Have you ever noticed the type of questions guests ask when arriving at your destination? Kids might have all kinds of questions about entertainment, where parents might want to know where the nearest lounge area is.
Many travel destinations struggle to identify the most obvious expectations of guests as they arrive. Observing their room and putting their bags down might be the first thing to do, but what then? Here are a few ways in which you can make your guests’ stay a more memorable and more interactive one:
Tell your story:
If your destination has a history worth sharing, why not teach porters to tell guests the story while escorting them to their rooms? If the guests have kids, have the porter put on his storytelling-hat and let them take part in the story on the way to the room. He can then even invite them to view the full story on their television in the room, providing them with the instructions and remote control.
Destination Tours:
Instead of telling your story in the information files that are usually placed in the rooms, why not share the story in a more interactive manner? Invite guests to join you for a quick tour of the destination after freshening up. Make sure to include activities and options in the tour that might be of value to all the guests in the group.
Involve Guests:
Work your destination’s story into different activities. Name spa treatments after some of the previous owners or use local, edible plants in your restaurant’s menu. Train staff to tell guests more about these things that form part of your destination’s identity and invite guests for a tour through your on-site indigenous herb garden.
Trendy Activities:
Create activities that are in line with current trends and happenings. Invite kids to meet real rabbits during Easter by creating a mini pop-up zoo. Have family Christmas cook-offs or a Christmas Watermelon Festival. Host regular DIY days for kids, women, men and families.
Develop Maps:
Develop a map of your destination and/or its surrounds and identify different places and activities with small tidbits about each. Make it easy to navigate that kids can also use it. Perhaps even think of using different logos or colours for different routes, i.e. a romantic route, a family day route, a historic route, a pub-hopping route, a jogging route and more.
Twitter Handles:
Provide guests with your Twitter handle. They’d want to say something about their stay and by giving them the means to do so, they might even say more. Yes, complaints might also be among the comments, but this gives you an opportunity to fix the problem before they leave and write the comment on TripAdvisor.
These are but a few ideas worth considering. How do you interact with your guests?
[author image=”http://d13pix9kaak6wt.cloudfront.net/background/users/r/e/n/renatetravel_1399963065_74.jpg” ]Tourism Tattler correspondent Renate de Villiers is a young entrepreneur who recently started the company, Travelling Mystery Guest, assisting travel destinations to walk the talk. Offering customer journey evaluations, workshops and social media marketing training, Renate is sure to become part of many travel destination families in South Africa. www.travellingmystery.co.za[/author]
