FindItMore | Managing a hotel isn’t easy at all. There are several things you need to consider and take care of — your business, your staff and your guests and clients. Lots of challenges are present in the hotel management business, and the most common, visible and just-within-your-reach challenge is receiving complaints from hotel guests.
Truly, hotel staff are available and always on-the-go to help solve, prevent and avoid occurrences wherein guests will complain about anything. Sometimes, however, hotel staff are the ones being complained about by guests. But why? What makes some hotel staff complainable for guests?
1 – SLOW PACE
Hotel guests hate when the staff take a lot of time before they move and respond. For instance, a guest asked for an extra blanket to be brought in his/her room. If the hotel staff takes around 30 mins to bring it to the guest, it may annoy him/her because it might be the only thing he/she is waiting for before going to sleep.
Most guests who also complain about staff’s slow pace are either the impatient ones or those who urgently need the staff’s response and their requests granted. Dealing with impatient guests is a bit difficult because they have a certain limit for their waiting time.
For those who direly need an immediate action for their demands, it is not negotiable that staff put double effort to deliver the guests’ needs as soon as possible. For patient guests, they complain if they have waited already for so long, and they haven’t heard from the hotel staff yet regarding their inquiries.
2 – FORGOTTEN REQUESTS
Hotel staff might have a lot of things to work on and other guests’ requests to fulfill, and sometimes, they might forget to grant other guests’ needs. While this might be unintentional, guests hate this simply because they get no solution to their problem in the hotel room; for an instance, the shower handle is broken. If the staff forgets to call the attention of the utility department regarding that room’s shower, then, the problem won’t be fixed.
Forgotten requests may be due to staff being forgetful, occupied, absent-minded or neglecting the importance of taking notes of guests’ requests.
3 – LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
Hotel guests do not know everything about your accommodation, your services, your facilities, your policies and your limitations. Of course, they have questions that need answers; they have demands that need satisfaction. The people they believe they should ask are the staff in your hotel — the chambermaid, the bellboy, the housekeeper… everyone!
Guests get shocked and surely pissed off if they inquire about something, and the hotel staff that is supposed to be trusted doesn’t know how to answer their question or puts the guests to mishap because of lacking knowledge about the accommodation.
4 – POOR EXPLANATIONS
Unclear explanations lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding which lead to more unfortunate situations like the guest not being able to understand that availing a certain service requires additional payment.
Even if the staff knows a lot about the hotel, if the way he/she explained the instructions needed by the guest, still, it may result into something bad if the guest did not understand well or understood it differently. The staff might have explained well but have also forgotten to mention an important part.
5 – IMPOLITE ATTITUDE
Above all, the worst thing that a hotel staff could have that makes guests mad and complain is an unreasonably impolite attitude. This is most likely to happen and acceptable as a guest complaint because it’s truly improper.
Some hotel staff might show some bad attitude if the guest keeps on asking questions, or if they just don’t feel like working well. For instance, the staff might be out of mood that he/she can’t work properly and that he/she is able to answer the guest irritably. Even though some guests might understand that hotel staff are humans too who get tired and annoyed, some don’t let that pass because they believe that they’re guests who must be respected.
Doing the job well doesn’t make up for the bad attitude that the guest sees from the hotel staff. Kind hotel staff are loved by hotel guests. In fact, if a hotel staff is really nice, and the guests see the effort and concern, they won’t complain anymore even if there something to get annoyed about. They can let it slip off for the sake of the hotel staff’s hospitality.
CONCLUSION
It is very unhealthy and unhelpful if your hotel staff are like the above-mentioned ones. They’re not favorable for your business because hotel staff are the faces that your guests encounter and communicate with regarding their booking and their stay. They are your business’ representatives, your spokespeople and your team members. Each of them reflects your service and your image.
Hotel guests surely don’t mean to get stressed and to complain during their stay in the hotel. Of course, it’ll also be a bother and an extra concern for them. It’s just that there are factors that urge them to do so, most especially when their needs, their rights and their money are negatively affected. That is why it is so important that hotel staff are ready in general and always ready to adjust and work well for hotel guests’ worthwhile and safe stay in the hotel.
