By Tom
Costello
April 2013
Mandy Green, the
Social Media Director and hospitality industry blogger at Monscierge
followed up
with me recently about an article that she posted, 'The Guest Experience Five Easy Ideas'.
The content of
her post was inspired by a piece that appeared in Hotel Management about how Bill Spencer, GM at
Hilton
Memphis, selects guests on a purely random basis for a program he calls
'Guest
of the Day.'
Programs like
this can really help your hotel to Stand Up and Stand Out from your
comp set so
here are a five ideas that I shared with Mandy that can help you to
infuse some
energy into your hotel and your guest's experience.
- Create
a social space. Guests of your
hotel are handed an 'invitation' at check in to meet that evening with
the GM, Head Chef or anyone else who would be considered a high profile
representative of your hotel and/or the community. The 'meet and greet'
lasts just 30 minutes and everyone who attends are eligible to enter a
drawing for a prize that would be given away at the end of the month or
quarter.
- Invite
guests to collaborate. If your
ownership or GM is contemplating a change that would impact guests,
your GM could check reservations for a selected day of the week and
invite arriving guests who are members of your hotel's loyalty program
to meet with him for a 30-minute cocktail reception where he shares the
change(s) and solicits feedback from the group.
- Promote
local crafters and artists and
allow them to showcase their work at your hotel in your social space or
another high-traffic area in your hotel. This type of showcase is a
365-day program featured at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, WI. Here is
a link to their 'Artist in Residence' program. I was
introduced to it during a site inspection and it's pretty cool.
- Some
hotels are adding short classes to the guest experience,
complete with take-home items to remember their stay. If your hotel has
a bar, invite a small group of patrons each hour during happy hour and
teach them how to make your hotel's signature cocktail. Provide each of
the participants with the cocktail recipe printed on your hotel's
stationary.
- No
matter which of these ideas you elect to use, turn your guest's
experience into a photo or video op that your hotel can include on
your website, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest or Tumblr page.
If you have an
idea or campaign that you would like to share with your peers send it
to [email protected]
and I will include it in my next post.
Here are a couple
of past posts from the Stand Up and Stand Out series that you might
enjoy
reading.
Stand Up and Stand Out – Your Hotel's Digital Media
Approach To
Storytelling
Stand Up and Stand Out From The Rest Of The Pack In
2013
_____________________
About the Author
Tom
Costello is the CEO
and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a hotel consulting and sales
training
company that helps hotel owners and their sales teams to grow their
business
and generate more sales.
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