Dealing with difficult
and demanding guests after the initial thought of 'where is the
cellar key!'
One of the many
challenging roles of being a General Manager or indeed a Duty Manager
of a hotel, and unfortunately or maybe fortunately in my case I/ we
are not on duty 365 days 24/7 hours of the day, is dealing with the
demanding.
You must also realise
that in our industry we command little 'respect' amongst
professionals however you must also understand that we do deal with
humans, children, alcohol, families and a few other subjectives that
may not be appropriate to mention – oh and by the way we have to be
experts in the fields of nutrition, health and safety, sleep
patterns, psychology and what colour the duvet needs to be!
I could tell you a
story or two of 'professionals' when they are clocked off but I
better not.
Thankfully they tend to
be few and far between but there is always one or two.
A challenging guest
could be a celebrity or a VIP, they could just be an ordinary person
like you and me. You also have those regular normal humans that
whilst on the coast of Eastbourne really feel the need to let it all
out and colour one of my bedrooms with red hair dye which is really
not acceptable in a 'blue rinse' area but as they say no day is the
same in hospitality!
So, how do we deal with
guests like this? Well, it helps to remember that challenging guests
are easily stressed or have eclectic or unreasonable expectations. It
is key to stay calm in such a situation and try to understand exactly
what point the customer is trying to make so we can do our best to
resolve the situation if we can. On the other hand however, the guest
may take your calmness as an indication you don't care as much as
they do, so serious people reading skills are required. Politicians
note 'conflict resolution' come to us for advice! Ultimately you need
to make them see and feel you are taking their issues seriously. By
doing what you can to help, it will with any luck turn their
unfriendly and challenging behaviour around and in turn their
experience will become a more positive one. Sadly however the
'unhinged' guest sometimes just have to be put up with until they
leave but look on the bright side it gives the staff something to
bemoan instead of me! More often than not in our case they then
continue to return, mumble and grumble, but still refuse to stay
elsewhere even if we offer to assist them out!
We can occasionally be
our own worst enemy and so it is important to manage our guests
expectation where we can. People handling is not for the feint
hearted and it is therefore possible that you misread. For example,
we use the BRA theory (Best Room Available) which means, if we have a
better room available when you check in, we will upgrade you
automatically which should put you in a good mood. This goes down
well and helps create advocates for us, however there are those that
then expect it to happen on all future visits, and of course if we
can't the guest can turn into a bit of a sulker. This is where the
unrealistic bit steps in. We have in the past had an offer that the
guest would be happy to let the situation drop if we turn their room
in to a deluxe whilst they wait. Quite a serious suggestion that took
us all by surprise!
All of our hotel
managers and the staff will always do their best to accommodate and
make your stay as pleasant, comfortable and enjoyable as they can and
we do our best to rectify or find alternative solutions for you
wherever possible. Ultimately we want all of our guests to leave us
happy and planning their return visit! What is the point of us
'deliberately' going out of our way to annoy you? Sometimes contrary
to suggestion we are not 'Basil'.*With thanks to our guest writer Mark Cotman for helping with this blog.
