How to Run a Motel Business — Lesson 1

Back to Motel Basics: What Really Drives Guest Satisfaction

By Ben Douglas, Director — MotelCoach.com.au

Early in my career, I was in a tense operations meeting at a Holiday Inn in London. A guest had complained about noisy doors. The department heads started brainstorming fixes — procedures, SOPs, feedback loops. The GM interrupted: “Can someone just go upstairs and check the doors?”

That moment stuck with me. I think as you learn more and more about something the simpler you can break it down. Now this meeting above is a bit of a no-brainer, but how often do we miss the simple fix?

Motel Management Back to Basics

There is always options in Marketing — Today we go back to basics.

In motel or hotel roles, we are always run off our feet with different tasks and when it comes to driving occupancy there is always 100 options. In today's post I’m going back to the basics, the core of a motel or hotel. Because guest experiences inherently basic, noisy stay, dirty bathroom, hairs in the room, slow WiFi, bad check-in or booking experience, no hot water. It is not rocket science, and we have come so far with technology only to still, so often be missing the basics of running a motel.

Lets get started — Walk in your Guest’s Shoes.

• Before tweaking systems, test your experience like a guest:
• Google your motel, how does it appear on Search, are the descriptions for your pages captivating.
• View your listing on a phone using mobile data, because your potential guests are not always sitting in an office looking at a large monitor or two when they book accommodation.
• Would you book based on your photos, reviews, and pricing? Remember a lot of visitors may never have been to your town or city before.
• Then book a room. Stay in it. Try the shower, the hair dryer, the coffee, the shampoo, use the TV, the WiFi, and last but not least, try to sleep…. you get the picture.

This is what your guests experience, and going deep, and really experiencing what you offer is how you can really level up your motel or hotel without dropping big dollars.

Your Online Shopfront Is Everything

Guests scroll before they book. Make your photos sharp, your hero image strong, and your listings responsive. Review replies matter — each review you respond to will be around for years to come and 1000s of Guests will see it, be positive, accept fault when required and write with the idea of selling more rooms. Fresh content matters. GDS availability matters — especially if you’re near industry, hospitals, or transport routes.

Motel Distribution = Visibility

List all your room types everywhere. One motel we worked with hid their apartments for long-stay use. They sat at 17% occupancy. We opened them up online with a 3-night minimum. Bookings spiked almost instantly.

Motel Rate Strategy

For our guests, one of the first elements of value perception they get is price. Price = Value. Match your pricing to your positioning in the market, and make sure your Restaurant pricing is logical — i.e. If you run a budget Motel the $150 Steak may not make sense.

One Last Thing

Don’t overlook the small stuff. A noisy door doesn’t need a policy — it needs a wrench. Most of your motel revenue leaks are simple fixes. Be consistent with the small things and your Motel or Hotel will reach new heights.