1.
You better do it perfect because you will get no second chance; the Guest is sharing this with
his friends. The truth is that Guest communication is greatly undermined in terms of the impact
it has. Traditionally, it is supervised on departmental level as an organic part of each
department’s operation. But should Guest communication be regarded like this and what
decisions must be taken to change this?
1. Must become a leader
Initiate communication, create communication leads and follow up on them. The basic element
that distinguishes a hotel from a serviced apartment and allows for charging a premium is
human interaction /communication.
2. Must have Guest centric communication and services.
Along with the advancement of technology human communication has been altered
in character and communication channels have been enriched. After the
introduction of information technologies (internet, portable computers, network
integration, etc) communication channels are targeted and so frequently utilized
that endorsing them in the hotel services is becoming more or equally important
to the use of the Guest’s mother language. A good example is that it is not anymore enough to
offer a newspaper in the morning, but whichever newspaper the Guest likes, in whatever
format, on whatever platform, application or even what part of it is to
his/her interest.
3. Must want to research, be curious.
Usually the only time that a service has been properly researched and
introduced in a hotel is on drawing board / during its feasibility study.
Even though there is a wealth of information hidden in the “everyday”
operation hotels fail to utilize them and only respond to competition. The
main reason is that small-medium hotels cannot afford the resources. I will draw an example
from my experience in Greece, a major drawback dominating the Greek hospitality industry.

2. The Property Management Systems (PMS) that are used by the hotels in Greece are either
very basic packages with basic functionality or primitive in relation to collection and
representation of data generated during a stay.
4. Must admit that enough is not enough.
This applies to the misleading notion that the Guest experience derives from the wealth and not
the quality of services. Guests are highly knowledgeable reviewers and standards are the
minimum requirement for them, not the higher performance to be achieved. Therefore, achieving
them does not make a hotel “the best” or even “good” in providing value. Conception of value is
becoming more multi-influenced and includes time and marketing communications (projected
services). My interpretation of value of stay would be:
Value = Experiences gained + services consumed
Resources dedicated (time + money) x projected services
5. Must accept that there are many stakeholders.
Everything produced is a result of processing inputs from the environment.
Competition, Guests, suppliers, friends, visitors, communities, media, etc.,
everybody contribute with their own way to the final tourism product. Those
are your stakeholders therefore they have interest in learning how you operate,
your culture, success stories or even shortcomings.
This is just the icing of the cake and my empirical approach to a very wide subject based on
my experience in Guest Relations and hospitality. There are many more points to make
regarding the emerging need for strategic management of Guest communication and the
information generated from it in hospitality. Certainly, there is no right or wrong answer and I
encourage you to respond to this post and add your crumb of knowledge and opinion.
Thanks for reading!
Vassilis X.
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