How to Harness Feedback and Turn Reviews Into Opportunities

When you're in the hospitality industry, how you handle guest feedback is critical to your success. Negative reviews, in particular, can be sticky. What are some best practices to ensure you protect your reputation? Here's how to harness feedback and turn reviews into opportunities.

Don’t Ignore Negative Reviews

Negative feedback requires special care; ignoring it will only worsen it and hurt your reputation. Guests want to be heard, especially when their well-laid plans have gone awry with a stay that didn’t meet their expectations. It's essential to address issues directly and do so professionally.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” - Warren Buffet, Businessman, Investor, Philanthropist.

Responding to negative reviews (every single one of them) can be very good for your hospitality business because it gives you the opportunity to:

• Target problem areas so you can focus on improvement
• Gain insight into what guests think about your services
• Clear up cases of misunderstandings
  

The bottom line is that keeping a pulse on negative reviews and being professional in your responses will help you provide a better guest experience moving forward.

Always Apologize, Even if the Customer Isn’t Right

You may disagree with a customer who left a complaint, but it's best practice to include an apology in your response. Always illustrate the utmost professionalism in your response.

You can also use this to infuse some positive aspects of your hospital business into your response. For example, in the fictitious review below, there’s both an apology and a reference to the warm welcome and quick service that’s provided to guests.

“We're so sorry to hear your stay with us began on an upsetting note. Our front desk is the heart of our hotel, and we strive to provide every guest with a warm welcome and quick service. We've taken note of your concern and will address it with our staff. Please don’t hesitate to contact us directly if you want to speak with us further.”

Solve Their Problem

Negative feedback helps pinpoint problems that have gone unnoticed but need to be addressed. For example, let's say a guest was unhappy that the towel bin at the pool was always empty during their stay. That indicates there's likely a problem with laundry.

When a guest complains, they want to know that you will take that complaint seriously. You can do that by letting them know you’ve resolved the issue (or are working to resolve it). It shows you’re taking action based on what they’ve told you, plus making an improvement that was likely needed.

Invite Them Back

Ask a guest who’s left a bad review to give you a second chance so they can see that you've made things right. A discount, refund, or credit can help persuade them to return.

You’ll get a return guest who will likely be happy you took them seriously, addressed the problem, and asked them to return for a better experience. Chances are they’ll change their tune and leave a better review or amend the negative one they left previously.

Not Getting Great Reviews? We Can Help

From highly trained staff to impeccable cleaning and specialty services like commercial kitchen cleaning, Hotel Cleaning Services is a partner you can count on to help you create extraordinary guest experiences. Contact us today!