Focus on setting up room service in a hotel

“Room service, hello”! 👨 ‍ 💼 Since the health crisis, room service has seen renewed interest from travelers. This is what 40% of hoteliers surveyed by Hotels.com in their latest investigation report published in June 2023. So, before your staff utters that phrase that sounds so good to a hotel guest, it's essential to build your offer well. For you, GetWelcom has made an overview of the steps to be implemented and the best practices for efficient room service.

What does room service consist of?

A bit of history about room service

Even if the graph opposite confirms the interest of travelers in Room service during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was created long before: in the early 1900s, in the famous New York hotel, the Waldorf Astoria. At that time, luxury hotels sought to offer exclusive services to their wealthy clientele.

Initially, the service was limited to the delivery of meals to rooms that guests ordered at the front desk. Over time, it has expanded to include other hotel services. It has also become more accessible thanks to technology.

Today, the Room service appears in the ranking grid Atout France who made it a mandatory criterion for 5-star hotels.

The “great classics” of room service

• the Food & Beverage 🥐🍹 :
• breakfast, meals and drinks to choose from according to your clientele (children, vegetarians, gluten-free, allergies, etc.);
• meal trays and Snacking, especially for late arrivals;
• service and after-meal cleaning.

other types of benefits 🧴🧹:

• hygiene and cosmetic products;
• extra blankets, pillows, or towels;
• additional cleaning of the room;
• delivery of newspapers, magazines, books, flowers;
• laundry...

Some figures to remember about room service

Another surprising fact from the investigation ofHotels.com : despite the explosion of delivery platforms such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo, demand remained unchanged for 75% of the hotels surveyed. No more doubts, the Room service still has a bright future ahead of him. 🌞

Finally, let's also remember from this study that a third of the hoteliers surveyed record an average basket of €100 per night for the Room service. A significant financial windfall for boost the turnover of its additional sales.

How to set up room service in a hotel?

🎯 Select the most profitable services

The objective is not to offer a catalog as thick as that of La Redoute.

Define the contours of your offer by conducting market research. Analyze the competition Conduct surveys of your customers, read their feedback on the platforms.

Then calculate the cost of each service in terms of purchases, personnel, storage and communication.

Good to know: the product most requested by hotel customers in France is the traditional aperitif board (24% of room orders, according to a study byHotels.com).

🕐 Set room service hours

Faced with increasingly demanding travelers, should we offer a service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Ideally yes! But do you have sufficient human resources to provide continuous services? Is it interesting to pay staff per night for one or two requests? Wouldn't a vending machine suffice in this case? Unless your establishment is rated 5 stars, study these questions carefully before defining your range of openness.

👨 ‍ 💼 Recruiting or training housekeeping staff

To offer a quality offer, it is necessary to surround yourself with a qualified team. There are two options: hire staff, including a senior manager, or train members of your team. In both cases, make sure they have:

• the skills to interact with customers;
• the ability to work independently and manage priorities;
• discretion;
• mastery of foreign languages;
• knowledge of food hygiene and safety standards.

🏨 Provide equipment

Beyond the small essential equipment (trolleys and service trays, insulated containers, dishes, microwaves, etc.), it is necessary to allocate dedicated spaces: in the kitchen to prepare and store meals and upstairs to store equipment.

Also, invest in devices that allow teams to manage orders and communicate with each other.

🤝 Conclude partnerships

Numerous partnerships are possible to present a wide range of extras to your customers.

The same goes for the game. Food & beverage. Contact restaurant owners near you or businesses that sell jar menus prepared by chefs. It is the ideal recipe to simplify the management of meals while offering your customers gourmet dishes in eco-responsible packaging. A partnership to be seriously studied for a hotel without a restaurant!

Examples: True & Good — Boco — Les Bocaux du Bocage — Les Mille Sources — etc.

🎁 Bonus: 5 mistakes not to make for quality room service

1. rates that are too high for your customers
2. Too long a waiting time between order and delivery
3. staff that cannot be reached during business hours
4. a catalog that is not extensive enough
5. too frequent stockouts

Why manage orders via a room directory?

At first glance, the paper welcome booklet placed in the room seems to be the simplest and most economical solution.

But your reception team, as well as your customers, are likely to waste a lot of time.

The digitization of your welcome booklet has many advantages to facilitate the work of your teams and satisfy travelers. 👍

Improving the customer experience

Like click & collect and other take-away services, your customer consults the online offer, orders, pays and selects the delivery time from their phone or tablet. 📱

Thanks to photos, videos and translations in several languages, he chooses his service alone.
He can also receive notifications about news or special offers.

The information is updated in real time, so there are no false hopes or disappointments due to an out of stock product or a price error.

There is also no need for the customer to go down to the reception 🛎️ or to pick up the room phone for a quick answer: the messaging system integrated into the Guest app allows it to communicate easily with your Staff.

Facilitate team work

With a Room directory, you no longer need to print quantities of sheets every time you remove a product, change a price or your customer has damaged your welcome booklet.

This is a good way to save money on this expenditure item, but also on human resources. 💰

With task automation, your receptionists spend much less time entering data into your PMS or communicating with room service.

In addition, this information collected via the digital welcome booklet is a gold mine to personalize your future exchanges with your customers and analyze your results (best sales, conversion rate, etc.).

Finally, this tool contributes to giving a more modern image of your hotel establishment and is perfectly in line with a CSR approach or an environmental charter. 🌍

▶️ Digitize your Room service is at your fingertips with GetWelcom. We have developed a Room Directory that is very easy to use for your customers and your team. Make an appointment to get a demo !