The seamless stay: Engineering consistent guest experiences

You want to give every guest an exceptional experience staying at each of your hotels. But how do you ensure a consistent guest experience when each location has its own unique characteristics? And how can you stay consistent when each guest has their own personal preferences?

The key lies in a strategic, integrated approach that harmonises brand standards with personalised service, empowered staff, and continuous adaptation. It’s vital to put these frameworks in place as part of your hotel expansion strategy, so that you can continue to offer the service and experience your guests know and love.

Let’s examine the key elements of how to improve guest experience and how to implement these changes across your hotel brand over multiple locations.

Mastering personalisation

Personalisation isn't just a trend in hospitality; it's an expectation. Hilton’s 2024 Trends Report found that 85 per cent of modern travellers find their guest experience to be of crucial importance, so you need to be tailoring your services to cater to each guest’s unique preferences.

Integrate loyalty programmes

That same Hilton Report found that 67 per cent of travellers prioritise their loyalty programmes. By implementing a programme, you can capture a wealth of guest data, from their booking history right down to their preferred pillow type and dining habits. It provides you with a vast data pool that will help you understand individual guest needs. Make sure the programme is managed centrally - staff need to be able to source information across your portfolio - and by recognising preferences regardless of location, you’ll create a powerful sense of belonging for your guests. When it comes to hotel expansion, a loyalty programme encourages guests to explore new locations, confident of a consistent experience.

Utilise AI data analytics

The sheer volume of guest data can be overwhelming. AI-powered data analytics can sort through a large amount of data quickly and identify patterns and trends. Look to rapid pattern identification when analysing CRM and loyalty programme sata. You’ll get an understanding of guest expectations, behaviour and desires. Predictive personalisation enables you to assess future needs based on past and real-time data and proactively offer relevant services. And you can also use AI to refine segmentation, identifying hyper-specific groups so you can target them accordingly.

Create tailored experiences

Perhaps you find that guests staying in suites are more likely to dine at your in-house restaurant, or that families spend more time watching TV in their rooms. Use analytics data to offer bespoke room settings and entertainment options or tailored dining experiences. For example, you can pre-set smart lighting for “relaxation mode,” or ensure family-friendly streaming services are easily accessible. Use AI-gathered data to inform front-desk staff of a guest's preferred check-in time, or to offer

Use guest-specific advertising

Personalisation extends beyond the stay itself to your pre- and post-arrival communications. Based on booking data and loyalty profiles you can offer relevant services in a pre-arrival email, for example. When a guest departs, you can use data to craft a personalised thank you message or to re-engage with a relevant offer.

Invest in staff training

Every interaction a guest has with a member of staff is an opportunity to reinforce your brand values and improve guest experience.

A strategic investment in staff training is paramount for a multi-property brand, ensuring every team member is a genuine champion for your hotel brand. Scalable and centralised training programmes, such as e-learning platforms and video tutorials, ensure uniform knowledge and service across all properties.

By showing your staff that they are valued, productivity and staff morale will improve as you empower them to embody your hotel brand values in everything they do. With a higher morale, they become brand ambassadors, helping create memorable moments for guests.

As a growing brand, you want to foster consistency across properties, so guests feel confident they will always receive the same high level of service. Alongside digital training, be sure to also implement role-playing and scenario training so all staff know how to deal with complaints, queries and special requests.

Create feedback loops

In an industry as dynamic as hospitality, guest expectations and trends are perpetually evolving. To ensure your guest experience remains consistently exceptional, you must implement proactive, multi-faceted feedback loops that allow you to stay on top of guest sentiments, identify areas for improvement, and adapt your offering as an ongoing strategy.

Involve the team

Gathering feedback is not exclusively a responsibility for management. By involving your whole team, you can gather thoughts and opinions from different departments, using their front-line insights. You’ll also get buy-in from staff members who feel valued for their opinions. Implement consistent meetings where teams discuss recent feedback, identify recurring issues, and brainstorm solutions aligned with brand standards.

Sentiment analysis

AI-powered sentiment analysis tools can look at large data sets of customer reviews to analyse their emotional tone - going beyond simple number ratings. In this way, you can identify which of your locations, services or features are repeatedly flagged as negative or neutral, and improve your offering in that area. You can also spot declining sentiment trends early, allowing you to address issues before they escalate and impact overall brand perception.

Make data actionable

Feedback only becomes useful when you take a structured approach to its analysis and management. You need to keep track of how well your improvement initiatives are working. Set yourself measurable goals and use a performance management system to track trends and categorise feedback.

Use more than data

Big data gives you quantifiable results, but the qualitative ones can be even more valuable. Ask your staff what they’re hearing on the ground and about their experiences of engaging with customers and the feedback they receive directly. Train front-line staff on how to politely and effectively solicit direct feedback from guests during their stay. And for deeper qualitative insights, consider conducting small focus groups with frequent guests or in-depth interviews.

Celebrate success stories

Elaborate on positive guest experiences and use them as a teaching point. Why did this guest have such a great time, and what were the hotel or staff actions that led to the good experience? Publicly acknowledge staff members or teams who receive outstanding feedback. This reinforces positive behaviour, boosts morale, and encourages others to strive for consistent excellence in service

Strategic local adaptation

The expectation of luxury travel is changing, with an increased number of guests valuing immersive experiences that give them a sense of connection with the place, the locals and the culture. A recent survey by global tour company Trafalgar found that over 70 per cent of travellers valued new experiences more highly than seeing every landmark in a location. Tap into this trend by offering boutique experiences that are intimately connected with your hotels’ locations. 

Make your identity key

Build your experiences around your hotel brand identity to make guests feel immersed in what makes you unique. Tease out the relevant values that connect your brand to the destination and talk about them in your messaging. How does the local culture complement or enhance your brand's narrative? While you’ll have an overall brand tone of voice, you have leeway to produce localised content that highlights unique aspects of each property's surroundings.

Create a sense of place

Tap into the appeal of the local area by adapting each particular hotel to the culture and heritage of the location. A good hotel expansion strategy needs to take into account that each destination is different and adjust its offerings accordingly. Consider collaborations with local artists, food producers or experience providers. Create menus that highlight local dishes and design spaces that showcase local materials or textiles, while maintaining the core brand design principles.

Create unique experiences

As Hilton’s 2024 Trends Report shows, modern travellers prioritise experiences extremely highly. Offer guests the chance to immerse themselves in the local environment by providing unique experiences that are connected to the local culture. These could include nature walks with local experts, interactive cooking classes or exclusive access to cultural events. Empower staff to share their local knowledge and favourite spots, too. 

Embrace sustainability

Guests are increasingly conscious about sustainability measures and want to feel confident that they’re travelling responsibly. Make sure to implement sustainability measures that are relevant to the local environment. Be open with your guests about sustainability goals and efforts and share examples of how you are helping. Develop consistent brand guidelines for how each property engages with its local community, whether through sourcing, employment, or charitable initiatives, reinforcing your brand's commitment to responsible tourism. 

Improve guest experience across multiple locations

When you’re expanding a hotel brand to multiple locations, you need to consider brand and service consistency to improve guest experience. It requires meticulous attention to personalization, strategic investment in staff training, proactive feedback mechanisms, and the intelligent integration of local culture within a unified brand framework.

At Peregryn, our experienced team helps you craft and communicate unique guest experiences. Together, we can help you create the frameworks you need to ensure consistency across your portfolio, build a strong brand strategy and communicate effectively across touchpoints and digital channels. We’re focused on elevating your guests’ experience.

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