Watch out for the hotel spy

Amid current debates on revenue management, investment opportunities, company re-engineering and streamlining services - issues mentioned repeatedly at last month's Arabian Hotel Investment Conference and Arabian Travel Market - it can be easy to neglect the most important focus of a hotel's business: the guest.

After all, while the economic climate has certainly affected the hospitality industry, it has also impacted each and every customer, especially those from core Middle East feeder markets in Europe.

To bring the focus back to the customer and their needs, this month Hotelier Middle East has launched its partnership with Grass Roots, a mystery shopping organisation based in the GCC with experience of the consumer and hospitality sectors.

The objective is not to catch hotels out, but to offer them a fresh pair of eyes, track down best practice and draw attention to areas that may need improvement from the customer service point of view.

While the assessment of each hotel is subjective and based on one mystery shopper's view, the method of reporting is objective, with each ‘hotel spy' having to rate the same areas in accordance with a strict marking scheme.

They are then encouraged to offer comments and observations to give the hotels much-needed insight to aspects of their property they may not have time to assess in their daily roles.

The mystery shoppers have started their investigation in the June issue at the very top, by checking out three of Dubai's best five-star resorts: Park Hyatt Dubai, One&Only Royal Mirage and Al Qasr, Madinat Jumeirah (see pages 52-53 on the print issue of Hotelier Middle East).

In future issues, the mystery shoppers will look at properties in other GCC countries and those in other star-rating categories also.

In the first report, as would be expected of such high-class hotels, all rated well, with each mystery shopper saying they would return and recommend the property to friends and family - a true sign of customer satisfaction.

However, even these hotels fell down in some areas, the most notable, considering the current late-booking climate, being the delay in emailing reservation requests to potential guests. With consumers booking holidays to Dubai later than ever before and ringing around hotels in order to get the best deal possible, it is imperative that requests are followed up accurately and immediately.

If you don't, you are in danger of losing that guest to the hotel next door that does respond in time, regardless of whether your deal is actually a better one.

Not only are people strapped for time as well as cash, but the way you respond to their enquiry is the first experience they have of your service and your brand.

Make sure it is a good one.

Louise Oakley is the editor of Hotelier Middle East.

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