The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and TrustYou present Do You Know Your Guests?, a new white paper that discusses how the pandemic changed guest behavior, including how they travel and what they expect from hotels; best practices for responding to guest feedback; and how automated solutions can help.

Through interviews with industry leaders, HSMAI and TrustYou explore how companies have applied the lessons they learned during the pandemic to implement responsive and data-driven solutions.

“As guests’ needs and wants have evolved throughout the pandemic, it is vital that we truly understand and respond to their feedback,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, president and CEO of HSMAI. “This white paper explores hotels’ needs and best practices for collecting and utilizing that feedback to better serve guests.”

Do You Know Your Guests? focuses on four main topics:

COVID Changes Everything

In analyzing travel and booking patterns throughout the pandemic, experts identified several key developments — some of which have long-term implications for hotel companies, especially as they relate to the importance of adapting quickly to changing guest behavior.

Crisis Communication — After the Crisis

As many marketers have shifted to virtual channels due to the pandemic, COVID only underscored the valuable role that digital plays in identifying and engaging guests, gathering their feedback, and cultivating their loyalty. Here’s how those dynamics shifted throughout the pandemic and have continued to evolve during recovery.

Listening and Responding

As feedback from guests becomes increasingly important, communication has been increasingly decentralized, and hotel companies have focused on how best to listen and respond. Experts share the best practices they’ve found to be most effective when it comes to managing the feedback cycle.

The Future of Feedback

As the hospitality industry moves through recovery and business continues to return, the dynamics of guest feedback will continue to evolve. Experts share how they are preparing for that.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we saw the importance of sharing real-time hotelier experiences, as we were going through an unprecedented time in the industry” said Valerie Castillo, VP of marketing at TrustYou. “We knew that HSMAI was the perfect partner to bring together the voices of hospitality to share what we’ve learned as it relates to guest experiences and feedback. This white paper acts as an industry roundtable discussion, leaving readers more informed about how their own experience compares to their colleagues across the hotel network.”

Access Do You Know Your Guests? on the HSMAI Americas website.