You wish that every hotel would treat you the way you were treated this weekend. From the minute you checked in to the property, through the requested wake up calls, and until you were on your way back home, the stay was excellent. in fact, the positive experiences with this particular property started when you made your first phone call to ask about room availability. Even though you were dealing with a phone reservation center, the process was both painless and pleasant.
When you compare this great customer service to some of your previous stays on other properties, the rest fall short. Disconnected calls, unanswered questions, messed up reservations, and unexpected charges are frequent parts of the typical hotel reservation process, but the property where you stayed last weekend was the exception. In fact, you would recommend any property in this chain to any of your friends and family.
Positive Experiences Speak Volumes, but Negative Experiences Scream Much Louder
The best hotel management software can help a business manage everything from reservations to questions to complaints. And while it may seem like the reservations are the most important, the reality is that it is often how hospitality management software systems handle complaints that can have the biggest effect. in fact, statistics show that 96% of customers forced to expend ?high? effort with a company over a problem are likely to be disloyal. This information provided by the CEB research group shows that a quick resolution is always in a company’s best interest.
With the best hotel management software solutions, property owners can make sure that they are making use of the latest trends in hotel industry technology to meet the goal of having satisfied customers who leave talking about the virtues of their latest stay, instead of screaming about the problems that they experienced.
Consider these statistics about the importance of having the best hotel management software solutions in place:
- Cancellations are a problem in every industry. Unfortunately, the average no-show rate is 10% daily.
- Unless you can get notification ahead of time about a cancellation, the information does you no good. If, for instance, a reminder call finds that a guest with a salon manicure reservation is not going to be at an appointment, but does not cancel the appointment and allow for another booking, the software is not serving its purpose.
- Statistics show that 53% of people use their mobile devices to find travel related information. It is essential that your website helps make the transition from inquiries to bookings smoothly.
- Three out of four travelers are planning one or more weekend getaways this winter.
- One of the reasons that potential customers abandon online or over the phone reservations is long wait time.
- More than half of Millennials and Gen Xers indicate that cost is a barrier to their leisure travel plans, but only 45% of Boomers agree.
- Estimates indicate that building loyalty with 5% more customers can lead to an increased average profit between 25% and 100% per customer.
- Reservation specialists need to be well trained and prompted with software commands that can efficiently and effectively make bookings.
- Statistics show that 74% of travelers plan to return to a destination they have previously visited.
- Estimates indicate that travelers conduct an average of 17 research sessions before booking.
- Reservations are only one part of the hotel industry. Software support also has to handle cancellations and extensions, complaints and specific requests.
- Very patient hotel staff members can help frustrated customers reach a faster resolution to even difficult situations.
- Instead of reacting to customer concerns, hotel software can prompt staff members into a planned dialog.
- Consumer reviews are considered by 50% of bed and breakfast (BandB) travelers, after they first sort for price and location.
- Estimates show that 47% of BandB travelers also look at online photos.
- Cancellation policies that are flexible are important to 43% of BandB travelers
- Online booking is important to 43% of BandB travelers.
- Unless their friends make a positive recommendation, 46% of BandB travelers will not look favorably at a location.
- Negative experiences can be devastating. In fact, 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company in 2011 because of a bad customer experience, according to Harris Interactive/RightNow.
- The best hotel management software manages reservations, specific room requests, cancellations, questions, and complaints.
- Software solutions allows customers and employees to easily navigate available options.