A weary guest arrives at your hotel after a series of flight delays and long layovers only to learn your hotel restaurant is closed due to staffing shortages and unable to serve him dinner. Upon arrival this guest is unhappy—tired, frustrated and hungry, hoping to enjoy the convenience of the hotel’s restaurant. He retreats to his room, still hungry, and now dissatisfied with the guest experience at your hotel right from the start.
Situations like this happen all the time, leaving guests disgruntled, unlikely to come back or recommend your hotel to friends and colleagues. The good news is this scenario can be avoided with a comprehensive communications strategy ensuring proactive, smart communication. In fact, in this situation, the hotel could have turned the restaurant shut down into a positive experience offering a discount at neighboring restaurants or highlighting partnerships with third-party food delivery services.
Like many businesses, hotels are facing numerous challenges from continuing health and safety protocols to a nationwide labor shortage to new technology implemented during the pandemic. How hotel staff communicates any hiccups in operations as a result of these outward pressures can greatly impact the guest experience. Hoteliers can keep the guest experience and reputation in check by getting in front of any potential issues with proactive, clear communication. At the same, a good communication plan will help accentuate the positives the hotel has to share, including new amenities, enhancements and expertise in the industry.
A Host of Issues
The hotel industry has experienced fits and starts since the dawn of the pandemic with guest bookings nonexistent, then slow, then up, then stalled, then through the roof and so on. Today, leisure travel has largely returned, but business travel, and business meetings/events have been slow to follow, according to the 2022 "State of the Industry Report"from the American Hotel & Lodging Association. At the time of the report’s publication, room revenues for 2022 were projected to be within just 1 percent of 2019 figures at $168 billion, up 19 percent from 2021. AHLA also reported occupancy was projected to resume to pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
Though hotels may be heading in the direction of “business as usual,” hoteliers and some guests remain concerned about COVID-19 variants and other flu-like illnesses. At the same time, hoteliers, like many business owners, are facing staffing issues, which AHLA pointed out curb the hotel’s ability to “maximize revenue from potential travelers”. Ninety-seven percent of hoteliers surveyed this past May by AHLA reported they were experiencing a staffing shortage.
To ensure a seamless and positive client experience, it’s critical for hotels to communicate with guests, before and during their stay. The best way to do this is to develop a comprehensive communication plan.
Getting the Word Out
A good communications plan can help hoteliers and staff navigate business interruptions, changes in accommodations, as well as promote enhancements and more to appropriately manage guest expectations and ensure an optimal guest experience and continued bookings. This plan can and should include a variety of channels including the following:
1. Signage
One way to ensure guests are aware of any changes is simply with appropriate signage. For example, in terms of health and safety, we’re now seeing hotel staff post signs about newly installed filtration systems within their HVAC units to ease guest worries about viruses in the air. Others are posting about their sanitation products and procedures to ensure guests know their linens, towels, rooms and communal areas are cleaned to the highest standards.
Good signage in high-trafficked areas like elevators, the front desk and dining areas, can also be extremely helpful in conveying updates related to staffing shortages. Just be sure to try to put a positive spin on closures or reduced hours etc., where you can by pointing out convenient alternatives for guests or accommodations the hotel is making for guests in response.
Further, without proper direction, new technology, whether it be contactless check-in or phone-enabled key cards, can fuel frustration for hotel guests. Don’t let your guests wait at the front desk to check in, when your intention is for check-in to take place on a kiosk located behind them. Provide ample signage and direction to let guests know of new technology, how to use it and how to find assistance if needed.
2. Guest Communications
Hotel staff also have ample opportunity to get ahead of many potential issues with guests by communicating with them via email ahead of time or by posting updates on their website. But what do we communicate, how do we do it and how much is too much?
Often communicators have to walk a tightrope to understand how many promotional or update emails are too many. For example, when sending guests a newsletter via email, it’s critical to offer them an opt-in or opt-out option explaining how their information will be used. To determine how often to distribute the email, a hotel’s communication team can conduct a user survey.
Email and newsletter updates can be used to communicate changes to health and safety protocols as you respond to changes called for in your environment. Email or text alerts can also be useful tools to connect with guests while they are in the building—to remind them that the club lounge is open from 3-7 p.m. or that the fitness center will be hosting a yoga class. Again, the guest does not need to know the pains the hotel is experiencing due to the staffing shortage; they simply need to know how their needs will be met onsite and how hotel staff will help them to meet those needs.
3. Internal Communications
Keeping staff informed of business interruptions, changes in hours, or service or amenity enhancements is also critical. Not only is it important for employees to be kept in the loop so they can relay the messaging to guests, but also so leadership can better manage employee expectations as well. Changes to any job responsibilities should be clearly communicated and documented with both parties acknowledging the changes.
Employees may get anxious about their job security when they see a hotel restaurant closure or limitation on spa hours. Changes like these should be communicated upfront via a manager and internal email where appropriate to explain why the restaurant is closing or hours are changing and what it means for staff.
4. Social Media
Closures, changes to hours, special events or new amenities can be shared and promoted over social media to reach guests and potential guests. Hoteliers can also reshare original content created for their blog or newsletter, or media articles secured by your public relations team, via social media to drive more traffic to the website and, hopefully, to the hotel.
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are all popular social media forums for hotels to communicate with the public. A good integrated communications plan will include social media and likely implement a social media calendar that loosely defines planned content for upcoming weeks and months. It is recommended that content be adjusted for the channel with which the hotel is communicating and updated regularly.
5. Public Relations
Finally, including public relations in your communications strategy can be an invaluable way to share key messages with guests and potential guests without breaking the bank in the way advertising might. Earned media, as it is known, is just that. The hotel is not paying for this coverage (except possibly by way of a public relations firm or in-house PR team) and it is published by an independent third party. By the very nature of being featured in the media, positive articles about a hotel are often perceived as independent validation of the hotel itself, reassuring the public their temporary residency will be a sound investment.
Gaining the ear of a reporter is no easy feat, particularly these days. Reporters are often stretched thin, working several beats and covering numerous stories at once from one side of town to the other. Working with a PR agency can help open doors. A PR firm, with a specialty in the hospitality industry, will have a catalog of solid media contacts at their fingertips—reporters and editors who know the agency and recognize the quality of sources and content they provide. They will also likely have seasoned writers on hand who can help your leadership build a library of quality content for use in opinion pieces, contributed columns, blogs or newsletters—at the same time shaping management’s reputation as a go-to source.
Realistically, what you think is news may not be. Sure, some reporters may be interested in your grand opening or new spa, but often the real value can be secured in hotel management’s participation in a trend piece. For example, in-person events have made a rebound and hotels are playing host. Reporters may be interested in learning what the hotelier’s experience has been as events return. They may want to look into “hoteling” for business clients. As more corporations have closed their physical offices, more people are working from hotels to congregate with colleagues or to host meetings with clients. These are trends that can be leveraged to the media outlets your target audiences are reading.
A Winning Strategy
Developing a good communications strategy can be overwhelming. Many hotels have in-house communications teams that can and should be guiding hotel communications. Again, hoteliers looking for assistance with a communications strategy that incorporates some or all of the tactics listed above can look to a third-party PR firm to develop and help your team implement a solid internal and external communications plan. If positive guest experience is the goal, then a quality comprehensive communications plan must be in the mix.
Eileen Coyne is director of public relations for Kimball Hughes Public Relations.