Hospitality Reputation Marketing: Get Great Reviews Adele Gutman Milne CHBA, CHDM

The Art of Housekeeping owner, Lonny Wolfe returns to our podcast with powerful words of advice for hoteliers challenged with mixed reviews due to housekeeping issues.


Just as COVID-19 increased the need to inspire trust with travelers on our cleanliness and hygiene practices, the industry was thrown into a second crisis- how to hire and retain sufficient housekeeping staff.


The world may refer to “The Great Resignation”, but in the case of our industry, it was simply a lack of desire to return back to work. Even when the enhanced federal unemployment support ended, workers failed to return in full force. Many left for less taxing higher-paid jobs with more benefits, fewer hours, better schedules, and a better work-life balance.


There has been a lot of discussion about the need to enhance the employee experience in the industry, but it makes one wonder why it takes a pandemic to think about treating our teams with the care and compassion we want them to give to our guests.


The Hospitality Industry recently celebrated Housekeeping Week, a time when hotel leadership takes the time to show extra appreciation for our hard-working housekeeping teams, but the time has come to show appreciation to all our staff every day.


Lonny Wolfe, Owner of the new company, The Art of Hospitality, is a former GM who is a shining example of how you can challenge your team every day, set the highest standards and expectations of excellence, and keep a loyal, engaged, high-performance team who stayed with the hotel year after year. The 3-Star hotel was one of the highest-guest rated hotels in Florida, thanks to an unwavering flow of five-star reviews.


I hope you enjoy this conversation about how Lonny shows hotels how to create employee and guest loyalty, starting with the hardest working people on any property, the housekeeping team.

Ken McGarrie, Author of the Surprise Restaurant Manager joins Adele Gutman on the Hospitality Reputation Marketing Podcast to discuss:


 


Why even 1-star reviews are great feedback for restaurant managers

 


How to inspire your restaurant team

 


What topics you must not forget on your pre-shift huddle

 


How to build great reviews starting at the interview process

 Please LIKE, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE! If you have any comments or questions for Ken McGarrie or Adele Gutman, please leave us a comment below! We are here to help!


 Buy the Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/The-Surprise-Restaurant-Manager/dp/B08YP1R14Y


 Connect with Adele: 






Website:     https://www.adelegutman.com/






LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/






Twitter:      https://twitter.com/AdeleGutman






Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspireFiveStars/






Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspirefivestars/

Tracking Customer Satisfaction Score (CSS) can often give managers and teams a false sense security. Alternatively, tracking Your Hotel’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be a shocking experience. But it can also be a very rewarding experience as you identify where you are with guest loyalty and work collaboratively with your team to reduce friction and elevate delight for your guests.


 


In this 13-minute video, Adele Gutman explains how CSS and NPS are different, why these leading indicators matter to savvy hospitality revenue and marketing professionals, and how to track these KPIs with your team, your leadership, and hotel owners.

What’s in your tech stack enhancement plans this year? Contactless, AI, CRM, CRS, PMS, Revenue Management, all great tools that everyone should have and use to the fullest.


 


But according to Jordan Ekers, the Co-Founder of Nudge, technology alone will not transform your business’ guest experience nor your ability to retain clients and employee’s loyalty without working to win the hearts and minds of your team. When everyone is fully engaged and aligned with your company’s mission, goals and values, incredible financial results will follow.


 No, I am not talking about Reputation Management tools, although they are wonderful to have and very worthwhile.


 I had the pleasure of speaking with Jordan, who talked with me about how Nudge, an internal communication tool that can help hospitality leaders transform the culture of companies by facilitating 2-way communication between teams and leadership.


 Is that a Marketing tool? I say, 100% yes! Absolutely!


 


Your Business’ Reputation is the foundation on which to build any commercial strategy for success. Sales, Marketing, and Revenue initiatives will all be greatly impacted by the loyalty created on the strength of your Guest Experience.


 Decision-makers will check your hotels' reviews before booking…


 


after your sales team has made a call to a potential client.after a planner has seen your meetings and events advertising.after your sales manager has made a great presentation at a tradeshow.after a traveler has seen your hotel on a meta-search site.

 The list goes on. Great experiences drive loyalty and return visits better than any incentive. Travelers are willing to pay more and stay more often when friction points are minimal and kind, unpretentious service is in abundance. You lower the expense of acquiring new guests when not only do you keep more guests, but you inspire your guest to share their amazing experience with everyone they know and everyone online.


 I hope you enjoy the conversation. If you want to learn how to get the maximum impact from a communication tool like Nudge, please give me a call and I will be happy to help you with your Reputation Optimization plan.


www.adelegutman.com

Adele Gutman, the foremost expert on Hospitality Reputation Marketing addresses a few of the most commonly asked questions.

I have a great story for you today! If you want a fantastic example of how leadership and the highest standards for guest experience excellence can produce more revenue, more return visits, and more five-star reviews, you won’t find a better example than in the story of Craig Poole, AHLA General Manager of the year and President of Reading Hospitality Management - Doubletree by Hilton.


Hear how Craig took a distressed hotel in one of the poorest, most crime-filled cities in Pennsylvania, hired nearly 200 people, many with no experience and no exposure to what service and hospitality looks like. He looked for people who felt hope for the city and the joy of hospitality in their hearts and gave them a chance to build something amazing together that would change people’s lives in the city of Reading. Even ex-felons were given a second chance to turn their lives around for themselves, their families, and their community.


Now The Doubletree by Hilton in Reading, Pennsylvania is not only the top-rated Doubletree in the world with a perfect 5-Bubble review score on Tripadvisor, but it also is one of the highest-rated hotels on Tripadvisor in the entire state, and comfortably selling at rates $50 a night its competition.


Mr. Poole says that he and his team accomplished this extraordinary level of guest satisfaction, completely aligned with the culture and values of Hilton and Doubletree. Indeed, if everyone at the brand actually embraced the well documented values of Hilton, the entire company would see it’s guest satisfaction scores rise significantly along with revenues and shareholder returns.


If you want to hear what might be stopping other GM’s from embracing this more joyful and effective leadership style, you’ll just have to listen.


Here are some other great podcasts made by my friends which I am sure you will enjoy:






Toni Reese and Craig Poole: Humanize Profit


Loren Gray’s Hospitality Marketing Podcast.


Lily Mockerman’s Hospitality Revenue Management Podcast:


Holly Zoba’s Hospitality Sales Podcast


Dean Schmit’s Hospitality Meta Search Podcast:


And you can see many of us together on Fridays at 11:30 AM Eastern on


This Week in Hospitality Marketing










or find us on the Hospitality Marketing Club on Clubhouse!










Do you have any questions about how to rank #1 in your market on Tripadvisor, Google my Business, and other Review Sites?


Please be sure to send me a comment or message via adelegutman.com and we will be happy to help!


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