Types of Common Guest Complaints in Hotels

1. Service Related Complaints

Are usually associated with the hotel service. The guest may experience a problem with hotel services and may get dissatisfied. It can be of wide-ranging and about such things as long waiting time for service, lack of assistance with luggage, untidy room, missed wake up call, cold or ill-prepared food or ignored request for additional supplies. The front office generally receives more service-related complaints when the hotel is operating at or near full occupancy.

Examples of guest complaints due to service-related issues:

• Ignore any request made by the guest for any special amenities.
• The service is too slow!
• I've been waiting for 30 minutes to speak to someone.
• Why there is no one at the bell desk.
• Missed wakeup call request by guest.

2. Attitudinal Complaints

Attitudinal problems are often associated with the attitudes and behavior of the hotel staff. All hotel's whether it is big or small does come across instances when guest complaints about impolite, unprofessional and indifferent behavior of staff members of the hotel.

The moment an employee disagrees with the guest, his conflict with the guest begins which leads to guest complaints. Guest may express attitudinal complaint when they feel insulted by rude or tactless hotel staff members or sometimes guest overhears staff conversations or who receive complaints from hotel staff members. Managers and supervisors should listen and attend to the complaints and problems of the guest. This can be especially critical to maintain good guest relations.

Examples of guest complaints due to staff attitude:

• No one smiles around here.
• What a rude waitress.
• The front desk clerk was not very friendly.
• Staff showing a lack of skill and sensitivity in dealing with guests.
• Guests feel insulted by rude hotel staff members.

3. Mechanical Complaints

Mechanical complaints deal with equipment problems within the hotel. Most guest complaints related to hotel equipment malfunctions. It is usually concerned with problems with air conditioning, lighting, electricity, room furnishing, vending machines, ice machines, door keys, plumbing, television and so on. Effective use of a front office log book and maintenance work orders may help to reduce the frequency of mechanical complaints.

Examples of guest complaints due to mechanical reasons:

• Air conditioner.
• The vending machine.
• The lights are not working.
• TV not working.
• Docking station for I Pad, Phone etc. not working.
• Plumbing Issues.
• Hot water or cold water.
• Key not working.
• In safe not opening.
• Electric Kettle not working.
• Fan not working.
• Dryer not working.

4. Unusual Complaints

Unusual problems are those that the hotel has no control over such as the weather, traffic, or transportation. Guest sometimes expects the front office staff to resolve or at least listen such kind of complaints which are unusual and the hotel cannot do anything about them. Sometimes guests demand something that simply is unwarranted or impossible to deliver such as they may complain about the absence of a swimming pool, lack of public transportation, bad weather and so on.

Hotels generally have little or no control over the circumstances surrounding unusual complaints. Front office management should alert front desk agents that on occasions guest may complain about things the staff can do nothing about them. Through such orientation, staff will be better prepared to handle an unusual situation with the appropriate guest relations techniques and avoid a potentially difficult encounter.

Examples of guest complaints due to unusual reasons:

• The traffic around here is crazy!
• It's so hot and humid in this area.
• The traffic in this town is ridiculous.
• The pre-paid taxi counter at the airport had a long queue.
• It's difficult to deal with the tuk-tuk drivers.
• Why it's raining all day?

5. Room Related Complaints

Any guest complaints related to the room is categorized into complaints related to rooms. This issue can occur due to room category booked vs assigned, old mattresses, poor view, noisy room, poor linen, or even bad lighting in the room. Nowadays due to most of the bookings are generated online guest expects that the picture is shown while reservation should match with the room they have been assigned.

Due to numerous Online travel agents (OTA's) available online and the fact that these OTA's have a different type of layout for the hotel image gallery, the guest is often confused about the room they have reserved. Once the guest reaches the hotel and check-in to the room they find out that the room allocated to them is different from that they have seen online.

Also, the less sleep the hotel guests have the more issues you'll have with them the next day. Try to ensure that the mattresses are always good if you want your guests satisfied in the morning.

Examples of guest complaints related to rooms:

• Noisy room.
• View not good.
• Booked vs assigned room.
• Downgraded to a lower category due to non-availability or maintenance issue.
• Repeated maintenance issues.

6. Complaints Due to Food and Beverage

Even with very good accommodation facilities, the guest can complain about the hotel due to the reason of food and beverage not up to their exception. Even if your hotel provides an exceptional culinary experience to the guests, but despite your best efforts, there’s no way to please everyone and that leads to the occasional customer complaint.

Examples of guest complaints related to food:

• Untidiness.
• Edibleness.
• Dirty cutlery and crockery.
• Stale food served.
• Quantity of the food served.
• Non-veg delivered in place of veg food items.
• Wrong item received.
• Items were missing.
• Delay in foodservice.
• Dust particles or Hair in food.

 

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