Weekly briefing: How Coast Hotels went from responding to 50% to nearly 100% of guest reviews

I’m excited to share today’s story with you for two reasons:

1. It’s the sort of in-depth case study I set out to write for you when I started HotelOperations.com - moving past the typical, boring, salesy highlights and getting into all the practical details of how hotel operators actually did an important project that had a big impact on team members, guests, and owners alike

2. I created this in partnership with the company I spent 7 years with (Shiji ReviewPro), an experience that shaped my perspective on operations being the most important part of a hotel business today

To write today’s case study, I spoke with multiple people across the Coast Hotels organization: from their head of revenue and communication to their brand engagement director to general managers at multiple properties. I really wanted to tell the story from a 360-degree perspective to give you some actionable insight, and I think we did it with this one.

So without further adieu….

SPONSORED BY SHIJI GROUP

How Coast Hotels Designed, Launched, and Runs its Guest Feedback Management Program

With Brigitte Diem-Guy, Head of Revenue Strategies and Communication at Coast Hotels

Jobs to be done: Collect and process guest feedback to improve satisfaction, redesign brand standards, and drive revenue growth

How they approached this: Hiring an internal project lead, buying and onboarding Shiji ReviewPro, and driving internal adoption through healthy competition.

Outcomes:

• From sporadic responses to near-total response rate (50% to ~100%)

• Time savings (~30/minutes a day for GMs)

• Competitive intelligence (“We can see what guests are saying.”)

• Increased pricing power (“If you create a better than average guest experience, you can also earn higher rates for doing that.”)

• Higher staff motivation (“The feedback makes my staff feel good, and it’s been great for engagement.”)

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• Bonus: Wil Slickers interviews me on Slick Talk: The Hospitality Podcast