Trump Hotels – How Ivanka Trump uses Social Media to keep their Hotel Guests Happy with an awesome Customer Experience!

Trump Hotels – How Ivanka Trump uses Social Media to keep their Hotel Guests Happy with an awesome Customer Experience!

The Hotel industry has become very social with Expedia and Yelp taking hotel ratings to heart. It’s those like Ivanka (executive vice president ) who really understand the Customer Experience that is bringing customer service in the hotel industry to heart. The Trump Hotel Collection has been offering Facebook reservations for around six months, and Ivanka Trump has been taking advantage of her personality-driven brand. Ivanka is known to tweet out hotel specials to over a million twitter followers. However, she is one of the few Hoteliers that understand how things work. Once a guest makes their Trump Hotel reservations through Facebook, A hotel attaché will call the guest and ask about personal preferences : which newspaper do you prefer?, any special amenities required?, What room temperature do you enjoy? This goes above and beyond exceeding a customer’s expectations and sets the stage for an enhanced Customer Experience. In fact, if you have a small child that needs a crib in the room the crib will even show up with a Teddy Bear. Now that’s creative thinking and a way to exceed a customers expectation. With rooms at the Soho Trump in New York a starting at $399 a night, they are not overpriced because the Westin Hotel charges similar but Ivanka strives to Trump one over the competition.

I personally have stayed over 300 nights in a specific hotel chain if not more and stayed with a specific brand and can only say that only one hotel reached out to me in a very personal and human interactive manner over the past 10 years– that was the Westin Grand Hotel in Vancouver. The Starwood properties group will always send a satisfaction survey out to guests but if you have a bad experience they never acknowledge the concerns that you raise in the survey. So a guest will stop replying to surveys and then change hotel brands to one that cares.

Can it only be that The Westin Grand in Vancouver is a hotel that truly appreciated a repeat customer? Sending emails stating how happy they are that you chose their hotel or even ignoring complaints doesn’t’ count. Starwood does get extra points because the W Hotel and Aloft hotel banners do offer free airline ticket and hotel folio printing in their lobby kiosks. Not every traveler has a printer or laptop with them and this can be a very handy service. Some Starwood locations have a business center with free use of a computer and a printer that really sends the message that they care. However, a lot of other properties expect you to pay $10 an hour or more to use this facility (even for casual use).

The business and vacation traveler can be a particularly fickle bunch because they expect a better customer experience when paying over $200 a night. Free internet is expected in all areas of a hotel property and now luxury brands are looking to provide guests with free use of Apple iPads, RIM Playbooks, Smartphone and other devices to their guests that can enhance their stay and bring them back for more.