Guest Experience

Guest Experience

There must be an emotional connection to how the experience is delivered which will have started from the moment they booked. This is predominately from giving tip top instinctive customer interaction. 

Providing your guests with a great guest experience, from sampling local gin whilst sat star gazing in a sumptuous window seat to awakening the senses in an outdoor bath. These experiences will make them feel special no matter what the season. We’ve talked before about time well spent and giving your guests the opportunity to choose to turn their phone off and go off grid for a heavenly two days or reconnecting with nature by scavenging for kindling to light the log burner. Connect with your guests’ needs.

Act as a host who knows exactly what the guest wants. (perhaps before they even know if themselves) 

Share your location 

We don;t mean just send your postcode and a set of directions. Your glamping/ accommodation offering might be head and shoulders above local area alternatives but don’t ignore what your community and area can offer and how that can contribute to a better guest experience year round. It doesn’t have to be beaches and tourist attractions. Can you offer bicycles to guests so they can enjoy the local cycle paths without having to bring ikes with them? Perhaps your local National Trust has a Wassail tradition or your town hosts a stunning Diwali light festival like the one in Edinburgh each year or a popular outdoor winter market. Think about special interest groups – is there a conservation lake that welcomes winter birds each year? Encourage an inclusive audience and embrace your locality and what it can offer even in the depths of winter.

Communicate with your guests. 

Give care, attention and confidence when you communicate with your audience, try separating your audience groups out when speaking to them. For instance, show solidarity that you understand it will be a four-hour drive to visit with 2 tired children but that you are giving them the right reason as to why they booked with you in the first place. eg: easier than going abroad, flexibility, anticipating problems, making life easier when they arrive. 

Create and send a friendly and fun e-guide or print to them when they have booked. 

This not only frees up your time but by sending out a guide that is specific to them e.g. a couple’s guide has information on spa treatments and rock climbing whilst the family guide features relevant info for them including the family friendly visitor attractions and even the best service stations to stop at enroute. (Have you visited Gloucester Services yet?) 

Surprise & Delight

The main aim should be to enhance the customer experience – making each guest feel individual through recording their spending and behavioural habits when they stay with you. Exceed their expectations. We mentioned providing a handy guide when they initially book. This should be their first experience of how you will…‘Surprise & Delight’ 

This is above and beyond a loyalty scheme or good customer care. 

A gesture of a welcome hamper with a handwritten note on arrival which totally surprises them and because you already know they are vegan ensures all products are appropriate. 

This is a far more of a genuine approach. 

Other Surprise & Delight add-ons 

• Late check out option.
• Plenty of hot water 
• Send a postcard -reminding them of their stay, what they enjoyed or news about something they enjoyed when they were here. For example if part of their previous stay was to go to a local festival then remind them that tickets will be on sale soon. It’s an indirect promotion rather than direct. 

All these elements and considerations can make a guest stay with you so much more than they would have expected and are far more likely to return and recommend.