OTA operation skills necessary for front desk staff
As a hotel receptionist, you must not only provide customer service, front office reception, etc., but also master OTA operation skills to add points to your work. So what are the OTA operations that a good hotel front desk needs to pay attention to?
In many hotels without a reservation department, the front desk is one of the important people involved in the operation of the OTA. We often encounter complaints from hotels because the new people at the front desk are unfamiliar with problems such as hotel traffic restrictions.
So, how will the front desk affect the hotel OTA operation? Let’s take a look at the picture below. He is the OTA operation work mainly involved in the front desk.
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OTA operation skills necessary for front desk staff
As shown in the figure above, the front desk will have an impact on the operation, traffic, conversion, service and other key aspects of OTA operations. We can look at it in detail through several chapters.
1. Coordinate with the price adjustment
①Pay attention to the competitive price: The front desk can pay attention to the competitive hotel price at different times every day in front of the computer, and report it to the sales staff in time.
②Cooperation to adjust the price: According to the strategy of the hotel front office supervisor or sales staff, master the price modification method, and cooperate with the price adjustment. After the price update is approved, go to Ctrip’s external website to confirm the price in time.
2. Check the accuracy of the room status
The front desk must ensure the accuracy of the housing entry information, update the eBooking room status page in time, and synchronize the booking progress of the day with the sales staff in time.
①Confirm the room status: The room status page in the eBooking background will be updated and updated. The front desk should keep abreast of the use of the new page, and confirm the future room status at least 3 times a day.
②Add reserved rooms: On the eBooking room status maintenance page, the front desk can add temporary reserved rooms, and according to the consumption of reserved rooms, increase reserved rooms in time to increase the proportion of reserved room orders of the hotel. When the housing stock is relatively tight, you can add another room for every reserved room consumed.
③ Timely rental situation: In particular, synchronize the remaining situation of various types of rooms. When the room is on the verge of being full, the sales department will remind you in time to prepare for price strategy adjustments.
3. Do a good job in order processing
The order processing of the OTA platform is the work undertaken by most front desks. The front desk not only ensures the speed of receiving orders, but also ensures the accuracy of receiving orders.
①Make order reminder settings: EBK order processing → order settings page, all kinds of reminders provided by Ctrip can be opened. At the same time, ensure that your front-end equipment can receive orders, such as the sound reminder of the desktop computer, which may require an external small speaker.
②Enable the automatic order-taking function: After enabling the automatic order-taking function, the front desk can save a lot of manpower, but you should also pay attention to entering the order into the hotel management system in time.
③Reasonable handling of special orders: The front desk should understand the principle that reserved room orders cannot be overturned. Some orders may contain special rights and requirements, and the charging process for flash/guarantee orders, etc., to ensure that there will be no operational errors in customer reception.
4. Convert offline customers to rank
Ctrip’s customer value score is a key indicator for improving hotel traffic. The key to improving this indicator is to accumulate production. The front desk can promote the improvement of calcium indicators by converting offline guest bookings.
①Convert offline guests to book on Ctrip: The front desk can invite offline guests to book on Ctrip, accumulate online products, and improve rankings.
②In-store membership promotion: Most hotels across the country have opened “YOYO Cards in Stores”, and the front desk can invite guests to scan the code to become store members, which can bring many benefits such as commission-free, commission rebate, and ranking improvement for the hotel.
All guests who check in at the hotel can receive the YOYO card in the hotel store, including individual customers who arrive at the store, online guests who have booked on the OTA platform, and guests who have their own channels, etc.
For hotels, the more members in the store, the more customers will be displayed first in the hotel list, which is of great help to increase traffic. In addition, new customers obtained by the front desk will also receive exclusive new customer rewards, and the specific reward policy can be consulted with the business manager.
5. Prevent OTA violations
Eliminating violations is a prerequisite for ensuring the normal operation of OTAs. These problems occur particularly frequently among front-office employees.
①Service-based defect violations
Frequent problems include no room at the store, no reservation at the store, full room after confirmation, price increase after confirmation, failure to provide promised services, operation errors, etc.
The occurrence of these problems, if the front desk can effectively deal with it, can largely avoid customer complaints or cause violations.
→No room available when you arrive at the store: Do not directly inform or contact in advance that there is no room. You can upgrade to a high-end room type with the same bed type (this method may not be applicable for some special room types), or contact Ctrip customer service to solve the problem.
→No reservation at the store: Do not directly inform the guest that there is no reservation, but can prompt the other party to show the check-in certificate, and re-check through eBooking according to other screening methods; if it cannot be solved, you can contact Ctrip customer service.
→Full room/price increase after confirmation: All reserved room orders should be processed according to the original order to avoid these two types of situations. After processing, you can go to eBooking in time to change the price or close the room.
→ Operation errors: For issues such as charging, invoicing, quotation, etc., the front desk must master basic business knowledge to prevent operational errors and cause losses or bad impressions to guests.
→The promised service is not provided: When entering the order information into the hotel management system, pay attention to the gift box, rights, services and other information in the order, and ensure that it is provided to the guests as promised.
② Violations of failure to protect the rights and interests of the Ctrip platform
In addition to the 6 major violations of service quality points, the front desk should also pay attention to the following 5 types of situations, so as to avoid the deduction of merchants’ integrity points, resulting in lower flow.
③Fake reviews are illegal
Many hotels will set a review promotion target for the front office, and the front office should pay attention to triggering violations in the process of completing this kind of work.
→Compulsory praise: The praise is written by the hotel on behalf of the hotel or the hotel forces the guest to fill in, the review behavior is against the wishes of the guest or the guest does not know it at all, and the content of the review deviates from the actual thought of the guest.
→Inducing good reviews: The hotel tempts guests to write good reviews with the benefits of giving gifts or upgrading rooms, but in fact, the guests are not satisfied with their stay experience and feel that they are not worthy of praise.
→ Swipe reviews: reviews generated by fake orders caused by hotel swiping.
Special reminder: The front desk may also encounter some guests with malicious negative reviews, such as extorting behaviors such as asking for free room fees, and we should also pay attention to preserving evidence.
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How to do OTA operation well
1. Guaranteed price competitiveness
The front desk’s participation in price adjustment is mainly to assist sales and revenue colleagues to complete the price adjustment operation to ensure the price competitiveness of our store on the platform and in the same competitive circle.
①Pay attention to the prices of competing hotels: The front desk can pay more attention to the prices of competing hotels on OTA to ensure the competitiveness of the store and report to the sales department in time.
② Pay attention to the prices of different platforms: After the front desk adjusts the price, pay attention to the price display of the hotel on different OTA platforms on the Internet to ensure that the price meets the price requirements negotiated with the corresponding platform.
2. Quick and effective feedback
Many hotel reviews and responses will be handed over to the front office for processing. When the front desk responds to reviews, pay attention to the following three points:
①Problem investigation: After discovering the problem of bad reviews, the front desk should confirm with the corresponding department in time, understand the cause and effect of the incident, and jointly promote the solution of the problem with the supervisor.
②Respond in time: All comments should be guaranteed as much as possible, and the reply can be completed within 24 hours.
③ Reply content: The front desk should master the skills of replying to comments, and do not use stereotyped responses, but targeted responses. For details, please refer to “Review Response Template Reference”.
3. Report the progress of the reservation and control it
When the hotel is about to be full and there are still many orders coming in, the front office can work with the sales department to make coping strategies to ensure revenue.
①Increase the room price: The front desk manager controls the sales progress of the rooms. The near-full room means that the market is hot. By comparing the hotels of the same level in the same business district, the room price can be moderately increased within a reasonable range.
②Confirmation of reservation for guests: The hotel may cancel some orders for free, and the fulfillment rate will be relatively low. The front desk can call the guest in advance to ask the specific arrival time to find out whether the room needs to be reserved.
The little brothers and sisters at the front desk, as the hotel’s facade, their frowns and smiles will affect the guests’ impression of the hotel, especially the impression of the hotel service, which will have a direct impact on the reviews.
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How to use the front desk to improve the goodwill of OTA guests
The key is to sort out the service process of the hotel, and the front desk plays a key role in multiple service nodes.
1. Contact in advance
A guest’s journey begins before arriving at the hotel. If you can establish communication with the guest in advance to understand the needs of the other party, the hotel can provide more targeted surprise services.
Communication content: In the process of contacting guests, the front desk can first understand the purpose of the guests’ travel, such as business travel or parent-child travel.
Depending on the type of travel, you can prepare accordingly. For example, for guests with children, the hotel can provide him with children’s bathrobes, children’s toys, etc.
In addition, the front desk can also provide information such as hotel location and transportation routes, especially for hotels where the front desk is not on the first floor or is relatively remote.
2. Check in
When a guest arrives at a hotel, the front desk checks them in and is the second key touchpoint. After checking the order information at the front desk, making room cards and meal coupons, you should take the initiative to introduce the hotel to the guests.
Wi-Fi connection: Many guests struggle to find a corner prompt on how to connect to Wi-Fi when they arrive in their room. If the hotel room password is fixed, the front desk can put a desk card to prompt the password and inform the guests; if the hotel needs to connect by means of verification codes, the front desk should inform the guests the name of the WiFi and the connection method.
Serving breakfast: If guests need to have breakfast at the hotel the next day, the front desk should inform them of the breakfast serving time. If guests want to leave the hotel before breakfast is served, they can communicate with them and provide breakfast packing service for them.
Hotel features: For hotels with unique facilities, such as an infinity pool on the roof, or a sky like the picture below, guests can be reminded that such features will help improve guest satisfaction and stimulate sharing and taking photos.
3. During the stay
If during the stay, the hotel will provide some surprise services for the guests, such as offering welcome fruits, giving gifts to children, etc. The front desk can contact the guests by phone first, if it is convenient, and then arrange colleagues to deliver them to the room, so as to avoid knocking on the door directly cause interruption.
4. Check-out procedures
For guest check-out, the hotel can open a flash-in service, free from room inspection when leaving the hotel, and quickly complete the check-out procedure. At the same time, the front desk can ask guests about their needs, whether they need assistance such as calling a car, and understand the guests’ experience in the hotel.
If the experience is good, you can remind guests to comment. If the customer is dissatisfied, please record his suggestion in front of the guest, and give the guest comfort on the spot.
In addition, for the guest’s suggestion, the front desk will report it to the management staff in time, try to complete it within 24 hours, and give feedback to the guest.