As every hotel owner knows, the hospitality industry is very competitive.
Hotels must stay up to date on the popular trends and hotel room amenities to keep vacancies down. However, offering extra room amenities doesn’t mean you need to invest in every trend or latest invention. Often, popular room amenities start with simple necessities like an excellent variety of toiletries or quality towels, bedding, and pillows. Make sure you’re providing all the basic luxuries before expanding your hotel room services. Here are eight popular amenities to entice your guests and keep them satisfied.
With nearly 56,000 different hotel properties across the United States, the needs and wants of travelers are ever-changing. It’s your job as the hotel owner to ensure the room amenities provided at your establishment are top-notch. But with all the competition and even mediocre chain hotels offering luxury touches once only found in upscale hotels, what does amenities mean today?
An excellent way to figure out where your customers stand is by asking them. Explore what amenities are satisfying your customers and what more they may want to see. Encourage guests to give feedback directly to you right after their stay. Not only does direct feedback help curb less-than-stellar reviews on travel sites, but it’s helpful when creating a plan of attack for updating hotel guest amenities.
After you’ve explored what’s working for your customers (and what isn’t), look to the competition. Researching what type of amenities similar hotels offer is another great way to decide what improvements to incorporate. But, again, the idea isn’t to copy your peers but to stay up on industry trends and keep your hotel thriving.
8 Popular Hotel Room Amenities & Perks
1. Free Wi-Fi and Technology Friendly Accessories
All hotels should offer free Wi-Fi and all the right gadgets to charge any type of smartphone easily. Today’s tech-savvy traveler wants to stay in hotels where their technology needs are considered; they want hotels offering simple, accessible ways for guests to stay connected. For example, an aux cord to easily play music or a Bluetooth speaker are valuable additions to any room.
Hotels like theWit in Chicago provide touch screen phones, an entertainment center, several free channels, and a docking station for electronic devices. A technologically advanced hotel room creates a worry-free experience for your guests. Guests don’t need to fret about finding an outlet to charge their phone before they go sightseeing, and they’ll always have access to their personal email and social media accounts. This is especially important for business travelers who need to connect to a network via their laptop to get work done. These room amenities are small gestures to show you’re up on trends and understand the wants of your patrons.
2. Customizable Temperature Control
Guests need to feel entirely comfortable for the duration of their stay. Their hotel room is a temporary home, and the ability to personalize the temperature to their liking allows them to feel relaxed and content.
The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong provides an interactive tablet for every guest to use throughout their stay. Guests can adjust room settings like air conditioning, heat, and even lighting with only one touch. The smart tablet can be changed to one of 11 different languages, ensuring accessibility for all visitors. Popular room amenities make life easier for the guest, and this feature does exactly that. Even if you’re not ready to invest in the latest smart technology, ensure your customers can control the temperature and climate of their hotel room at all times.
3. Comfort
Pampering and comforting your visitors is a very crucial part of providing a fantastic stay for all guests at your hotel. As the hotel owner, it’s your job to ensure all perks and products exceed every visitor’s expectations.
High thread count sheets, quality comforters, and pillows are excellent hotel room amenities. The Wynn Tower Hotel in Las Vegas knows exactly how to go the extra mile by offering luxury bathrobes, plush slippers, and extra blankets for each of their guests to enjoy. These extra touches make guests feel like the hotel stay is part of their total travel experience. Help their stay feel like home…but elevated. Adding a little something above what is expected to make your visitors feel special and pampered will go a long way.
4. High-End Toiletries
Every hotel offers complimentary bathroom amenities. Tiny shampoo and conditioner bottles are synonymous with vacationing, but often these products are a second thought. Go the extra mile to treat customers with unique “spa” brand items. The brand of toiletries matters a lot and can uplift the room amenities in your visitor’s eyes. Name-brand skin, body, and hair care products add an element of luxury to the guest experience.
The Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City is known for its top-quality hotel toiletries. Every bathroom is equipped with Aesop brand shampoo, conditioner, soap, facial cleanser, and lotion; shaving and dental kits are also available upon request. Investing money in acquiring a great brand of high-end toiletries to carry in all your bathrooms will add to the value of your hotel and provide a feeling of luxury all guests will enjoy.
5. Free Coffee and Tea
A coffee machine and tea maker are hotel room necessities. Hoteliers know their patrons don’t want to run downstairs to grab their morning boost, and they certainly don’t want to walk a few blocks outside to the nearest Starbucks. So coffee in the hotel room makes life easier for all your guests.
Free coffee and tea in the room show you care. You want guests to sleep in, relax and enjoy their morning coffee on the terrace and stay in their pajamas all day if they wish. Offering fresh cream or milk for their coffee/tea in the morning is another nice touch to please guests. Also, consider partnering with local roasters to include a coffee and tea brand unique to your city, giving visitors a taste of local flavor to enjoy.
6. Daily Housekeeping
Every traveler knows that one of the best parts of the hotel experience is not worrying about cleaning or tidying up. Daily housekeeping services show your guests you value cleanliness and organization. An option to consider is offering housekeeping more than one time a day. A few hotels provide housekeeping twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. This service allows those visitors who take naps later in the day and want a fresh room before going to bed. Also, consider offering extra services such as dry cleaning for guests on the go.
Another option is to give your guests a chance to opt out of housekeeping services altogether. Several hotels now offer incentives for those who decide to decline housekeeping for their rooms. Food and drink vouchers, as well as hotel discounts, are commonly awarded to those visitors. In addition, no housekeeping service means you save money on cleaning materials and conserve water and electricity by doing less laundry. The option to decline housekeeping services is a great way to go green and help guests feel good about the hotel.
7. Turndown Services
The quality of this service differentiates the high-end hotels from the mediocre ones and basic hotel amenities from remarkable hotel guest amenities. Outstanding turndown services are rare in hotels today, which is why you should highly consider adding this to your hotel amenities list; all your visitors will love it, and thank you. The purpose of turndown services is to prepare the bed and get the room ready for guests to sleep and relax at the end of their busy day.
Each hotel has its own personality, and this shows in the types of turndown services offered. For example, hotels in nature-friendly destinations may provide different essential oils on the nightstand and fresh herbs on the bed; other hotels may leave inspirational quotes on the pillows. Some even leave a nightcap featuring a popular local cocktail or beer. Turndown service is a chance for you to put your own spin on saying goodnight to your guests. Show how your room amenities are unique from other hotels.
8. A Welcome Treat
When you visit a friend, you often receive a welcome basket to help you settle in. Hotels can offer this same warm welcome by providing guests with a drink, snack, or gift. A welcome gift shows guests you are grateful to them for choosing your hotel. When your hotel amenities list includes a basket of treats when they walk in the door or a fun specialty drink, it helps guests feel extra special; it’s also an intelligent way to keep them happy if there’s a check-in wait.
Have fun with the type of welcome treat you decide to offer. It’s a great way to let your brand and personality shine through. For example, several hotels known for their fireplaces offer a s’mores kit on the first night for everyone to enjoy near the fireside. Welcome treats can be any item—local or out-of-the-ordinary. They’re a reflection of your hotel character. One guest who stayed at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in California noted the super cool welcome treat he received when arriving; a full bucket of Corona beers and a massive plate of nachos is what made his day. This special treat immediately made the guest feel he was on vacation and showcased the fun atmosphere at this hotel.
There is a lot of competition in the hotel industry, and it is the specific perks, and unique hotel room amenities offered that help your establishment stand out. Consider incorporating these popular room amenities into your hotel, and you’re bound to house only happy customers. The best amenities go beyond basic hotel amenities and encourage guests to rest, relax and get comfortable. While they may not stay inside all day, ensure they’ll feel right at home when they do!
Featured image by Bill Anastas on Unsplash. All image licensed for use from Pixabay and Unsplash.
