In mid­-2019, SEEbtm conducted a survey on how much effort hotels and hotel brands in the region put in creating experiences for their guests.

The overall conclusion is that everyone wants to create a positive and unusual experience for their guests. However, for now only a small percentage takes a systematic, methodical approach to the objective. As a result, creating the guest experience is largely left to luck and good weather, when it’s there.

Every hotel brand and venue that took part in the survey underlined that they indeed work to create the guest/customer experience. They do this mostly (60%) by implementing unusual amenities and events on their premises – performances, themed events, exhibitions, and similar. In addition, they often use special concepts and design for this purpose, as they do information technology. Hotels also frequently rely on their own staff and their interaction with guests in creating memorable experiences (Chart 1).

Hotels in the SEE region still mainly (60%) get feedback from guests regarding their needs, impressions, and experiences by having them fill out a questionnaire when checking out at the front desk or upon arrival in the room. 20% of them collect feedback through online questionnaires, and another 20% through reviews. We can say that the region’s hotels collect 60% of comments and impressions by direct survey at hotel (Chart 2).

Considering that the website of the hotel, hotel brand, or venue is quite often the first point of contact for the guest and that it also affects the guest’s experience in in interacting with a particular brand, 60% of the survey participants note that a UX designer was involved in creating their website (Chart 3).

The same share of respondents said that the percentage of users’ satisfaction with their website exceeds 50%. No respondents reported users’ satisfaction with their website as high — greater than 80%. On the other hand, quite a lot of them, as many as 40%, reported users’ satisfaction with the hotel website as less than 30% (Chart 4).
This information decidedly indicates that these failed to take enough care of user experience and website structure and design (read more about UX design by clicking here). In this regard, 80% of the survey participants said that their hotel and hotel brand had no mobile app that their guests could use during their stay and that could improve interaction with the brand and the overall experience, but that they would soon have it (Chart 5).

All this suggests that the awareness of the need to plan the guest experience is underdeveloped in our region, but we believe that, as with everything else, the hotel industry leaders will approach this issue in the future with more commitment and resources. This will make good experiences less a result of ad hoc outcomes and happy circumstances and more a result of well-thought-out tactics and invested effort.