can make a difference in the lives of their customers. Every employee, from the front desk receptionist who greets guests to the bellman who carries them to their rooms, has a role in providing the best service possible.

Customer satisfaction is an essential component of any successful business strategy. It entails interacting with clients throughout their journeys to ensure they have a positive experience and feel connected to your company.

While customer interaction can take many forms, it should always be designed to address customers directly and engage them in a two-way conversation with your brand. This technique can assist you in developing long-term relationships with your customers and increasing their loyalty.

A clearly defined customer interaction plan is required to ensure that all marketing, sales, and support initiatives feel personal and real. This should lead to more loyal and engaged customers who are more inclined to refer your company to their friends.

If your company relies on appointments, you can increase the number of appointments you get by making it simple for consumers to book online. Online booking makes it easy for customers to find what they're searching for and make a reservation, whether they're looking for a tour, a course, or an activity.

The hospitality sector is quickly shifting to a digital platform, and the majority of consumers prefer to browse and book online. You are losing potential customers if your website lacks an online booking mechanism.

An excellent online booking system allows you to automatically capture consumer data, such as email addresses when they book and store it in a database for later use. This means you can interact with your clients more effectively and increase their likelihood of returning.

To boost consumer engagement, the hospitality industry must provide its visitors with a frictionless payment experience. Whether your guests book online or by phone, you should be able to provide them with a simple option to pay for their stay.

Instead of having them hand you their credit card and leaving it in your safe while they are on the premises, it would be perfect if they could use technology that keeps their information and automatically charges their card on the last day of their stay. This allows them to leave your property knowing that their visit was paid for, while also relieving staff members of the burden of handling all payments.

Finally, this will improve your guests' enjoyment of the event and increase client loyalty.

Hotels of the Future: New Experiences, New Opportunities

The hotel industry is constantly evolving, driven by changes in consumer preferences, technological advancements, and shifts in the economy. As a result, future hotels will look very different from today's, offering new and innovative experiences to guests. In this article, we will explore some of the key trends shaping the future of the hotel industry and the new opportunities they present.

Personalized experiences - In the future, hotels can offer highly personalized experiences to guests based on their preferences and habits. This will be made possible through technology, such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT). For example, hotels may use guest behavior and preferences data to personalize room settings, such as lighting, temperature, and entertainment options.

Sustainability - Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for consumers and the environment, and future hotels will need to prioritize eco-friendly practices. This includes reducing waste, minimizing energy and water usage, and using environmentally friendly materials in construction and operations.

Technology-driven experiences - Technology will play an increasingly important role in the hotel industry, enabling hotels to offer new and innovative experiences to guests. For example, hotels may use virtual reality or augmented reality technology to create immersive experiences, such as virtual tours of hotel rooms or nearby attractions. In addition, hotels may also use technology to improve operational efficiencies, such as automated systems for check-in and checkout.

Blurring of boundaries between work and leisure - As the line between work and leisure continues to blur, future hotels will need to offer amenities and experiences that cater to both. This includes flexible workspaces, high-speed internet, meeting spaces, and leisure facilities, such as gyms, spas, and entertainment options.

Experience-based hotels - In the future, hotels will focus more on offering unique and memorable experiences to guests rather than just a place to stay. This includes creating themed hotels, such as adventure hotels, eco-hotels, or wellness hotels, and offering experiences, such as culinary experiences, cultural experiences, and adventure activities.
The new trends and opportunities in the hotel industry present exciting possibilities for hotel owners and guests. Hotel owners offer new ways to differentiate their properties and attract guests, while for guests, they provide new and exciting experiences beyond just a place to stay.

In conclusion, the future of the hotel industry is bright, and hotels of the future will be shaped by trends such as personalized experiences, sustainability, technology-driven experiences, the blurring of boundaries between work and leisure, and experience-based hotels. With these new opportunities, hotels have the potential to offer guests unique and memorable experiences that go beyond just a place to stay.

COVID-19 and Getting Better Skills in the Hotel Business

The COVID-19 report on fire safety in hotels has greatly affected the hotel business. It has changed how hotel chains train their staff and deal with safety issues. It has also shown how hotel front-line workers can improve their skills.

One of the most exciting things about the hotel business is the comeback of small and medium-sized hotels, especially those that act as stepping stones to more expensive brands. The comeback has been great for the hospitality industry, and it has also given hoteliers a lot of ways to make money from their newfound success. Whether getting a contract with a local university or agreeing to run the city's first boutique hotel, operators are hopeful that 2019 will be another great year.

Small and medium-sized hotels have been the driving force behind the U.S. hospitality industry's comeback. They bring in more revenue from room and room tax than large chain hotels, but they do so at a much lower cost. The hotel business is changing to fit the new situation as the economy gets better after the recession. Even though there has been a lot of bad news lately, the industry has grown by 0.4% annually.

The recent trouble in the stock market has affected the hotel business. But there are small differences between how well the different parts of the industry are doing.

Michael Bellisario, a senior research analyst at Baird, says that even though business travel is down, leisure hotels in the U.S. are coming back faster than expected. This recovery will likely happen when tourism is back to full speed.

Even though there are good signs, there are still questions. There is a chance that some hotels in the central business district will be turned into office space. Because of this, there could be problems with occupancy in 2021. At some point, owners will have to make hard decisions.

Investors are looking at the different parts of a REIT's balance sheet. Most of the time, larger REITs have more cash on hand to cover fixed costs. But they might not have enough money on hand to pay dividends.

In the past few years, REITs have been hit by several shocks. COVID-19 and the pandemic hit the hospitality industry especially hard. The lodging REIT sub-index has underperformed by more than a third over the past year.

If you own or run a business, you may wonder what you can do to help your front-line employees prepare for COVID-19. Answer: Getting more skills can greatly affect your bottom line. It can make you more productive, make you more money, and even lower the costs of firing people.

Upskilling programs can help people be more flexible, more reliable, and able to use new technologies. These new technologies will help workers adjust to changes in the way their jobs are done. You can reduce training costs and improve the employee experience by giving employees just-in-time learning.

Creating a supportive culture at work is one of the most important things you can do to help people learn new skills. This means building relationships and being honest. Strong relationships between coworkers and management can help a good work environment.

Another important part of upskilling is ensuring employees know what they can do and what skills they need to do well in the next job. This is hard for a lot of businesses.

Leadership in hotel safety has been shown to affect how safe employees act greatly. But there are still some holes in the research, and this effect must be considered in a crisis. In particular, this study looked at how perceived risk and belief restoration affect the relationship between safety leadership and safety behavior.

To measure safety leadership and safety behavior, a scale with 18 items was used. We used exploratory and confirmatory factor and correlation analysis to examine these variables.

The results showed that safety leadership made people more likely to participate in safety and change their behavior. Safety adaptation was also found to have a strong positive effect on safety compliance. On the other hand, perceived risks' direct and moderating effects were not as strong.

In China, four-star hotels were used for a pilot survey. One thousand five hundred ninety-four responses were good. One of them was that safety leadership directly affected how people took part in safety and changed their behavior.

Attributes and Firm Performance in the Hospitality Industry

Whether you're in a hotel, hospitality management company, or the hospitality industry in general, there are certain attributes that you should pay attention to. Those attributes include Leadership, Competitive Landscape, Compensation, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Strategic details.

 

Various studies have investigated the relationship between strategic attributes and firm performance. However, the results have been somewhat mixed. While the strategic characteristics of customer satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational culture are undoubtedly worthy of study, the research on the most cited and most effective of these is limited.

 

Nonetheless, the study did produce a few notable findings. While the most significant results are derived from a single data point, multi-variate research suggests a strong correlation between strategic attributes and firm performance. The most interesting of these findings is the positive correlation between organizational commitment and athletic performance. While the study did not find a significant correlation between organizational commitment and customer satisfaction, the inverse was true.

 

You need to understand the competition whether you are a new or existing hotelier. Understanding your competition is essential to developing a competitive strategy. While there are several different ways to conduct a competitive analysis, there are some key components to look for.

 

The competition in the hospitality industry is constantly changing. This means that hotels must stay on top of the latest trends. For example, the technology-fueled on-demand economy has completely changed how we survive. It has also made the marketing efforts for hotels much easier.

 

A data-based approach to customer segmentation is one of the most important components of competitive analysis. Knowing the competitors' strengths will help you determine how to best position your product.

 

Another important component is a strategy for enhancing your value proposition. Hotels can promote a unique experience by teaming up with other businesses to offer special amenities. For example, a hotel can partner with a golf course, tennis club, spa, or rental car firm.

 

Several studies have investigated the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on firm performance in the hospitality industry. While these studies show a positive relationship between CSR and athletic performance, they have limitations.

 

One of these limitations is a common method bias. While using qualitative measures to collect data on CSR is useful, it does not allow for the analysis of cross-cultural differences. For this reason, future research should include multiple sources and report cross-cultural differences.

 

Another limitation is the absence of empirical studies on the role of employee CSR. A recent call for studies has suggested that more empirical research is needed to explore this issue. In addition, the hospitality industry has a unique set of characteristics. While the industry has had a positive impact on the economy, it has had adverse impacts on society. Hence, hospitality firms need to focus on understanding their stakeholders' needs and identifying key stakeholders. It is also important for firms to respond quickly to customer needs.

 

Whether you are running a hotel, restaurant, or other hospitality business, there are several factors to consider regarding female leadership style and firm performance. Fortunately, studies are available to give insight into how these factors affect business results.

 

The hospitality industry is fast-paced and needs motivation from all levels. Employees must feel trust and empathy from their managers, or they may leave. As such, the hospitality industry could benefit from a more balanced gender mix.

 

The hospitality industry is constantly evolving and incorporating globalization. This has changed the organizational structure and has brought about the need for a more collaborative leadership style. Ultimately, the hospitality industry needs leadership that focuses on diversity and inclusion. A good leadership style motivates employees and makes them feel they can grow with the company.

 

Using MyLogIQ data, the Wall Street Journal analyzed U.S. compensation for the top CEOs of public restaurant companies. It found that the average total salary increased for the sixth straight year. It was the highest level in the past five years.

 

The compensation package includes the base salary, share options, and other monetary rewards. The Pay-for-Performance model also considers EBITDA growth and stock appreciation. In addition, executives receive variable compensation based on their stock holdings. These awards vest over time.

 

The average hotel CEO's salary increased by 2% from the previous year. This was more than the trend in the publicly held industry. The average hotel CEO receives additional pension help, as well.

 

Hospitality industries award more bonuses and long-term incentive plans. Non-hospitality sectors also tend to offer more restricted stock awards. However, when share prices are expected to decline, CEOs favor cash.