How do you ask for Guest Feedback

[ianthy]

Hi

After each booking I always send an email to thank guests for their booking and also request feedback on what went well and what could be improved.

I have noticed in a couple of reviews that guests have said great, fab stay etc. Then when they fill in the online review they mention things that were never mentioned in their direct email comments. The overall rating is high usually 4 or 5 but I am slightly peeved that they did not mention these items to me directly in the email. A change of approach may be in order.

1. Does anyone have a great email/template that they use to request guest feedback?

2. What do you do when guests post reviews that mention issues that were never mentioned before. To date with 4 and 5 * ratings I am pleased overall, so I don't respond directly only to stay. 'So pleased you enjoyed your stay and do think of us again....'

Thanks for reading.

[Joanna]

Being off site getting guest feedback is essential for us. We leave a welcome pack at the cottage with a hand written card and paper clipped to it a local map and a feedback form with an SAE (our cottages are in the UK and so are we). In the card we ask for feedback.

After their stay we send a welcome home email including a 'please send us your feedback if you haven't already' paragraph. Also, in this email we have a link to an on-line feedback form (by this time they've probably lost the paper one).

Having a form means that we can prompt for the types of things that we want to know - 'was the house clean & tidy when you arrived?' etc. Most guests use the form, occasionally some just send us an email and there are a few we never hear from again.

If they send us positive feedback then we send an email thanking them and asking them to leave a review on the site they found us on. If they do that they get another thank you email. So far we haven't had anything come up on an online review that we hadn't already known about.

[ianthy]

Being off site getting guest feedback is essential for us. We leave a welcome pack at the cottage with a hand written card and paper clipped to it a local map and a feedback form with an SAE (our cottages are in the UK and so are we). In the card we ask for feedback.

After their stay we send a welcome home email including a 'please send us your feedback if you haven't already' paragraph. Also, in this email we have a link to an on-line feedback form (by this time they've probably lost the paper one).

Having a form means that we can prompt for the types of things that we want to know - 'was the house clean & tidy when you arrived?' etc. Most guests use the form, occasionally some just send us an email and there are a few we never hear from again.

If they send us positive feedback then we send an email thanking them and asking them to leave a review on the site they found us on. If they do that they get another thank you email. So far we haven't had anything come up on an online review that we hadn't already known about.

Thks Joanna
I wonder if this is because your feedback form actually focuses guests thinking around specific areas/issues and not a blank approach of tell me what went well and not so well.

[peyre blanque]

Hi Ianthy

We too are offsite and so find it really important to have feedback. We send a form out with the keys and ask for it to be returned with them when the let is finished.
From memory all our guests have managed this.
I can't see how to attache to this so I'll fire a blank across as a pm

Ross

[tavi]

I leave my feedback form in the apartment for them to complete before they leave. It's a great design (was given to me by someone on here and I'm afraid I can't remember who!!)

It really simple and quick to complete - nearly everyone does it...some go into detail, others just give yes or no answers.

I am on site usually so I pick it up myself - if not my cleaner will either tell me if there's anything important, or sometimes scan and email it to me.

Can send it to you if you pm me.

[tchn]

I used to leave a feedback form with specific questions (based heavily on one a Hatter sent me). It was routinely completed, often with useful feedback. However when our agency started asking for reviews, we felt that we did not get as many as we would have liked as people had already taken time to complete the form and didn't want to do both. We clung on to both for a while, but as the cottage became better established, we found that the useful feedback dried up (we had resolved the points raised). So we stopped leaving the form, but in the welcome pack and email encouraged guests not to hesitate to call us or leave a note if there were any maintenance issues. We now find many more guests leave reviews on the agency website.

[arkvilla]

I send them a Trip Advisor link and then once they have done the review I copy and paste it to my website

[Albert's quite perplexed]

I leave a 'visitors book' for guests to leave their comments in - there's also a pad of 'Suggestions' forms in the Guest Info file, but there's also this:
http://www.myholidaycottagemarketing.uk ... mplate.jpg
which could be tailored as a template if you think it might be of some use.

[zebedee]

This looks interesting, but I see that you ask for it to be left for the caretaker to collect. Would you ever see it if it said the cottage had not been cleaned to the required standard????

[Albert's quite perplexed]

This looks interesting, but I see that you ask for it to be left for the caretaker to collect. Would you ever see it if it said the cottage had not been cleaned to the required standard????

I'm on site, so I do changeovers myself, but this 'template' could be adapted as an email attachment as an alternative, if you're looking for different methods of gaining feedback.

If you were thinking about leaving a feedback form in the let, it might be worth discussing with the caretaker/cleaner that they have the 'right to reply' (on the back of the form, perhaps?), before forwarding it on.

There may have been a valid reason why things might not have been up to the required standard.
We all know from personal experience that some changeovers can be more challenging than others - I know how difficult it can be to have everything ready and pristine for incoming guests, and extra time spent cleaning/fixing stuff can all detract from time available for the niceties and 'fluffings' and the cleaner or caretaker ought to be able to have the right to be able to state the reasons why things weren't 'just right.'

I've often been caught out still cleaning the barbeque or changing the loo seat, etc, when guests have arrived really early, following on from guests who have left very late.

It's just a thought.