At its heart, the IGC Hotel Award is about planning, designing and improving service quality, with the ultimate aim of boosting guest satisfaction.
Service quality plays a key role in the booking process and in generating guest loyalty. For guests, service quality is often the decisive element that leads them to make a booking.
Even once guests have stayed with you before, the satisfaction triggered by high-quality service determines whether a guest books a stay at your property again or recommends your hotel.
If a hotel wants to stay competitive and enjoy success, all while focusing on their guests, they need to attain high levels of guest satisfaction.
It's worth putting in the effort to live and breathe hospitality
Disappointed guest
If guests’ expectations are not fulfilled, this will lead to negative reviews.
Result: up to minus 16 new guests
Guest indifferent
If guests’ expectations have merely been met, this will lead to neutral reviews.
Result: neutral no new guests
Guest enthusiastic
If guests’ expectations have been exceeded, this will lead to recommendations.
Result: positive average of 6 new guests
As a result, the lengths hotels go to and the measures they take to meet the expectations their guests have in terms of service quality are of central importance. If a hotel sets store by high-quality service, the hotel will take on a competitive edge.
For a hotel, satisfied guests equal loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendations, a willingness to pay more, and positive feedback. High-quality service leads to satisfied guests and lower complaint rates. In turn, this means that employees are more motivated.
It is key that guests’ expectations in terms of service quality are met (or even better, exceeded) as soon as they visit the hotel. It's often possible to make up for any issues later, but the first impression is what counts. The guest makes a mental note about the first issue that crops up, and then makes up their mind about the overall standard of service at the hotel.
It's also often expensive to rectify issues later. Attaining high-quality service means reducing the unnecessary costs that result from guests being dissatisfied with poor-quality service.
Investments that boost service quality contribute to higher turnover and higher profits in the long term.
Participating in the International Guest Certified Hotel Award certification is one of these investments, as it will assist you and your team with boosting your hotel's service quality. This is because the IGC helps you to better recognise your guests’ expectations and needs, telling you which measures can ensure that your guests are enthusiastically satisfied with your hotel's service from the off in the future.
The International Guest Certified Hotel Award Nomination lets you show people both inside and outside your hotel that you are prepared to live and breathe a culture shaped by service, and that you are willing to share this with others. In collaboration with your team, you show your guests just how important service and focusing on your guests are for your hotel.
The International Guest Certified Hotel Award Nomination will also improve your employees’ attitude towards service: the nomination motivates your employees to think about guests’ needs every step of the way and act in a correspondingly service-focused, or rather, guest-focused, manner.
Nominate your hotel for the International Guest Certified Hotel Award, and invest in service quality, guest satisfaction and hospitality.