Using voluntary customer surveys as benchmarks, UK-based marketing agency
BluSky Marketing has identified previous patronage and word-of-mouth recommendations as key drivers for business to these luxury hotels.
Participating properties, which offered the surveys online, were "best in class," having achieved a 4.6 or greater "star rating."
The key findings from the customer surveys:
- Excellent overall satisfaction drives repeat guests & WOM/recommendation
- Previous (30%*) & WOM/recommendation (25%*) key business drivers
- Selected hotels securing upto 28% via search, or upto 8% via TripAdvisor
- Called direct (47%) & website (17%) key reservation preferences by guests
- Selected hotels securing upto 26% via other websites (e.g. booking.com)
- Dining experience (quality of food & service) and exceeding guests expectations contributes significantly to overall guest experience and “Star Rating”
- Selected hotels securing up to 60% response rate, or alternatively up to 700 responses per quarter, without incentive to complete guest experience survey
Of these, the most compelling of this cohort"called direct" as a reservation preference. Phones are still the primary method of contact for many consumers, so adding a "click to call" functionality to websites, digital collateral and digital advertising is paramount for hotels.
In addition, the importance of service and dining options is great. This dovetails with the general trend of hotels providing top-notch dining options, with even mid-range independents and brands offering an improved dining with bespoke culinary experiences.
"How did you hear about us" also provided some clarity on the various ways consumers continue to interact with marketing - multiple messaging methods are still vital in this scenario.
After considering their overall experience, guests were asked whether or not they would recommend the experience to others.
Cross-referencing Hotel F, which had the lowest rate of likely recommendations, something strange occurs: on other questions, respondents seemed to be more satisfied there than on other hotels, with dining, service and overall.
The hotel also had the highest level of call-in reservations. Could it be that there are fewer opportunities to engage a call-in reso after the fact? Could it be that there was more in-built expectations that the hotel couldn't address within the limited scope of a phone call? Food for thought.