Almost every hotel has a guest directory or welcome booklet. It provides the necessary information to the guests about the hotel, what it offers, and its surroundings. Nowadays, a guest directory comes with different variations, shapes, and colors.
The primary object of a room directory is to help customers discover your establishment by providing all valuable and necessary information. It enables you to answer potential questions your guest may have to improve their stay. However, you may wonder how do you create a room directory? What details can you include in the welcome booklet to make it more attractive?
These are valid concerns that this guide will address.
A room directory is a powerful marketing tool that can increase sales and improve your customer experience. It can add value to your establishment, giving it the promotional touch you need. Let’s now consider how to make a guest directory appealing.
Play on emotions
Did you know that most (95%) purchasing decisions are emotionally instigated? Therefore, play on emotion when writing your room directory to appeal to your customers. You could use storytelling techniques to tell your story to your guests on a room directory.
Storytelling will help you show the uniqueness of your hotel, highlighting its values, personality, and characteristics. The secrete to this technique is to be authentic. By explaining the history of your place with its anecdotes, you will likely seduce customers to your hotel.
You can also play on emotions by promoting the human touch. One way to do that is by including a photo of your welcoming team in the room directory. This allows your customers to familiarize themselves with your staff when they meet.
A guest directory will enable your guests to understand your establishment better and create an affinity with your team as soon as they arrive. Your goal is to build a lasting relationship by making your customers love your hotel’s image.
Present certification proof
If your establishment has any certifications, you should include them in the room directory. For instance, a tourism label assures tourists of your hotel’s services. It signifies that you provide a personalized welcome, have competent staff, quality services, a comfortable place, ecological commitment, and impeccable cleanliness. Your customers will be convinced that you and your staff are up to the task and know what you are doing.
If you are yet to be certified, you could pursue labels linked to tourism, such as Tourism and Handicap, Quality Tourism, European Ecolabel, Famille Plus, and Accueil Vélo.
Promote your social networks
One of the most important information you should include in your room directory is your social networks to enhance your visibility. Your welcome booklet is not just simple informative support; it is a fundamental communication tool.
By including your social media pages in the welcome booklet, you encourage your customers to follow you, thus helping you to build a long-term relationship with them. They will continue to access your content even after their stay ends. This will enable you to build customer loyalty by creating a close bond through the feeling of belonging to a community.
Highlight your services
A room directory allows you to present your services and activities. The objective is to inform your guests of everything you offer in your establishment.
Some services you could find in a room directory include:
- Check-in / Check-out
- Access code to the hotel
- Concierge service
- Room amenities
- TV channels
- Wi-Fi access
- Restaurant services: breakfast, bar, tea room…
- Wellness services: spa, hammam, swimming pool, dry cleaning…
- Transportation services: cab, shuttle…
- Parking access
- Activities present in your hotel: gym, library, game room…
- Pets
- Smoking area
- Sanitary rules
- Reception
- Room service
- Contact: telephone number and email address of the reception and room service.
Under catering services, you could highlight the origin of the ingredients or raw materials you use to cook. Some consumers are sensitive to the quality of the products they consume.
One way to do this is to present the origin of the main raw materials on a card. Your customers will likely appreciate this information, especially those who are more and more concerned about eating in an eco-responsible hotel.
Additionally, you could specify if your catering service meets specific dietary requirements, such as gluten-free or vegan. You do well if you can provide clear information on each service you offer, showing your hotel’s opening hours and prices to help your customers with decision-making.
Originally present your services.
Some hotels arrange their services in alphabetical order and by category. You can present information in each section in the form of questions and answers or headlines
For example:
| header | Questions |
| Room | How do I get to my room? What amenities are available in my room? How do I connect to the internet? |
| Contact | How do I contact the front desk? How do I contact room service? |
| Common areas | What are the wellness services available in the hotel? What activities are available? |
| Rules | What are the sanitary rules? Where are the smoking areas? Are pets allowed? |
| Catering | How do I order my breakfast? What foods are available in the hotel? |
| Transportation and Parking | How do I get to the hotel? What is the access code to the hotel’s parking lot? |
Focus on the visual
The welcome booklet plays a vital role in your establishment by hastening the purchase decisions since the customer has all the necessary information in one place. This simplification makes it easier for consumers to settle for your services.
However, if you want to improve your sales levels significantly, you need to entice your customers with eye-catching images. Photos illustrate and enhance your services. It also captures your customers’ attention, allowing them to visualize the experience in their minds.
Whether they want to order their favorite dish or book a massage at the spa, the visual from the room directory will provide an overview of the services. They will make quicker purchase decisions since they see what they want to enjoy in the welcome book. The image complements the text to promote sales in your hotel.
Talk about your offers.
The room directory is also the place where you want to highlight your promotional offers and other preferential rates. By highlighting these, you will increase your chances of making additional sales.
Offers can also help you increase customer loyalty, especially when these offers have specific benefits. For instance, you could highlight less frequented services and encourage travelers to try them at a reduced price.
Adapt to your clientele
A welcome booklet should reflect your establishment’s image and satisfy your customers’ needs. You can represent your customers by knowing such factors as their nationalities, interests, and whether they are a leisure or business customers/
your customers. First, get to know your customers. What are their nationalities? What are their interests? Is your clientele more of a business or leisure traveler? This will allow you to :
Propose a room directory adapted to the language spoken by most of your customers.
Highlight the services that are likely to appeal to them the most.
If your customers are business clients, you could provide services that suit their needs, such as dry cleaning, catering, and equipment needed for their work.
Essential phone numbers
Your room directory should also contain important phone numbers, including:
- Emergency numbers for pharmacies, firefighters, police, hospitals, doctors, and veterinarians
- Tourist office numbers
- Reception and room service number
- A table of international call signs
These contacts are valuable to help customers know who to contact during a crisis.
Simplify your customers’ journeys
Take a keen interest in your customer’s means of transportation to the hotel. For example, you can include a section in your welcome booklet showing how to get to the hotel by plane, bus, or car.
If your clients travel by car, you could provide them with about the parking lots available in the vicinity of your hotel. If they travel by plane, offer them a shuttle or cab service for their journey from the airport to the hotel.
By facilitating the arrival and departure of the traveler, you demonstrate the strength of your customer service and experience. Suppose you make your clients’ stay convenient while in the hotel, you will make them happy and improve your reputation. One way to do this is to reserve a space in the room directory to put an illustration of the bus and subway maps for the city. This will enhance customers’ satisfaction with your establishment.
Highlight the assets of your region
The welcome booklet should highlight your city’s beauty and its surroundings. You can promote local tourists attractions, demonstrating why customers should stay in your hotel. Exceptional local experiences are often appreciated by your customers who came to tour the hotel to have fun within the area.
This information enables customers to choose your establishment since a hotel with many activities and restaurants in the vicinity is more attractive to your guests. Providing this information also helps optimize your client’s time since they will not waste time conducting endless research on nearby restaurants or activities. Your customers will only glance at your room directory to get all the necessary information they need.
Furthermore, you support the local economy by highlighting local businesses and fully encouraging visitors to enjoy local experiences.
Suggest itineraries to visit the city
We have already stated that the room directory should simplify your customers’ journeys during their stay. Therefore, you could think about including in your room directory itineraries for bike rides or walks to discover your city. You could also add a simplified map of your city to help your guest find their way to your hotel.
Adopt an evolving room directory- go digital
Instead of changing your welcome booklet every year, why not adopt a digital room directory that you can quickly modify without reprinting it each time a service is changed, or a new dish is added?
You can offer your customers an updated room directory by switching to a digital application. The digital room directory will enable you to:
- Highlight special offers only at certain times, such as during Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and other holidays.
- Integrate your restaurant’s menu and easily add new dishes
- Regularly update your information, such as services and hours, in case of changes.
- Add restaurants and activities according to the seasons. For example, highlight swimming pools, beaches, outdoor activities, cocktail bars, etc.
With digital technology, you will eliminate fixed room directory and printing costs.
A digital directory comes in handy in times of health crisis since it allows you to limit contacts and ensure good sanitary hygiene within your establishment. Additionally, a digital welcome booklet will enable customers to access the restaurant’s menu and even offer self-service.
A digital room directory can also integrate your restaurant map, allowing travelers to have direct access to all the necessary information from their phones via QR Code.
Due to the uncertainty of the period we live in with the hotel industry experiencing numerous changes in the information, a digital welcome booklet is preferred since they are easy to alter. We have thus far covered valuable information you can include in your room directory to improve your hotel sales. If you want to give your customers a pleasant stay at your establishment, be versatile and provide the necessary information. You will likely build a strong relationship with your clients.
