Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Virtual GM. My name’s Spencer Halford. This is Cody Adent, and today we’re here with the Tips and Tricks video. This is three things and three events that you can do to enhance your guest experience at your hotel this week or this weekend. Um, and what we found just generally in hospitality is the best thing that you can do is add some type of unexpected delight to your guests’ stay, which really means that it comes as a surprise. I can relate to this just on the fact that I’m staying at a Hilton next week in Arizona and they text me personally and ask, what can we do to make your stay better?
That’s great. Yeah. Which is actually pretty weird because it’s not like a Waldorf for anything. It should, it is in Hilton. You know, so I actually thought that was really cool and I, there wasn’t anything. It’s a work trip, right. So, you know, I’m not bringing kids or girlfriend or friends or anything. It just makes sure the room’s clean. But there are things that I’m really looking forward to. Right. You should have thrown ’em a, like, you should have asked for like a picture of a Nicholas cage or something to be in there. I’ll text them. Text him and say, you want a picture of Nicholas Cage in your nightstand? And then we will update the audience if they deliver.
Yeah. I’m gonna ask for a picture of Nicholas Cage in the nightstand, and we’re gonna see if that happens. I am willing to bet that you’ll have a picture of Nicholas Cage. You actually think so? Yeah, a hundred percent. I know the Hilton in Sedona, and they don’t disappoint. And I believe that you’ll have all the best out there, so place your bets. Let us know. I’m betting Yes. Hilton. Sedona, pressure’s on.
So you’re on blast.
Here are three things that you can do for you’re independent or boutique hotel.
From Local Vineyards to Your Lobby: Hosting Memorable Wine Tastings for Your Guests
The first one is, is really easy at costs next to nothing. You can offer a wine tasting to your guests. Tthis kind of plays off just like, the whole guest experience. You can leave placards in the room or mention this to check-in, kinda like NBC Suites has a happy hour. If you go buy some white wines, some red wine, and then maybe a charcuterie board, some sourdough bread, things like that, and you have a wine tasting in the lobby. Maybe other activities are happening in there too, especially if it’s local wine. So if you have maybe, uh, vineyard that’s nearby and like for us, ours would be Water Canyon Winery that’s in Colorado City, which is maybe an hour and a half away from here. Or, uh, what’s that? Silver reef?
Yeah, silver Reef. Yep. Silver Reef. And then there’s also, um, IG Winery in Cedar City.
So even those three, if you got different, let’s say Merrill’s, Malbec’s, Pinot Grigio’s or whatever from each one of these, and you had them, and you said, Hey, they’re from these different winemakers, like a great example of Silver Reef. Their vineyard is all the way up in the Pine Valley mountains, which currently is just covered in snow right now, where Water Canyon Winery, there is a little bit of snow on the ground, but it’s not very traditional, but they get snow. So, you know, you can compare and contrast against the different winemakers, and it just adds that local element to the experience for the guests.
They’re really traveling and staying in a boutique property for that experience anyways. So it’s a really great way to just level that up, maybe get some more reviews and definitely increase your word of mouth and also creates opportunity for the guests to interact with each other for sure. To build those relationships and build friendships and talk about where they’re from and why they chose to stay there. You create that little bit of a community, which is great.
Creating Lasting Memories with S’more Stations
Tip number two: Depending on your weather, you can set up s’more stations. So like the Waldorf in Park City, they’ve got this beautiful staircase that goes up to the second floor and they have everything already, like pre-set up. So the Hershey’s chocolate’s already in halves, the graham crackers are broken, the marshmallows are there, and they’ve got their sticks, a little spot so you can do it inside if it’s just like too cold. Or you can go out to the fire pits and do it out there too.
It’s awesome if you obviously have family or kids, but it’s, I mean, I like to have smores. I don’t need my kids to knock some smores out, you know, so it’s a really affordable thing and easy to do. We’ve seen other properties where they charge like $6 for a s’mores kit, but that’s such an easy thing to give away, and it brings so much joy. And then, and then you can ask them to tag you and, and post on Instagram and show those memories that they’re creating and, something that doesn’t take a lot of planning or space. So tip number two, set up a smores night.
Why Live Music is the Perfect Addition to Your Hotel’s Experience
Tip number three, follows along the same suit is kind of tip one and tip two. You can have things that are going on while you’re making s’mores or while you’re doing wine night. We’re a really big fan of live music. Live music is always a really great crowd-pleaser and it brings people that are just in the community to your property too. It does a really good job at increasing the general awareness of the hotel, but it’s a great reason for people to go out. Maybe it’s near the restaurant where you can serve some food. It’s out by some greenery or something. But live music is always a hit. Everyone loves it.
It’s another great opportunity for people to record and post it on their Instagram story and share it with their friends. And a great way to engage your local community because you obviously want to get a local artist. That gives, the people who are coming and staying at your property, some exposure to your community and, and what you have to offer. It’s always a good time. So that’s one that you’re definitely going to wanna look into.
Yeah, absolutely. Uh, we do this at the Cliffrose. It happens every night in peak season, and people come all the way from St. George, which is 45 minutes to an hour, depending on where you live, just to enjoy live music. And then maybe they’ll get some food too.
It’s a really great opportunity and it’s such, a great value add, especially where these, these local musicians who just wanna get in front of people.
Get a Head Start on Your Marketing with a Free Month from The Vibrant Team
Then we also want to talk about, so you’ll be listening to this episode sometime in March, which means you’ve got about two weeks left to take us up on the offer for a free month of paid marketing. So all you have to do is engage us before the month is over. And, so if that’s at the end of March, we’ll run it for you in April. What we’ll do is what are we doing giving away a silver package value.
It’s a couple of thousand dollars in value that we’re going to give to you for free. And the reason that we can do that is we’re so confident in the offering that we have, and we know we’re going to get you a return, and we’ll be able to show you how we’re getting that return, that there’s not a chance that you’re going to do a month with us and then decide not to do it after that. Right?
It’s really a win-win for us, and it’s ultimately a win-win for you because it gets you an opportunity to dip your toes in the water, see if you’re comfortable, see if you enjoy working with us, and then start getting a nice return for the property. So make sure to reach out at [email protected]. Just do that before the month is over so you can get an opportunity to get 30 days of free marketing.
If there’s anything that you want to hear in upcoming episodes, please email me at [email protected] or [email protected] if you want to be on the podcast. We’re starting to request that now. If you want to reach out about Cody’s book, you can reach out about Cody’s book. Go to Amazon, pick it up, and leave me a review. It’d be awesome
If you happen to know Sean Cannell and wanna recommend our videos there. That’d be great, we’d appreciate that.
Also, I think it’s important in the, like, in the sense of transparency that before this podcast started, I asked Spencer which two things he would like to share and he took the two coolest. True. So, uh, that left me with s’mores.
That’s just a short and simple podcast for us today. If you have anything you want us to hear about or wanna talk to us about, shoot us a DM or email us.
All right. Thank you so much for listening, and have a great rest of your day.
See you guys.
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