The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and TrustYou present Do You Know Your Guests?, a new white paper that discusses how the pandemic changed guest behavior, including how they travel and what they expect from hotels; best practices for responding to guest feedback; and how automated solutions can help.

Through interviews with industry leaders, HSMAI and TrustYou explore how companies have applied the lessons they learned during the pandemic to implement responsive and data-driven solutions.

“As guests’ needs and wants have evolved throughout the pandemic, it is vital that we truly understand and respond to their feedback,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, president and CEO of HSMAI. “This white paper explores hotels’ needs and best practices for collecting and utilizing that feedback to better serve guests.”

Do You Know Your Guests? focuses on four main topics:

COVID Changes Everything

In analyzing travel and booking patterns throughout the pandemic, experts identified several key developments — some of which have long-term implications for hotel companies, especially as they relate to the importance of adapting quickly to changing guest behavior.

Crisis Communication — After the Crisis

As many marketers have shifted to virtual channels due to the pandemic, COVID only underscored the valuable role that digital plays in identifying and engaging guests, gathering their feedback, and cultivating their loyalty. Here’s how those dynamics shifted throughout the pandemic and have continued to evolve during recovery.

Listening and Responding

As feedback from guests becomes increasingly important, communication has been increasingly decentralized, and hotel companies have focused on how best to listen and respond. Experts share the best practices they’ve found to be most effective when it comes to managing the feedback cycle.

The Future of Feedback

As the hospitality industry moves through recovery and business continues to return, the dynamics of guest feedback will continue to evolve. Experts share how they are preparing for that.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we saw the importance of sharing real-time hotelier experiences, as we were going through an unprecedented time in the industry” said Valerie Castillo, VP of marketing at TrustYou. “We knew that HSMAI was the perfect partner to bring together the voices of hospitality to share what we’ve learned as it relates to guest experiences and feedback. This white paper acts as an industry roundtable discussion, leaving readers more informed about how their own experience compares to their colleagues across the hotel network.”

Access Do You Know Your Guests? on the HSMAI Americas website.

About TrustYou

TrustYou is on a mission to make communication and feedback simpler and more productive. All communication channels, together in one place, is the new way of doing business. Today, customers expect instant responses on their preferred communications channels. As a subset of communication, feedback is the foundation to build better products, services, and companies. TrustYou helps companies win through the power of listening and provides a Guest Experience (GX) platform that makes listening to customers easy, powerful, and actionable. — trustyou.com

Download White Paper

About HSMAI

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as the Commercial Strategy Conference, Sales Leader Forum, and Adrian Awards. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is a membership organization comprising more than 5,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at hsmai.org.

Kaitlin Dunn
MCI | USA
HSMAI