Weeks before we arrived, I’d been communicating with the 5-star hotel’s liaison to ensure my group of 10 could get checked in as quickly as possible as we had to leave within 45 minutes of our arrival at the hotel. The last time we stayed there, we loved the accommodations, but check in seemed inordinately slow. We asked that it be expedited, offering to send scans of our passports if that would speed things up. She assured me that we’d all be checked in within 10 minutes of arrival.
When we arrived at the hotel, the process was as snail-like as it had been the previous time. Forty-five minutes later, the last person got her room key. There was no explanation as to why it took so long.
Later, when I was chatting with the General Manager, I mentioned that check in had taken a long time. He seemed surprised, saying their goal was no more than 5 minutes, even with a group. He then told me they had recently instituted en route check in so a staff member would accompany the van driver and she would take pictures of the guests’ passports while on the van and do all the paperwork so the guest would only have to pick up their key on arrival.
I said no one had offered that, even though they knew ahead of time we had a tight schedule. I was disappointed our liaison had not arranged for that as it would have been much less stressful for our team and we wouldn’t have wasted time waiting for our keys.
It made me scratch my head. Why would she not arrange for something that she knew would make us delighted instead of disappointed? it was not like she didn’t know of this service.
Are your employees not utilizing capabilities that could delight your customers?