Running a hotel is not an easy thing to do. Among housekeepers, bell hops, desk clerks, auditors, managers, groundskeepers, and the actual guests there is so much to keep track of all the time. A general manager for the hotel must keep themselves attune to all of the above if they want their hotel to be successful. But once all the bases are covered, is that all that needs to be done? Of course not. There is always room for improvement. A fantastic way to improve would be by getting feedback using hotel mystery shopping .

Picture it. A general manager is sitting in his office attending to the many responsibilities they have on their plate. They have to talk with the district manager about quotas. The security guards are banding together demanding a raise. The night auditor called in and the general manager has to find a replacement. There are only five housekeepers scheduled for only another hour, and they are 100 rooms behind and lacking adequate storage space . With all this going on, where is the time to investigate what needs improvement? There is none. By relying on hotel mystery shopping , the manager has the benefit of having people who grade different aspects of the hotel from a customers point of view, and then having boxes of reports he can look at that save time and money.

Given that the manager has his or her hands full with all the different responsibilities of the position, they do not have time to check up on how good of a job housekeeping is doing. Depending on the hotel, there are many different expectations to have from housekeepers. But as a general consensus, we know they should wash dirty sheets, make the bed every day, clean the bathroom, and basically keep the cleanliness and aesthetics of the business and storage containers in top shape. In a large successful hotel, it is easy to fall behind on anything. Having a program that involves  hotel mystery shopping keeps the manager informed. The score cards can include a section for housekeeping that includes all of the questions the manager wants to know the answer to. The person assigned to do the hotel mystery shopping will fill out the score card. This information tells the manager what most guests should see when the stay at that hotel. It is a very good way to take a sampling of the rooms instead of having to through every single one of them. It saves time and money as well as gets to the heart of the issues that matter.

Each aspect of the hotel will have a similar section on the score card so that the final result could look something like the this.

Check in

Was the front desk clerk friendly and helpful?
Was your move in process smooth?
Did the front desk clerk show you how to get to your room?
Did the front desk clerk ask to set a wake up call?

Cleanliness

Was the general appearance of the hotel clean and orderly?
Was your room clean?
Were the sheets turned?
Was a mint placed on your pillow?

Amenities
Was the work out facility clean and up kept?
Was the pool area clean and stocked with towels?
Was the bartender attentive and was the bar clean?
Was room service attentive and prompt?

General

Did the staff go out of its way to make sure you were satisfied?
If you preferred nonsmoking, was your room odorless?
Would you stay with us again?
Would you recommend us to others?

By assigning a point value to each question whether or not they were answered yes or no gives a score that the service can be graded with. Since the survey breaks down into sections, it gives the manager a good idea of what areas are doing well and what areas need help. Maybe hotel mystery shopping is not something your business needs. But if you arent running at capacity consistently, it would not hurt the business at all to see what hotel mystery shopping can help with.

Jefferson City Storage : http://www.selfstoragesocialnetwork.com/Rachel/classifieds/183/