Guest Experience

Guest Complaint Handling

To resolve a guest complaint at the first point of contact wherever possible, and to record it so the cause can be corrected.

Scope

Applies to every department and every channel: in person, telephone, in-stay message and post-stay review.

Any employee receiving a complaint owns it until it is resolved or handed over by name. Department Manager approves compensation.

Guest feedback log, property management system profile notes, compensation authority matrix.

Stop what you are doing and give the guest your full attention. Do not continue a task while listening.
Listen without interrupting until the guest has finished. Take a note of the facts, not your explanation.
Acknowledge the impact on the guest in your own words before offering anything.
Apologise for the experience without assigning blame to a colleague or a department.
Confirm your understanding back to the guest and ask what outcome they are looking for.
Resolve within your authority immediately. If it is outside your authority, say who will handle it and by when.
Agree the resolution with the guest explicitly before acting on it.
Carry out the resolution and confirm completion to the guest personally.
Record the complaint, the cause and the resolution in the feedback log the same shift.
Follow up before the guest departs to confirm the issue has not returned.

Withdraw and call security if a guest becomes abusive or threatening. Personal safety takes priority over resolution.

Acknowledged within five minutes. Resolved or ownership named within thirty minutes. Logged before end of shift.

Escalate immediately for allegations of theft, injury, discrimination or food safety, and for any request for compensation above your authority.

Procedures are issued to a property, acknowledged by the staff it applies to, and re-issued when they change.