Hotel owners and managers spend much of their time researching the latest trends. Bookings increase when guests feel appreciated and heard. The same theory applies to hotel-restaurant customers as well. They want a great experience when they dine, but what details add up to a five-star experience?
These are the five ways to make your hotel restaurant customers happy. The strategies enhance any customer’s experience from the moment they make their reservation when they call for their check.
1. Improve Your Customer Service
Restaurants thrive or fail because of their customer service. People go out to eat for convenience and to feel treated to something special. Struggling to get their server’s attention or waiting in the lobby area will give any hotel-restaurant a terrible reputation.
Before the restaurant ever opens, management should teach valuable customer service skills to food service employees and managers. Poorly trained staff or managers with bad attitudes directly affect every customer’s meal. Hotel guests who don’t enjoy dining on-site will also feel less inclined to return to a property with terrible customer service.
2. Start a Rewards Program
Many hotels create or partner with restaurants to give their guests more on-site dining options, but that doesn’t mean guests will stop by for a meal. Families and people on a budget may view it as an expensive place to eat compared to dining deals down the road.
Starting a hotel-restaurant rewards program is another way to incentivize guests and visitors. When they sign up for the rewards program, they’ll earn points with every restaurant purchase. Those points then turn into free in-house spa services or credit with local businesses that partnered with your property.
3. Upgrade Your Cleaning Supplies
Dirty tables and countertops make guests wonder if the restaurant’s kitchen is even dirtier. They don’t create a pleasant environment for relaxation either. Upgraded cleaning supplies are one of the most essential ways to make your hotel-restaurant customers happy, starting with your towels.
Bartenders clean up messes every night. Even a small spill takes up a large part of any bar countertop or booth. When they have access to a storage room full of high-quality towels, they’ll handle nightly spills with instant absorbency and use them to polish surfaces clean at closing time.
Low-quality cleaning rags or towels only push liquid and sticky spills around. Make your hotel-restaurant customers happy by ensuring a clean place to eat and relax.
4. Designate the Dining Area
The best dining atmosphere has dimmed lights and soft background music. Ambiance sets a calm, pleasant tone for the evening, even when guests arrive in a hurried or tired state. The experience shatters if people bump into their chairs with luggage near the front desk or lounge next to them in pajamas.
Every hotel-restaurant should have a designated dining area. Recommend a dress code to avoid mixing slippers with business dinners. Set the tables far from the noise of people coming and going through the lobby. These efforts make the restaurant an escape for anyone who needs a good meal.
5. Rotate Your Menu
Customers also want to see a little variety. Choose a few main entrees they can return for, but rotate your menu regularly. Switch out special dishes with guest chefs or create seasonal menus around the holidays. Even themed drinks at the bar will reinterest guests who want to come back for another culinary adventure.
It’s also wise to adapt the menu to the customer’s needs, even with frequent updates. Listen to what makes dining easier for them. Offering a limited-time discount or finding a way to add grab-and-go meal boxes shows your appreciation for their needs while providing the same food flair that put your restaurant on the map.
Send Guest Surveys
After each guest leaves, make sure they get the chance to fill out a survey. A link at the bottom of their printed or email receipts gives management another way to make your hotel-restaurant customers happy and get ahead of potential problems.
Related Article: 5 Fun Restaurant Promotion Ideas to Increase Hotel Bookings
We are in this together!
I need to let you all know that we are in on this together. If you need to vent, talk, cry, or just have some to talk with then I am here listening. Since I am working part-time at the local Kroger, I will to the best of my ability to work it out around my schedule.
But you can reach me here:
Email: hotelblogger@aremorch.com
Also, join us at our Facebook Group – Hotel Social Media Community
We will get through this unprecedented event together! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
For any specific information on COVID-19, I recommend go to CDC, WHO, AHLA, AAHOA, and HSMAI. Also, follow information from your local authorities.
NOTE
We are starting to reopen some hotels again (Yay!!!). Make sure you follow their guidelines and say THANK YOU to those that now show a unique spirit to serve, and helps us all get through this!! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
Credit
Kacey Bradley is the blogger behind The Drifter Collective, an eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us. Along with writing for her blog, she has written for sites like U.S. News, SUCCESS, Guides for Brides, Hotel Online, and more!
Follow Kacey on Twitter and subscribe to her blog to keep up with her travels and inspiring posts!
About Are Morch
Hi, I am Are Morch. Your Digital Marketing Coach and Customer Experience Expert that specializes in creating effective digital customer experience offer for hotels while growing and scale customer acquisition and revenue.
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