Need opinions and ideas!

[Essentia]

Blame the soda companies, not the hotel. They are the ones who take care of the machines, fill it, etc. We always refund someone's money if it is eaten and they tell us about it, but other than complaining to Pepsi (which we don constantly) there isn't anything more we can do.

 

[Melissa]

I would like to see a nice full breakfast served for free and until at least 11am. Omelettes, biscuits and gravy, quiche, fresh fruit, both hot and cold cereals and coffee, hot tea and iced tea and bakery--not rubbery scrambled eggs and stale donuts.

LOL Laurie you would love staying at my hotel. We have a full made to order breaskfast. But only until 10am. But again we are a business hotel.

We have the buffet line if the guest didnt want to wait and we have anything they want to order. All free.. Which is why Im staying at one of these for my birthday.. That and the free drinks at the managers reception. LOVE IT!


ETS: We have the same issue with our soda machines. We used to only carry Pepsi in the gift shop and Coke in the machines but we had so many guest complain that we decided to carry both in the gift shop in case the machines went on the fritz.

 

[Essentia]

Embassy Suites?

 

[Melissa]

Embassy Suites?

Yes Ma'am

 

[Essentia]

My husband works for Hilton. I know the ammenities at both Marriotts and Hiltons.

Be careful with Embassy Suites. Some are amazing. Other, when you get there, you are horrified. The one in Jacksonville is horrendous.

 

[alli713]

Hmm well for me, I like it when you don't have to check out. As in, you can just leave the keys in the room. I know most seem to do this now a days, but some still seem to want you to check out at the front desk, or call it anyways.

I also love it when we go to a hotel and it's not super busy so they upgrade our room for free!

I agree, a good, free breakfast is a must!

Plenty of towels!

 

[Ash]

Haha Crysta, we just chalked it up to being in Philly but I figured I'd throw that out there!

 

[Melissa]

Oh Yea I understand but that is like any brand.. They can be great in one place and terrible in another. Ours was Number 3 in the nation last year and number 5 this year so we are looking at some ways in improve our scores too..

 

[Essentia]

Oh blah blah blah. Rub it in why dontcha.

 

[Melissa]

Oh blah blah blah. Rub it in why dontcha.

LOL Im not rubbing it in.. We are looking for improvements ourselves.. We get complaints just like anywhere else. We get STUPID complaints.

I remember as part of our "Care Comity" meeting we were discussing issues guest have before they even reach the hotel. If a guest has a problem they before getting to you they will 95% of the time find something wrong with you too.. No matter how much out of the way you went for someone.

I think I already mentioned before somewhere else.. I got "fired" because a guest had a problem at another hotel(it took the four hours to check into their other hotel room in another hotel across the state because a man died and they were investigating the death of said man) and the issue was MY fault.. apparently I killed the man or something. I dont know.. But she was venting to me and I was really nice to her and said "ma'am you gotta think positively, you are going to have a great experience here. I promise." Well that turned into "the white girl told me I need to change my (cuss word) attitude." They fired me over the phone and I had to beg to come back and explain my side of the story. After reviewing the tapes they "gave me another chance" like I actually did something wrong.

So Im def not rubbing it in and I understand the feeling of having your job on the line if you are not wiping someones butt to perfection.

Also.. not sure if you guys can edit your system with emails and such.. but if you can, if you know there WAS an issue at any point of the guests stay go into their profile and delete their email before they check out and they wont get a survey to fill out and rate you bad on anything.:thumbsup: Not that WE do that.. :neener:

 

[Essentia]

Marriott only allows the removal, or edit of one email address in 24 hours before they start to look into it. Trust me...it's not something WE do either.

 

[Laurie]

I know Crysta isn't Mel a wench?! LOL!

Know what I would love?????

I would love for the 3 of us to go to a nice motel and be waited on hand and foot and have towels big enough to cover our fat butts and great breakfasts AND have some frou-frou drinks and great girl time together! Now THAT would be the best thing a hotel could offer me! (Besides the naked and bound Alex O'Loughlin, of course)

 

[blondeangel]

just thought i'd add - my hotel deal-breakers start with pet friendly hotels only. then i go by price to let the pet stay. it was horribly hard finding a hotel up in myrtle beach after christmas for our little "family get away". there was no way I was spending $20 a night for 6 nights per dog for 3 dogs...who combine weigh under 20 lbs. my dogs are well behaved, quiet and never destroy any house hold items. ever. i don't want to seem rude, but i am very much not a kid person (can tolerate well behaved kids though....) most young kids are loud, whiney and can be destructive yet i see alot of "kids stay free". hmm.

so after pets, and price - clean rooms, nice views, and i love having little kitchens in my hotel rooms. being ultra picky about where i stay, i have never been truely unhappy about a hotel ive rented.

i work in retail and we get those surveys as well, randomly to customers at the bottom of their receipt. i see the results every morning and we are rated like 1-5. 1 being extremely unsatisfied, 3 being satisfied, 4 being like fully meets expectations and 5 being basically outstandingly fabulous. and just like you, customers can have their needs fully met, but they only care about outstandingly fabulous ratings. i think for the month of march we are trending a 77% but if they were to add in all those 4's of people who met their expectations ... we'd probably be around a 97%..

 

[Ippo456]

Cleanliness, that includes the way the room smells.
I notice older hotels have that horrible musky smell that's buried in their carpeting.
Clean sheets, clean draperies, clean towels (please no stains on white towels), clean carpets, no dusts at all.
I like extra (free, with no added costs) amenities like coffeemakers, hairdryers, fancy toiletries (not Dove or Nivea packaged in bottles with the hotel's name on it), bathrobes, slippers, mini bar within the room (of course mini bars are not free).
Turndown services with a small bar of chocolate is nice, too.
Bright rooms, because dark rooms just feel smaller and sad.
I also think that patterns on any textiles, e.g. bed covers, carpets, & curtains, make the room feel much older.

I stayed in a Marriott Courtyard before & it's an older hotel.
I didn't mind the old-fashioned decors, but what I didn't like was the musky, old smell of the room & the horrible bed. Maybe I'm just picky, but when I'm tired after traveling, I'd like a Heavenly Bed or something similar.

To me TVs are not essentials. Sure it's nice to have a flat-screen TV in the room, but I think good channel lineups are better than having a flat-screen TV with only basic cable.
Nowadays, I think that having an internet connection within the room is more important than having a fancy TV.

 

[Lmbswimmer]

Oh another thing, how easy is it to actually get a comfortable temp. Do you have to run that fan on high all night in the winter to get heat? Then wake up to it being over 80 but it was in the low 60's when you wen to bed, or in the summer it starts out super hot, and by the middle of the night you feel like you are in a freezer. That drives me insane, the noise from those blowers is way above "white noise" level in my opinion. Most of those things could use a serious cleaning and probably only get serviced once a year or even longer. A LOT of dust and allergens get into those things and can make life miserable for people with allergies.

 

[mishellyshel]

i am a marriott rewards member AND i have a marriott time share, so i always try & stay with marriott. however; when I do my "scrapbook weekends", i go where ever.
i agree with much of what was said, i like a clean room & bathroom, specifically the tub.
i like comfy pillows & clean sheets. wifi & cools tv's are nice but not a necessity for me.
if traveling with children, i like an indoor pool & game room.
if traveling without, i like a hot tub & bar.

i do not like rude staff, staff that is too busy texting or doesnt give a crap about thier job and personally i have a hard time dealing with staff that does not speak clear english.
not because they are not american but because i truly can not understand them and it is frustrating.

i like quick check out, like on the tv or just leave the key in a box kinda thing.

free breakfast is nice, especially if they have a coffee machine. sweet!

to fill out the surveys it would be nice to get a little gift. corporate could either offer a 5.00 off coupon to be spent in the gift shop or a free upgrade or something that can either be mailed to them or printed out and redeemed at the front desk. a little incentive goes a long way.
when i filled out info for the time share, they gave me a nice free marriott travel coffee mug. love it!
oh & candy or lollipops at the front desk is great when you have super cranky children that have been in the car for a while and just want to shut them up for ONE minute!! lol

 

[macygray]

Extra pillows?!

 

[smhufflepuff]

For me, in order it's:
Cleanliness (bad things are dirt, hair, stains, weird stuff in the tub or sink... no thank you, LaQuinta, for the bonus pubes that one time... ugh, bugs, odor).
Quietness (some has to do with dampening the sound in the room, some has to do with staff being able to deal with loud & unruly guests who ruin it for everyone else).
Comfort (having enough pillows - at a minimum I use two & hedgiedaddy uses one, decent mattress, comforter, heating & cooling).
Upkeep (bad = wobbly chairs, scratched up furniture, missing covers on outlets, etc...)
Friendly, approachable staff (the kind that if you had a problem, you'd feel okay about telling them; not the kind that seem like you're interrupting their personal lives when you check in to their establishment).
Ease of turning the lights on and off (I've felt up many a light fixture trying to turn it on or off... and I'm really not into that kind of thing).
A book or folder that has a map of where I am and the stuff that's around me along with descriptions of those things... like nearby restaurants, what kind of food they serve and their atmosphere.
Signs that use proper English ("we don't except no checks" or "ATM Machine in the lobby" bother me).

I'd also like to echo what someone already said about just letting the customer know that you're striving for perfection. I've seen signs to that effect in some of the better hotels. They ask if there's anything they could do to improve your stay. It's a nice way of letting the guest know that you'd like their feedback and will use it to improve. It also places the onus on the customer to think about and address any issues that come up. And if the customer can't really think of an issue, then they're more likely to rate you higher.

 

[starleomach]

I want light switches. I hate going into a dark room and having to figure out the stupid lights

 

[aznmexaggie]

Cleanliness and bedbug-free... lol. Ever since I started working at the entomology lab and studying bedbugs, I ALWAYS check my hotel room. The mattress, the headboard, pictures, sheets, EVERYTHING! I also check the bedbugregistry to make sure the hotel I am thinking about staying at has not had a reported problem with bedbugs.