Can Your Hotel Manage Guest Experience at Scale?
The growing, new age of booking platforms are all about customer experience. This not only includes offering contactless options, but also using technology to make the experience much more personal than ever before. With hotels adopting new sales channels like Airbnb and VRBO, they will also need to adopt this communication design into their overall customer experience.
Technology has already been well underway in encouraging guests to check-in online, self-checkout, or purchase their own snacks. Thanks to the pandemic, these self-service options, in which guests essentially make zero in-person contact with staff, will be the norm for the foreseeable future.
However, while guests are making less and less in-person contact with hotel staff, they are making more and more digital contact with staff.
Though this has been the standard operating procedure for guests on Airbnb, VRBO, and the alternative accommodation providers, can hotels handle this at scale? Are there any risks?
Online check-in has been available for a few years, but now it is becoming the primary means of checking in to a hotel. While these “contactless” options might present themselves as a tremendous efficiency booster for a hotel or resort, they are not without their challenges.
For one, communications might not necessarily be one and done: the guest might have questions about the property’s amenities or certain policies and procedures.
Additionally, the guest expects the property to respond quickly within the same channel or modality: phone, website chat, in-app, email, or text message.
Investing in additional digital communications channels might not be an option for many hotels. Instead, hoteliers can work with a partner like BnBerry which has years of experience serving as an outsourced channel manager for hospitality brands seeking efficiency and new revenue opportunities.
Guest communications: a customer care challenge but also a revenue opportunity
Hoteliers who wish to list on Airbnb, VRBO, Flipkey, and the other alternative accommodation platforms soon become fully aware of the need for more advanced, frequent guest communications.
On Airbnb and the other platforms, communication is usually much more frequent and is two-way directly with the listing owner — not with a customer care representative. When guests have questions, they communicate directly with the property owner.
Consequently, they also expect answers immediately.
Because hoteliers will be responsible for communicating directly with the guest — and in order to convert travelers and not lose a potential sale — hoteliers will need to step up their communications game. Further, instant communications contribute to a strong customer experience and can lead to fewer negative reviews upon checkout, higher loyalty, and repeat bookings. Instant communications also increase the listings placement, because they indicate that the listing is being “talked about,” indicating it's popularity.
Direct communication with a host or property owner was one of the earliest features of Airbnb and is now a cornerstone of Airbnb’s service. What’s more, direct communication has now become a standard in the hospitality industry and is now expected across any and all booking platforms.
Hotels must accept this reality by building high-volume guest communications into their customer service.
No need for additional staff
As staffing challenges continue post-pandemic — the hotel industry has nearly triple the unemployment rate of the U.S. national average — hoteliers need to provide extended marketing services and customer care. An outsourced provider of guest communications can serve both functions, freeing up existing staff to work on more urgent matters while streamlining the process of answering questions of both prospective and booked guests.
Complicating matters is that guest communications can take place through a variety of channels, including online/website chat, within a mobile app, email, or text message. Guests might use one or several of these — and they expect the hotel to keep communicating via the channel of their choice — 24/7.
To be able to quickly handle this so as not to alienate guests and maintain a high response rate, hoteliers can instead rely on a partner like BnBerry that can assume the role of contact center so that the guest can use the communication channels to which he or she is accustomed. BnBerry can handle and unify this seamlessly — regardless of the size of the current hotel staff and without needing to hire additional team members.
This simplifies the experience for both the guest and the hotel owner, reducing confusion and frustration.
However, rather than see heightened communications as a new challenge, hoteliers should view direct communication with guests as an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell additional amenities, such as larger rooms, tours, spa services, or membership/rewards programs.
In this way, guest communications can not only serve as the cornerstone of customer experience but can also serve as a much-needed revenue generator for the property.
How to list on Airbnb and why hotels need BnBerry
Hotels see nearly immediate ROI by working with a full-service solution like BnBerry that has years of experience in dealing with guest communications in addition to the requirements, processes, and systems of Airbnb and the alternative booking platforms.
BnBerry maintains substantial customer service operations, enabling hoteliers to process guest requests 24/7 via any digital channel regardless of the staffing environment.
BnBerry streamlines the process, enabling hotel owners to start seeing new revenues in as little as a few weeks of implementation.
See how much production your hotel can gain from Airbnb.
Connect with a BnBerry representative today!
About BnBerry
Trusted by world-class hotels and resort brands, BnBerry will work with you to: Connect your hotel to Airbnb and VRBO for free Increase sales up to 30% and see immediate ROI Provide full-service, in.
