Learn how to use online surveys to find out what would make your guests happier. Use the collected data and improve the quality of service in your hotel network.
Who is this article useful for?
Today, the hotel industry is a truly competitive environment. Individual hotels are constantly competing and impressing their visitors with modern conveniences. Well, as much as their budget will allow. So what to invest in and what not to invest in? Take advice from your customers.
In this article, we explain why customer satisfaction is extremely essential in the hotel industry. We'll show how online surveys can help you find out what your customers think of you and if they are satisfied as you want them to be. You'll learn a simple way to collect data and use it to determine what to focus on.
Besides online surveys, hotel owners can also use reviews on various comparison platforms or Google as feedback. However, they often lack detailed information that can help them discover hidden pain points. The number of stars in the rating alone is not sufficiently telling. It is not possible to make very precise decisions based on 'likes' or 'dislikes'. One would still be improvising.
A well-designed online questionnaire, however short and concise, will lead us to detailed information that will reveal exactly what we need to improve to keep customers coming back. Well, that's what we need most - returning customers.
In the hotel industry, you can conduct a survey in many situations:
You can take your survey once or repeatedly. Even a one-off survey will give you valuable data. However, data from a longer period of time is even more valuable for subsequent decisions. By conducting the survey repeatedly, you can track how customer preferences change over time. Maybe you'll find some seasonal changes in guest behavior, maybe their purpose of travel changes throughout the year. You can adapt your service and your communication to this.
Before we dive into survey design and questions, we bring some smart tips on how to elevate your services to the next level. You can draw on them when you make new decisions based on the data from your survey.
Your efforts do not have to be expensive. You don't have to renovate the entire lobby right away to make your guests' stay more enjoyable. Do the little things:
It won't cost you much and it will make your guests happy. Perhaps they will share your helpfulness on social media.
People like to stay connected. Free wi-fi is not a nice-to-have, it is a must. Hotel apps are becoming a trend. Guests can open their room doors with their mobile phones. They can use the app to call the staff or send them a message via messenger.
In large cities, a fully equipped conference room or auditorium is often in demand. It must meet the requirements of modern events. Data projectors, screens, software for virtual meetings, interactive TVs - if you have it, you can compete in today's fast-paced market.
Take care of your employees. In order for them to smile at your guests, they need to feel good about themselves. Reward them adequately for their work and form a team with them, taking their feedback into account.
Give them the training they need to become true professionals who will give your hotel a competitive advantage.
Define the goal of your survey. Write down information that you want to find out. Decide if you are going to survey all of your guests or only a specific group. Choose people who will carry out your surveys and care for implementing strategic changes that will result from the survey. By all of that we want to say: Don’t start with creating concrete questions, start with a plan. The questions in the survey will then reflect your survey objectives.
Don’t be afraid to use matrix questions. They make your survey shorter and clearer as they group more questions together. The rating scale is also called the Likert scale.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the direct way to find out how loyal your customers/clients really are. A Net Promoter Score is a telling metric that is quite easy to interpret. We have prepared a whole use case dedicated to Net Promoter Score.
Don’t hesitate to try out our sample questionnaire for hotel guests. Or create your own survey, you can choose from 19 question types including the NPS question type.
Tip: Pay attention when choosing a question type. Choosing the wrong question type can ruin the validity of the data. Be careful especially when considering single choice and multiple choice. The data evaluation is different. To make sure you don't make a mistake, we recommend that you read the article How to use closed-ended questions correctly.
Another useful question type is an open-ended text question. This type of question is most useful when we want to find out detailed information, especially attitudes, opinions and moods of your respondents. However, when evaluating open-ended questions, you have to go through each answer individually. We recommend sticking to this rule: If it is possible to use a closed-ended question, do it. Only when you would lose the coveted piece of information by using a closed-ended question, return to the open-ended one.
All questions are fully editable, you can add or delete answers, set up a condition of obligatory question, add an image or video, choose the format of the answer (e-mail, number, date, text). Watch the video and see how easy and intuitive the survey builder is.
Reach guests on the channels they naturally use to communicate. You can share your survey:
Each way of collecting responses is suitable for a different situation. Surveying before the arrival or after the departure of your guests is a great opportunity to use bulk e-mail invitations. When you want to ask the guests during their stay in the hotel, you can either share a link to the survey with them (through your hotel app for example) or you can simply provide them with free wi-fi and post a QR code on the wall in their room.
Find out why our customers choose Survio as a reliable feedback solution for their business.
You don't have to wait to collect results from all guests. You can watch the survey unfold in real time. Survio generates the results automatically in clear tables and charts. You can filter summary results and also individual answers, change the type of chart, create pivot tables.
You can download your results as a report in one click (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, CSV or Google Sheets) get ready to present ascertained data to your colleagues in an instant.
Be proactive. Don't wait for a client’s complaint. Find out through your online survey what wishes your guests have and meet them if possible. This approach will show your guests that you are one step ahead, that you are willing to go the extra mile. Next time, they won't be choosing a hotel, they'll call you straight away.
