I send every guest a "thank you" email. I receive these from bigger hotels, too. I don't find them offensive. I think it's nice that they've acknowledged my stay. The heading of my email is "Thank you for your stay". If guests choose to delete it without reading it, that's fine. The template I have automatically fills in the guest's first name in the subject line & greeting. The template then goes on to ask if everything was ok during their stay & is there anything we should change. Most guests don't reply, which again is fine. For guests that reply & rave about their stay, I send another email asking them to copy & paste their rave review online. Other guests provide ridiculous "constructive" feedback. One guest commented that it would be nice to be able to turn on the bathroom fan with a separate switch instead of it turning on automatically with the light. Thanks lady, I'll rewire our bathroom asap!
For the really great guests who said that they loved their stay, I personalize their initial "Thank you". I'll add their partner's name, mention a restaurant they enjoyed, thank them for giving my dogs extra love & attention, etc. Then I mention that online reviews help our business. I include a link to our Google listing and offer a $25 gift certificate towards their next stay if they complete a review. I've had some success with this approach, though some guests still go straight to TA instead of Google <sigh>. This encourages repeat guests and boosts my SEO. Win-win!.
notAgrandma said:
I send every guest a "thank you" email. I receive these from bigger hotels, too. I don't find them offensive.
They're not offensive. They're intrusive. They weren't bad back when we got 1 a month. But now we (the public) get 1 or 2 a day. From every lodging on any vacation we take. From Amazon asking about our check out experience, or the packaging of our shipment. From our doctor. From pretty much any merchant who gets our email address. I'm saying, and I know you disagree and are free to, that it's becoming excessive and will soon begin to backfire on the senders.
notAgrandma said:
I think it's nice that they've acknowledged my stay.
And I don't, because I know it's a computer generated form letter, and I think most people do. Nobody thinks someone at Hampton Inn actually sat down and wrote a post-stay email, and I'd say more and more people realize that most small inns don't write them personally, either. So it just becomes another intrusion into people's lives.
notAgrandma said:
If guests choose to delete it without reading it, that's fine.
And that's pretty much the definition of spam. People HATE spam! They don't want to deal with it whatsoever.
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So, Arks, not even a thank you?
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Morticia said:
So, Arks, not even a thank you?
No dedicated thank you. Everybody gets a receipt email showing a zero balance. At the top, it thanks them for picking us. That's enough. They've moved on. Not interested in receiving a lengthy message about a place they stayed a few days ago.
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Argggh, you're killing me!
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Morticia said:
Argggh, you're killing me!
I think people these days, in general, are bombarded with too many solicitations and contacts, but I'll agree that knowing your clientele makes a difference. From what Mort has said in the past, most of her guests are older folks, many are retirees, who have time to spare, desire for, even expectation of, contact and interaction. These may be people who don't get a lot of spam anyway. For folks like that, sure, it's probably beneficial to follow up and keep the good times rolling.
Most of my guests are under 55. I get a lot of busy business travelers. I can tell they don't want, or have time for, a lot of correspondence. I don't think I've EVER gotten a TA review from a business traveler. But they do tell their friends, and I get a lot of guests who say they were referred by a colleague. So, know your audience, and act, or refrain from acting, accordingly.
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