As a hotel manager I always look for signs from my guests to understand truly what they are experiencing during their stay.
I know that not everyone will write a review, and those who don’t are probably the ones that matter and that should be asked what was right and what was wrong with their journey.
Pleasing our guests is my top priority and I know that sometimes a tiny detail as an extra pillow or a bottle of sparkling water free of charge will bring a smile on a customer even if there are problems he or she encountered.
We must always ask ourselves what our customers want and if we are satisfying their needs.
A while back, I started talking to some of our foreign guests and asked them if they had something they were not satisfied with, and that’s when I found out that… yes… there is one major issue that we had overlooked and had never addressed in the right way: TV.
Let me explain. Let’s say that my next trip will be to China with my family. Surely we will book hotels and tours and everything we need to have a great experience during our holidays. We will definitely look for a hotel that has English speaking concierge and is recommended on booking and trip advisor….
BUT…do you know what the first thing we do when we get to a hotel?
You might argue: “drop bags, take a shower and go and visit”, or “open the windows and look outside”, or “lay on the bed and fall asleep”…
NO! We turn on Televison!!!
No matter what time it is, no matter what country we are in, no matter if we are staying for leisure or business… we always turn on the HOTEL TV.
By turning on the Televsion, we look for something familiar in a “hostile” environment. We are in a new country, a place we don’t know and are not familiar with, and Television will bring us closer to our home and that’s why we seek that remote control almost immediately.
Imagine our disappointment when we realize that no matter what channel we bring up (if we are able to decode the remote) speaks in Chinese!
Let’s reverse the situation and picture a Chinese or Russian guest arriving in your hotel. What do you think he or she will do?
Exactly what you did in their country! TURN ON TV!
I know that television shouldn’t be the most important thing in our lives especially when travelling. Why would a tourist stay trapped inside four walls – as lux as it may be – and just… watch tv when he or she could be out there visiting a foreign country?
We all know that this is as important as a confy bed or air conditioning. It is hard to address the issue because it’s just not the tv set that will bring channels and languages to satisfy all of our guests. We need something that revolutionizes the Entertainment experience in our structure.
We need to provide a personalized welcome message when the guest enters the room. Tv should already be on and should be in foreign language and may provide soft background music.
Remote should be clearly available and easy to use. It should reflect what we use at home.
And tv channels should appear in an orderly fashion categorized by language.
We should have a weather app and an Infochannel to provide real time information on local events and restaurants and tours. Guests should be able to communicate their needs via tv and should be able to read newspapers and watch videos via internet with the same television set.
Is this possible? YES! Is it expensive? Not if you choose the right product! Is it difficult to install or does it need a complex infrastructure? Not if you choose Htlapp.
htlapp.net is a service I discovered a while back that delivers exactly what I want for my guests.
There are other services that will provide contents and will make some of those things that we discussed come true… but… none of them are complete as Htlapp. None of them are Click-and-buy on the internet. None of them are free of initial installation costs. But most important… htlapp is easy to use for guests. Will work on any Hdmi Tv and doesn’t need a hotel mode tv! It uses the TV’s remote. It uses internet (cable or wifi) to deliver thousands of streaming channels in every language known around the world.
I can check-in guests from a web page and I can change anything on all tv sets at the same time from my cloud based htlapp account.
I am truly satisfied with what I can offer via Tv in my rooms and I don’t know how I did without htlapp till now.
Every time I travel, I hope to find the same service in every room I stay in.
But most important, when I ask my guests if they are enjoying their stay… No one complaints about their tv sets.
Thankyou htlapp!
Manager Director
Ralph
