Hotel Manager – How to Manage Hotel Complaints More Effectively and Efficiently?

Whether you are an Hotel General Manager, Head Chef, a corporate CEO, you never have enough resources to do everything that you really want to do. Consequently, you can’t give every Hotelier everything that they want. Complaints happen. But a Hotel Manager can listen and sometimes just listening is your most valuable and effective resource.

Hotel Guests and Hotel employees often say that they just want their voices heard. Effective Hotel Managers listen. Effective Hotel workers listen.

The first step in improving your listening is to show up. Context is everything when it comes to listening. You can’t hear anyone if you spend your time behind a closed office door. Get out to the Hotel Departments. Meet the guest if you can.

Be empathetic. Understanding and sharing the feelings of the other person will make that person perceive you as valuing that person and what they are experiencing. Know their name, it shows you value that person more.

Control your emotions. Listen to criticism without getting annoyed. Hear their complaint. Maintaining one’s composure can be difficult but ultimately makes the other person feel like you really listened to them. Don’t judge.

Understanding the language is easy; understanding body language can be more difficult. Sometime?how?someone says something is more important than the words that they speak.

Don’t continuously interrupt. A conversation is not a contest of who can get their most words out at the most strategic time. But do ask a question about what a Guest or a member of staff just told you. It will show that you are taking an interest in their ideas or concerns.

Make eye contact - it creates more of a perception that you are focused on them and that you consider what they are saying is important.

Do not feel pressured to give advice. A Hotel Manager, as a leader, sometimes giving your employee or a Guest a little more time allows them to make their own decisions, which can be far more effective than if you just dictated that decision.

Compliment the other person. By acknowledging that the issue that they are complaining about really is a problem, you show that you are truly interested in improving the Hotel.

You can’t really listen to someone by an email, it is quick and convenient, but you can’t pick up on how the words are spoken and on that non-verbal communication. If you take the time to call the person, or better yet, go and speak with them in person, you will not only learn more, but you will better show that you value what that person is saying.

Make notes. When a Hotelier or a Guest tells you about an idea that they have or complains about a problem they are encountering, write it down. Later, as it gets attended to or resolved, cross it out.

If a Guest or the member of the Hotel sees you write down a note about what they are telling them, it shows that you consider what they are saying important and is to be attended to. Also, it helps keep you from forgetting about issues.

Complaints happen in Hotels. Regardless of your Policy, Hotel Guests will blame the Hotel Manager. Hotel Manager you are responsible – sort them out.