- Guests have expectations. Much like the new bride, Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show, all guests have expectations. They have prepared and arrived filled with ideas of how their vacation should go. After all, why shouldn’t they? What’ is important to a customer should be important to you as an innkeeper. Try your best to make their experience as welcoming as possible. Something that helpsthem to feel cared for is to send, before they arrive, a welcome email giving them directions and instructions. This makes your guest’s travel less stressful and helps build excitement.
- Give them "dime" moments. Norbert Schwarz in a study of his, found that something as small as a dime can change the way we view life. He placed a dime on a copy machine and interviewed the people who both found the dime and those who did not. He then asked the individual how happy they were about life. The people who found the dime were more upbeat and had a much better outlook than those who did not.
- Be prepared for your guest. In the video, Rob arrives at the hotel and the mattress is missing and the innkeeper is even freshening up the room while he is in it. This kind of inattention to detail, though exaggerated, sometimes happens. Housekeeping might forget to straighten up. Some locations need very little preparation while others need much more. No matter whether you are a big or small property, being prepared for a guest’s arrival will make their settling in so much easier. The less you have to tweak, the more enjoyable their stay will be.
- Treat your guest like a celebrity. In The Dick Van Dyke Show clip, the innkeeper says she “wants her guests to feel like they are in their own home and I am a member of their family.” An article on Hospitality Trends explains that there is a fine line between being familiar, accommodating, and helpful to your guests versus being annoying and intrusive. Guests often want to be able to go into their room and shut the rest of the world out, not have an innkeeper standing in the doorway while guests are in compromising situation like the Petries. Allowing guests to have their space when they need it is a great way for them to feel respected. In essence, be available when your guest needs you but don’t stalk their every move.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.


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