Having travelled a lot in the last month I have been observing some great differences in the levels with which hotels are looking for feedback from their guests.
Interestingly, this comes as a reminder that away from the world of online reviews, there are valuable procedures that can still take place in a hotel.
The problem is some hotels simply do not seem to care about customer feedback, others have it is a simple review score card implemented as a systematic part of their operations, few however really ask me for my opinion and make me feel they really care
But with the trend of online reviews, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that SOME hotels still really care about my feedback.
Over the past month I have travelled all over the USA and Europe, and most hotels did not provide me with a guest comment card, not even at check-out so I could put it in the mail and send it back to them for free.
Most of the hotels that did provide a guest feedback form, had one of those Tic Tac Toe forms.
They simply want me to degrade my opinion of their service to a number - just a score. They do have an option for additional comments below each section, but must do not realize that by the time I get to that, I am kind of worn out already.
I am sure that the management of the hotel will also receive very interesting stats and graphs based on these bingo cards. They will be able to analyze which department scores what percentage of guest satisfaction, and follow trends over time.
This last week, though, a hotel really surprised me. They asked me their opinion not at check-out, but continuously during my stay.
Every day there was a comment card on the bed, posing the following question: "How did we do today?"
But not only did housekeeping put it on the bed after cleaning my room, they also provided it when I ordered room service, and it was again on the breakfast table.
In short: they are constantly looking for feedback on the services used in the hotel.
I did not mind filling in the form several times, as they asked me open questions, showing a genuine interest in my opinion. The questions on the form were actually very simple:
- Your feedback?
- How you evaluate our services?
- Small details. Big differences. Are there any small details that you particularly valued (or any new ones that you think we should be look at)?
The fact that they focused on real input instead of scores I really liked. If hotels want to improve their services, it is not about a number, it is about the actions they take. Suggestions and comments from guests will ALWAYS be very useful.