Saturday, September 29, 2012

Exactly Does Hotel Mystery Shopping Involve

If you own a hotel then you may have heard about hotel mystery shopping in the past. However, if it still remains something of a mystery to you then you may want to find out a bit more about it because it can be a very useful way to find out about areas of your hotel where you can improve your service.
Here is a quick guide to what is involved in hotel mystery shopping.
Quick Overview
Hotel mystery shopping is when a company provides you with a service whereby someone stays in your hotel as a normal guest and reports upon their experience afterwards. They may provide details about a whole range of areas of your establishment, depending upon the service that you require.
Mystery Visits or Phone Calls
Hotel mystery shopping can take a number of different forms depending on the service that you require. Although the standard experience involves someone staying in your hotel for a night or two, you may also want to hire someone to call your establishment by phone, either instead of or in addition to the guest staying the night.
A mystery phone service can highlight other important areas where you can improve, and is especially important because this is often the first point of contact for customers who are thinking about staying in your hotel.
Whichever type of check you want to be made, they are generally followed up with evaluations and reports that clarify all of the areas where you are doing well and where you could be making improvements.
Areas that Can Be Examined
There is a range of areas that you may want to be examined, and the amount of areas that you choose will often affect the price of the service. For example, you may want to test out all or just a few of the following areas:
• Reception service
• Hotel bookings
• Bar and restaurant
• Public areas
• Guest rooms
• Room service
You can normally choose from a basic service or a more comprehensive service, depending upon your requirements and how many of the areas of your hotel there are in which you feel you could improve. However, it is worth remembering that even if you think that one area of your hotel does not need improvement, sometimes a mystery shopper can highlight issues that you were not aware of, allowing you to improve that area even more.
Benefits of the Service
There are numerous benefits of inviting a mystery shopper to your hotel, and some of the main ones include:
• Find out which areas of your hotel need improving
• Identify staff weaknesses as well as positives that can be rewarded
• Allows you to seek appropriate solutions
• Receive coaching and training following your evaluation
• Improve the customer experience
• Boost sales and improve over your competition
As you can see, hotel mystery shopping incorporates a wide range of techniques. All of these have one goal in mind: to enable you to find out where you can make improvements and to act upon them.

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