Have you ever had a hotel, resort, inn or bed and breakfast guest standing in front of you complaining and you were not quite sure how to handle it?

Let me share with you tips you can use, along with some of the most common customer complaints.

With the continued evolution of online hotel, resort, inn and bed & breakfast review sites, social media, forums, and fuming customers on YouTube, a property's level of guest service is increasingly visible to the outside world.

For this reason, it is vital that you have a working operation manual with the appropriate policies to handle customer complaints, as well as the properly trained staff who not only welcome guest complaints but actually, encourage them.

Unfortunately, many hospitality property employees believe the handling of complaints is an unlikeable task but one that comes with the job.

With proper policies in place and training from day one on how to use these policies, employees can change their view of customer complaints.

Employees and especially owners of independent hotels, resorts, inns or bed & breakfasts should look at customer complaints as an opportunity.

"The worst complaints are the ones you do not hear."

The majority of guests who were not happy with your property did not voice their opinion to the owner or the front desk but instead told their friends, family and colleagues and in more and more cases went online to express their irritation.

Yes, some customers do complain, thus offering you a chance to find a solution, but what about all those customers who do not say anything.

This is where training should involve employees to look for unhappy customers and give them the opportunity to complain.

I have an example, not from the hospitality property but a restaurant, a very well-known restaurant, on the waterfront in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Over the years, I had recommended this restaurant to many people and one day, while eating there, the owner came over to me and said: "Gerry, you send many people our way, do you ever get negative feedback?"

I said, "No, I don't, why do you ask?"

He said "I know our restaurant has a great reputation but I also know we cannot do everything right all the time and if I don't know there's a problem, it's very difficult to fix. If you ever get any complaints, please let me know".

This is a restaurant, but the same applies to hotels, resorts, inns and bed & breakfasts.

Most people are not comfortable with the idea of being confrontational and would much prefer leaving a property, not saying anything, but never returning.

So, how can you get a customer, a guest, who was not happy with something tell you?

There are a couple of ways I have seen work.

Have a specific e-mail address on the bill, on the evaluation form and in the room's information packet for complaints.
For example, complaints@myproperty.com

I've also seen the same idea with a specific telephone number – a complaint hotline.

The best way is to have employees who can read a guest. This is done with proper training.

Continue reading and I'll share with you some tips employees can use plus a lot more...

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