What are the best ways to understand guest needs and preferences in hospitality?

Understanding guest needs and preference is very important to deliver great service and exceed their expectations. There are few ways we can do that 1.Collect information about their preferences through following means During the reservation, check in , listen actively during the stay Store all this information in the hotel management system to pull out every time to serve him or her as per their preferences which eventually will make their stay truly memorable.

One thing I have found helpful in understanding guests preferences is accurate profiling. Gather information about your guests at every point of interaction meaning the entire team has to be involved in curating guest satisfaction benchmarks.

In my experience, active listening has been pivotal in understanding and meeting guest expectations. It’s more than just hearing; it’s engaging with empathy, curiosity, and focus. By asking pointed questions and echoing their thoughts, I’ve clarified their needs and formed stronger connections. This approach has minimized errors and bolstered satisfaction, fostering a trustworthy environment that encourages guests to return. It’s a skill that turns service into partnership.

Create a preference sheet That is what you can anticipate the guests needs. If you are working with the guests as a butler you may follow the the guests itinerary and his all the meals to understand his individual preferences. For example while getting his room clean you will understand about his living preferences like reading book, sleeping side, volume of television, like bed tea or coffee this all you may place in your guests preferences. Similarly you may follow meals and gather all small small information and collect preferences. Actively listening also a key point to understanding guests needs and collecting preferences and similarly actively observing guests activities and making preferences sheet.

Every hotel must have a CRM • Creating enhanced guest profiles that collect and store relevant data about your guests, such as their contact information, booking history, preferences, feedback, and more • Automating the guest journey with personalized and timely communication via email, SMS, or WhatsApp. You can send pre-arrival, in-stay, and post-stay messages to your guests, as well as offer them dynamic room upgrades, upselling opportunities, and loyalty programs • Using the digital marketing suite to create and manage campaigns that target your ideal audience, segment your guests based on their behavior and interests, and measure the performance of your marketing effort

In my experience, online or offline guest feedback can be crucial in understanding guests' needs and expectations and can be used to adjust and improve our services. Ensure that you have tools that allow your organization to collect guests' feedback seamlessly, and ensure that you’re using a tool that can integrate with your systems. Ensure that you are collecting guests' emails with their consent. Secondly, ensure that you are analyzing the guests' feedback. Many tools do this for you and identify repeated comments from the guests that you can address with your team, and you will be surprised that most of them are hanging fruits and can be handled easily. Remember, it’s not us who decide what is a great experience but our guests.

CRM customer relationship management. By using it you are able to collect data from the customer before checkin, during the stay and post check out. All the data are customizable and possibly provide insights related to customer behavior, customer preferences and so on. All these info are usefull later to target your offer accurately and ensure to meet at the best customer expectations and loyalty program.

Take time to ask questions what you can do better even if everything appears perfect. Clients will appreciate you taking an interest!

With the digital age that we're living, and such limited memory that we can recall in our brain. (Please don't get me wrong, our brain is masterpiece, which we only use based on survey only 10% of its capability). Better to use tools that can help us to understand guest needs & preferences. Save Your Time, Energy, and Money to use tools to collect all of Your guest's information that can be flying around in Social Media, Online Review, Written Email, or comment from our internal team who already served the guest before. With that You can get better understanding about Your guests. Please bear in mind, that having data, is not the end of the journey. Getting insightfull data and learning from local knowledge & experience is also important.

Give everyone a chance to prove themselves that they are worthy They may not show that in the beginning but with a bit of training and pursuing in a kind and nice way they will eventually be at the top of their game

I agree with this, being proactive, listen to what is being said and what is not said. Anticipating guests needs, knowing patterns of issues that occur, when they occur, how they occur, why they occur and who is involved when they occur.

Each member of the team can contribute to learn guest needs and preferences thus be able to create a superb experience for the guests. I can share the initiative of creating an incentive for all team members who participated in populating the information of each guest in house, by filling a card for guest preferences, either in F&B, allergens, general preferences, etc. These cards were then collected at Guest Services and each guest profile reviewed in the departmental meetings. Team members were empowered to create a wow experience for guests, fulfilling their desires based on their unique preferences. The aim was to have "Guests for Life", making them love our service and our Hotel. Name of the Program: "Making Guests for Life".

Be Pro-Active and Mindful Knowing that they prefer extra towel or pillow, is good. But understand that they are not in mood to have small talk with us because they are preparing important speech tonight, is important. We have SOP of doing things, and we called it standardization. While understanding Guest needs & preferences, it means personalization, which not all approach will have the same result. So it's rather situational, and we need to adapt in this everchanging needs & preferences. The guest might need baby cod, 10 years ago when they come for vacation, but will they need us to prepare baby cod after 10 years? I will leave this question for us to ponder.

Always know what guest wants, specially the ones who return and are long time with your brand, anticipation and listening to they needs lead to great catering

To really nail guest service, it's all about paying attention and getting ahead of their needs. Watch for cues in how they act, their body language, and what their face says. That helps you figure out if they're happy or not, so you can tweak your approach. And if you can guess what they need before they say it, that's the jackpot. It's like giving them what they want before they even ask, making their experience way better than expected. It's all about making it personal for the guests.

With an analytical approach : - Guest Experience platforms - Preferences data - Online feedbacks/surveys - Guests profils With a direct approach : - Active listening - Emphasizing/understanding concerns - Anticipating needs - Proactively engage interactions - Being curious, and observe guest's behaviors As a team member, to experience a stay in a luxury property is also a way to truly understand what contributes to guest's expectations. That is the best role play to train on guest's needs understanding.

Actively interacting with requests and most importantly with unexpressed desires, require high flexibility and creativity that help accommodating requests and create a wow factor. In the older times, we tried to investigate on guest's preferences by asking previous properties and/or colleagues who had previously served the same guests, therefore anticipating their needs at the restaurant, room, check in by providing their preferred drink before asking, their most liked pillow in the room etc. When the technology was not there and no GDPR, we had all noted in a book at Guest Services and available to be reviewed against the daily arrivals at the hotel. The attitude to enjoy making others happy, must be the common denominator for the team.

In order to fulfill guest needs and expectations it is crucial to proactively generate opportunities to get to know your guests. This proactive approach should be implemented within all the processes that occur between the property and the customer, from the reservation to the post-stay stage. Connecting and building relationship with our guests will help to provide tailored services. Standardization cannot be the norm, instead customization and creativity will drive memorable experiences.

This is definitely facts, guests very much like to be checked in with , this gives you the chance to see if everything is going accordingly or if you need to tweak your plan. Also it reassures the guess that you're committed to your promises. Guests feel appreciated and this builds rapport and also almost always ensures you have repeat customers and happy ones at that. This is usually good for some free advertisements as a happy, satisfied guest is one who tells their friends .

To genuinely grasp the needs of your guests, it's essential to immerse yourself momentarily in their lifestyle and comprehend the nuances of their experiences, including weather-related sensations. Meeting these expectations is crucial for a successful connection with your audience.

Understanding guest needs and preferences by -Collecting information about guest preferences before arrival through communication channels like email or online check-in. - Inquire about specific requirements, such as room preferences, dietary restrictions, or special occasions. -Maintain detailed guest profiles within a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. - Record guest preferences, special occasions, and any specific requests to personalize future interactions.

Going above and beyond, making it easy for the guests not for the operations. Being in the service industry, means being able to be provide service to guests coming to our facilities to enjoy, spend quality time and relax. Smoothing angles of stress, means facilitating guests to enjoy their experiences without worries. When working for a busy 5 star All Inclusive concept and during peak season, guests had to spend long time to review the activities, book their favorite restaurants etc. We decided to have a welcoming team right at the airport, accompanying the guests during their transfer to the resort and meanwhile explaining all benefits and features, enabling them even to pre-book their activities and restaurants and room registration.