For about three years now, all of the properties within 25Hours Hotels have been sending a very interesting parting email. In addition to wishing the guest well, the email also has two large buttons: one for “The Good,” with a link to provide a positive review on TripAdvisor, and the other “The Bad and The Ugly,” in which the sender is encouraged to send an email directly to the property’s general manager.
HOTELS spoke with Dirk Dreyer, GM at 25Hours Hotel Bikini Berlin, about how such a direct feedback system came about and whether it works.
HOTELS: What inspired this protocol?
Dirk Dreyer: It is a company standard, so all the guests that have booked directly with us, or at least from whom we have an email, receive this post-stay email, and the sender is always the GM. And I think this is what makes the difference because the idea of the post-stay email is certainly not new. This opens a channel to our guests and it is an easy way to interact with the guests and to learn about their experience and also to avoid online damage. We’ve had very good experiences with this. We are in the boutique hotel segment (we have 149 rooms) and so there’s a good chance we get to know our returning guests, but we do anything we can to build a relationship with our guest.
H: What types of feedback do you get?
DD: Of course, we try to fulfill all of a guest’s wishes during the stay, but the last memory is always the strongest and if you receive a thank you directly from your host, from the GM, this is something that encourages a guest to book again or make a recommendation. And I must say, the number of replies I get compared to the number of guests we have (is small). We have about 3,000 guests per month and receiving maybe 30, 40, 50 emails is not too much. But every email is a possibility, and I always reply in a direct way. It is a way of personal connection.
H: Do you find guests respond positively to that kind of access?
DD: In general, we enjoy a very good reputation and very good scores in guest satisfaction. The hotel is in a niche where people usually choose the property on their own – they’re not here as part of a group or for an event. So they know what to expect, and usually we are able to match or to exceed those expectations. I’d say one out of 20 emails is negative – maybe somebody had an issue during their stay or had a noise problem, etc… So there’s a very low percentage of negative replies, but it’s still the perfect thing to be able to react and offer an apology and offer compensation. And usually I get a reply: “Hey, thank you, I did not expect a real person to answer and take care of my comments.” It is a personal thing and I also reply to them on my own and I always try to reply immediately as soon as I have the email in my inbox.