What do you think makes a good hotel?

Question

Answers staff note: This is the real Jaymee Ong, host of AXN's entertainment programme, e Buzz! To take part in the Y!ureka contest for a chance to win Dopod phones, register at http://yahoo.com.sg/answers

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

i think a good hotel is hard to find. it's not just good clean facilities, but warm, REAL staff that treat you like a person and not just another occupant in the big hotel.

it means that while you are in a foreign land, (well most of the time), you can still feel comfortable and safe and important.

it's a good hotel when you know you won't be lost or helpless when an emergency crops up

it's a good hotel when you have polite and sincere staff who are ready to go more than the extra mile for you.

it's a good hotel when the food rocks, and doesn't land you in a hospital ofr food poisoning.

it's a good hotel (this one's important) when it has a CHARACTER that sets it apart from other hotels.

it's a good hotel when you don't mind going back to your room after a long tiring day, assured that you can relax and chill out

it's a good hotel when i can't wait to go back the next time i'm around.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Well done!

Answer 2

great service

Answer 3

Good sincere service !!!

Answer 4

Outstanding customer service, clean sheets and a nice breakfast buffet.

Answer 5

Smooth check-in, efficient and warm service, good room service. Clean rooms without musty smells, pillows that are not too flat and tvs that are working.

Hotel buffet breakfast should have variety. I cannot stand those breakfast menus that has the same old stuff every morning...OMG

Answer 6

As a sales executive, I have had the opportunity to travel a lot and stay in various hotels. So what makes a good hotel? A good hotel, just like in sales and marketing, should provide Excellent Service during the three periods of contact with the guest: pre-check-in, actual stay, post-check-in. Go the extra-mile with each guest, treat each guest (no matter what their station is) equally. And I assure you that this hotel will be awashed with utmost customer loyalty, and expect new clients and converts.

Answer 7

Well, for a start it should be nice and clean! I hate going to a hotel and seeing little details like dirty corners, or things in disarray or the edges frayed off a cushion.

Second, nice bright rooms. I hate dark dingy rooms. Rooms which look like if you open the window the breeze will come right in.

Good service. Nothing makes a hotel worse than indifferent staff.

Answer 8

One that asks the Guest upon check-in - "Would you care to tell us the purpose of your stay so that we can ensure your needs are best met? If you wish we could have a 'Personal Guest Assistant' help organise the needs of your stay with us. He will check on you at the end of each day you are with us, to ensure that you have achieved your objectives for that day. He/She will ensure your room is to your expectation, your meals are brought up to you room should you require this, your choice newspaper is at the door in the morning, confirm your flight for you, wake you each morning at the time of your choice, provide you with elaborate information of the city or the hotel itself so that you can optimise your time and effort during your stay in this country. He/She can also ensure that a taxi is waiting for you after your checkout. You can reach this one individual by name. He/She will be familiar with the details of you needs and period of stay."

He/She will not accept tips nor will the hotel charge for this service and each guest will retain fond memories of exceptional service from an exceptional hotel.

Answer 9

The Hospitality of the staff, Cleanliness of the room, and good service.

Answer 10

Honesty and customer service.

If the hotel is billed as 4 stars, it needs to be four stars.

If the room you book is billed as ocean view, then it needs to have an ocean view.

When checking in, they need to have the room that you reserved - no matter what time you check-in.

The staff needs to be overly friendly and try to immediately solve any problems that may arise.

The hotel must be clean and smell nice.

I really like that the Starwood hotels have gone 100% smoke-free and allow small dogs. It's a great reason to stay there as often as possible!

There must be a comfortable bar where you can just sit and relax after a long day.

The restaurant must have good food and a wide selection of options.

The small things DO make a difference. Free bottled water in the rooms. High quality, non-animal tested (and ingredients) toiletries. Plenty of towels. A working TV in good shape. Reliable wake-up calls.

For $150 a night, I don't need butlers fawning all over me or expect a standing ovation when I check in, but I expect to be treated like a valued guest and have no problems with my stay or the bill. That is the mark of a good hotel. : )

Answer 11

I think what makes a good hotel really depends on the purpose of yr trip.

The most memorable holiday hotel stay I had was not really in a hotel but a bed and breakfast. I remembered cos it was in a quiet town near the sea and people were very friendly and sincere i.e. not artificial. For breakfast they just served cereal and a typical English breakfast. Everyone, even the other guest were greeting each other and making conversation so felt quite at home. At night, they had a small bar but everyone was chatting, drinking and offering to buy rounds. In short the factors which made this a good hotel are: a good location, a homely personalised service, local food, good guests and a cosy environment.

In contrast, on a business trip I would rather stay in a hotel where checking-in is a breeze. With the spa, gym and swimming pool facilities and good restaurants. Obviously staff must be efficient and prompt. Especially cleaning staff, they must respect the 'Don't disturb' sign totally. Factors for a good business hotel: everything must be working fast and efficiently! A higher expectation.

Answer 12

Excellent service, in all areas...front desk, maintenance, house keeping, restaurant, room service. If there's a problem, I don't want to get the employee who will roll their eyes and act like it's my fault.

Beds...I want a comfy bed, with a nice pillow, not a slab of cardboard.

Noise level. I realize the hotel cannot watch everyone to make sure they keep their conversation level down, or their kids' yelling to a minimum, if the walls are paper thin...you can hear someone sneeze. Not cool.

Obviously, location is key...If it's difficult to get to, I probably won't be staying there again.

Restaurants on site. Even if it's a continental breakfast...food is good.

Answer 13

To make it short and it sweet - Cleanliness, customer service and cuisine!

Answer 14

A good hotel must have service staff whom are able to let the guests feel welcome and comfortable regardless of nationality.
Decorations aren't important as its only skin deep on how "good" the hotel is.

Lavish Decorations + Lousy hotel staff = Bad Hotel experience
Average Decorations + Good hotel staff = Much better hotel experience

My 2 cents worth..

Answer 15

Here are some of the factors which I think makes a good hotel:
- employees' service (e.g. while staying at the Tides South Beach, Miami, I noticed that a "Sweet Dreams" card will be placed on my pillow each day along with a scented bathrobe placed on my bed and bedroom slippers carefully positioned at the foot of the bed. The radio will be turned on so that soothing music will be playing at the background when you step in. Also, the lobby staff make it a point to greet you with a smile each time you return and ask how your day went.)
- food (there are times when one does not want to go out for meals so the quality of room service is important)
- toilet amenities (I prefer to travel light so a hotel that is equipped with good quality shampoo, conditioner, body moisturiser and bath gel will be appreciated. Tides South Beach hotel is one that provides such amenities as they even provide cotton pads for make up removal.)
- concierge staff (knowledge of where to sight see, eat is important as it helps save time. I have been to hotels where the concierge is even able to make reservations on my behalf so that I don't have to incur hotel telephone charges. amazing!)

Source(s):

http://www.tideshotel.com/

Answer 16

It's a package deal: an efficient front-desk (service with a smile!), bright lifts (unlike those in Dark Water!), sensible floor layout (no a-maze-ing race!), secure room doors (peepholes please!), clean sheets (whip out that UV-ray device!), complimentary toiletries (freebies!), and prompt room service (like 6-2353535!).

Answer 17

a HOME away from home

Answer 18

Services from the reception. To the Bellboy receiving the bags. When reaching the rooms, it should ready to receive the visitors with fresh fruits. The toilets cleanliness is vital for my wife as she prefer a clean and spacious one. The bed should be cosy and comfortable for the night of rest. The service personnel's should be reachable at all time. Make sure the TV set and remote are all well-maintained. Ample facilities for the visitors to have a wide range of activities within the hotel stay. Convenience of the traffic flow. Dining is also important as part of the luxury and stay. A wide variety of choices of food will be good. Street directory and places of interest are also important. As information technology is so advanced, if possible provide a laptop would be a good choice of stay.

Answer 19

The most important thing about a hotel is the staff. It's the staff's desire to help. It's not what they do, but their willingness to do it. In a good hotel, staff will go out of their way to accommodate the wishes of the guests. Friendliness is important, but it's not just a matter of being polite, it's to do with being able to conjure up special solutions to unusual problems, and to do more than just the standard stuff.

Hotel facilities: Kettle (also see the FREE TEA covered in more detail)
Television (see extra notes below)
Clock
Hair dryer
Full-length mirror (with curtains)
Safe
Power sockets
FOOD should be available in large quantities. The "as much as you like" policy is recommended.
COMFORTABLE BED. Plus, it should be possible to switch light(s) on and off from a position of in the bed!

PHONES. Phones in hotel rooms generally have a problem where the cost of making a call is stupidly high. Quite why this is, defies rationality. Why shouldn't they cost the same as a payphone? The hotel would still make a profit. Anyway, payphones, whether in rooms or in the hotel lobby, need to be able to accept coins, not just the overpriced cards. And, they should have the phone number displayed and accept incoming calls.

TELEVISION. With remote. And with some channels you don't usually get at home.

If there is a SWIMMING POOL then it should be at a reasonable temperature, and should have the right chemical balance. Also, there should either be NO DRESS CODE or it should be a "modesty is preserved" policy, and definitely NOT the problem of "must wear a conventional swimming costume" as encountered at a very few places. Some people choose to go swimming with their clothes on; it's a freedom which they should be allowed and not be denied.

SECURITY. Not only does a hotel room need to be secure, but it needs to be seen to be secure from a guest's point of view.

SPECIAL REQUESTS. The ability of a hotel to cope with odd dietary requirements, and anything unusual, is all to the benefit of ALL, even those whose requirements are normal. It shows a flexible approach.

EXTRA hotel enhancements:

The Entertainment
The Activities
Other things that are an asset to a hotel:

VIEW. Good views out of hotel windows.
CATS. Cats and other interesting resident wildlife add to the quality of a hotel.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY and other in-house technology. The pay-back rate for such equipment is vastly improved for a hotel. As well as generating power, it also generates interest!
LOCAL NEWSPAPER. Local news, even if it seems unremarkable, is often other-worldly to a hotel guest. And, If the paper is in a language which is foreign to the guest, it may be treasured as a souvenir. So, very good value for money in PR.
ADDITIONAL INTERESTINGNESS - anything interesting, different, remarkable, memorable, etc - all adds to the quality of a hotel.

Source(s):

http://www.zyra.org.uk/goodhotl.htm

Answer 20

Smile, service, speed, sincere, sophisticated...

Answer 21

To me, the most important must have of a hotel is good service. The hotel does not need to have top class facilities or gold taps and basins but good service is a MUST. All you need is a staff pulling a long face and receiving you at the check-in counter to spoil your whole stay there. From my own personal experience, receiving bad service from hotel staff as compared to limited facitilies or not too beautiful surroundings seem to leave a more irritable and irky feeling throughout and after your stay.

Answer 22

A good hotel is all about personalised services the ability to make a guest feel haven... as if it was their very own ideal "shangri-la".

A few basic things that makes up a good hotel will be:-

1. Location; 2. Hotel Staff; 3. Variety; 4. Maintenance

The ability to breeze past the check-in and out counters reflects the efficiency of a hotel.

Every staff in the hotel plays an important role. A simple basic greeting and smile says alot. Guests would like to feel the genuine, warm, friendly and welcoming services offered. A variety in food items will also make the stay complete.

Answer 23

Great service, Friendly and Courteous staff, Great faciliies (i.e. spa, gymn, recreation centers, swimming pool), Nice and Cozy rooms with free amenities) and Free wifi, internet connection, Offers discounts, loyalty rewards) and most of all Breakfast buffet must cater to all sorts people (vegetarian, non-vegetarian, meat lovers, etc)

Answer 24

The bedsheet has no smell of tobacco. Adjustable aircon, firm bed. spacious room. Good breadfast spread. Nice pool. Great view of the surrounding from the hotel room. Friendly hotel staff.

Answer 25

Able to fall asleep like sleeping at your own bed!

Answer 26

A good hotel is one that makes you feel that you have stepped into your own home away from home. All your "basic" needs being well taken care of and the "human touch" of the hotel must be not neglected. The whole human experience: from a warm welcome smile to the sincere "thank you and hope you had a pleasant stay" is also just as critical.

Answer 27

Expensive toiletries, great room service menu (with good food as well) and fantastic service staff.That would be enough for me.

Answer 28

I would say both the interior as well as the external factors play a significant part in the making of a good hotel.
The external portion would be on its settings, the decorations, the furnishings as well as the choice of colors to create the theme that they want to portray, be it relaxing mood, executive style or outdoor fun atmosphere.
Interior wise I would be looking more towards the kind of services that the hotel provides, the more assortment and varieties the better of course, and whether this services can really make one's stay more convenient, comfortable or suit to the customer's needs.
The most important factor however, would still be the staff services towards the customers. To many people out there, hotel amenities will not leave too much of an impression because most of the same rated hotels are great in that aspect in their own ways so it becomes like a expected norm phenomenon for those who frequently have to stay in hotels. The attitude, both positive or negative, on the other hand, is a powerful if not only means whereby people remembers.
If there is a heartwarming experience between the hotel service provider and the customers, I am sure the customer will remember for a long long time and he/she will share the wonderful experience with their friends. And that is also very true for the opposite because words spread faster than any marketing tools the world has in mind, and word of mouth has an even greater impact on individuals than any form of media transmission of their message.
Therefore, a good hotel should consists of qualities not only from the hotel but also from the hotel staffs and the ability and effort to let every customer leave a inmemoriable experience during their stay with the hotel.

Answer 29

Hi Jaymee,

before i answer this question, i just wanna compliment how gorgeous you are!

A good hotel to me, is one that i can have a good nite rest and waking up fresh the next day.

Cheers

Answer 30

A good hotel must excel in the following areas :-
1) Security
2) Service attitude
3) Location
4) Ambience
5) Cleanliness & maintenance
6) Facilities
7) Reasonably priced

Answer 31

It make you feel like you are at you own house. With morning call to wake you up for meeting or appointment, with clothes iron ready, breakfast at your table and a warm smile from everyone in the hotel. Just like Raffle Hotel in singapore.