by Lyda Durango
The latest technological solutions allow the hotel to establish direct and completely online contact with its customers. In this way, complaints, suggestions and comments not only become part of the automated management of the hotel but are also the point of arrival of a management that begins from the moment the client makes his reservation.
The value of opinion
Faced with the question of where will the printed formats that hotels use to ask for the opinion of guests go? And it is that surely many users feel great frustration to see how their complaints are left to chance and without follow-up, abandoned in a mailbox. But times have changed.
From its property management system called Medallion, Consisho, Systems Consulting for Hospitality, launched its Guest Satisfaction Index as a response to the need of hoteliers to know in real time the opinions and wishes of their guests. "Normally Medallion could send his confirmation of reservations with e-mail but in a rather archaic way," says Eligio Bernal, general director of Consisho Mexico, representatives of Softbrands for Latin America. "So what we did was create a way to interface between our PMS and customer satisfaction," he adds.
The system works at three crucial times: booking, stay and checkout. In the first instance, the client makes the reservation and the hotel immediately sends him a confirmation via e-mail, but it is not just any message. "It is a booking confirmation in HTML format with photos and very beautiful," says Mr. Bernal. At that time the client must accept in his mailbox the email address of the hotel so that it is not considered as spam. From that moment, the hotel can establish direct communication with its future client thanks to different tools used by this solution.
Increasing profitability per room
With services such as E-relationship, On-line commend card, upgrade manager, VIP Concierge Ammenities List, Bounce Back Manager, E-Blast Marketing and Full House- Automated Return Guest Marketing, the hotel is guaranteed to have under the same workflow the guest satisfaction index. With the upgrade manager, for example, the hotel can send communications to its guest inviting them to rent another type of room different from the one they initially booked. "The hotel can send a message telling you that for $25 more you can have a suite instead of a double room or it can send you information about restaurants, spas and city tours," explains Mr. Bernal. "That's what's called stay marketing," he says.
At this time the RevPar of the hotel is positively impacted thanks to the invitation that the hotel makes to the guest to consume more services and products within the hotel. "In the same way it is possible to adjust this campaign to different criteria, for example, guests who normally arrive at the hotel in summer will see different offers and photos of guests who visit the hotel in winter," explains Eligio. In the same way, offers are provided for clients in working week stays that will be different from those customers who normally use the hotel on weekends and in the case of group reservations it is possible to generate a very specific and suitable scheme for this segment.
The next and last stage takes place at the time of check out. "The hotel sends the guest a thank you note and asks them to fill out the online review card and there gives their opinions about the hotel's services ," explains Eligio Bernal. "About 25% of the people who receive the thank you note click on the link and let us know their comments," says Bernal. Once the comments are received, the alert service is configured that allows the system to send an email according to certain criteria. If in the comments we find words such as "bad service" are sent directly to the hotel manager or if words like "dirty rooms" are found they are sent to the housekeeper department.
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Satisfaction means loyalty
Beyond having happy customers, hotels seek to build loyalty. But this is not an option exclusive to the big hotel chains. Fortunately, independent hotels and small chains that until now had been oblivious to frequent customer programs have before them a new option from their website and 100% online to manage their loyalty program. "In addition to the Satisfaction Index, we generate a membership club within the hotel's website, where the members club will be housed for end customers and travel managers," explains Eligio.
Once the club is created within the hotel's website, members enroll and receive a frequent customer card and for each reservation the member makes at the hotel, they earn points to be redeemed for different types of prizes. On this same site, partners can check their statement and manage the loyalty program entirely online. For the hotel it is an easy and quick option to have permanent contact with its most frequent customers, something particularly strategic in the business hotel sector. Such is the case of the Hoteleles México Plaza.
Loyal customers and partners
Eric Bourdeles is a Frenchman with an impeccable Mexican accent and as the coo of Mexico Plaza hotels he knows what this solution can mean for his business. Mexico Plaza Hotels are four-star hotels focused on the business traveler market. Currently, the chain has five hotels in the state of Guanajuato and all have the PMS Medallion. Thanks to this, you have great expectation in the benefits that the guest satisfaction index and the loyalty program can provide to your company.
"We aspire to build a network of frequent customers and through this solution maintain permanent, dynamic and very close contact with our customers, either with the end user or the intermediary," explains Mr. Bourdeles. Whether you are the travel agent or the corporate travel manager, Eric knows that this program will help you retain them and have more and better business. "For us they are the key people, whom we want to take care of and get the best feedback from them and follow up appropriately," says Eric.
But there is another type of customer for whom this solution is even more important. Thanks to an innovative system of investors, Mexico Plaza Hotels have made available to private investors 50% of ownership of the chain. Thanks to this model, this hotel group has 93 investors. Thus, 90% of that 50% of ownership is in the hands of individuals. "Then the club client or investor can log in at any time with their password to stay in touch with us," says Eric. It seems that with so many types of customers to maintain, Mexico Plaza Hotels have found the solution to suit them.
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Medallion PMS, friendlier
When in 2004, Consisho launched Medallion, by July of that year only one hotel in Mexico had the system. Currently, they have 61 hotels in Latin America. "The goal for July 2008 is to close with 70," says Eligio Bernal. And it is that the growth of the adoption of this system has had to do with the adequate response to the market at the right time.
Landmark was Consisho's first proprietary management system but about eight years ago, it was replaced by a more updated and improved version. Medallion is a system with 32-bit technology, a step ahead of the previous platform under DOS.
With a server running under a Windows 2003 platform and several computer equipment any hotel can purchase this system. For example, for a hotel of about 200 or 300 rooms, about 30 machines are required, in addition to the server, which would represent an investment of about US $ 30 thousand.
