You'd think that the meaning of "hotel" is pretty clear, but I had a customer experience this week that might raise some doubt.
I was in Washington, DC this week during the Cherry Blossom Festival, the week that tourists descend to see the beautiful flowering trees that were gifted to the city by the Mayor of Tokyo nearly 100 years ago. That meant hotel rooms were scarce and prices were high. I checked into the well-known L'Enfant Plaza hotel.
PROBLEM:
In the morning, I got up, did a little work, and then hopped in the shower with 15 minutes to go. Except...I couldn't turn the shower on. I work out and am fairly strong, but no matter how hard I tugged -- even with both hands and putting my back and core into it -- I couldn't get the handle to budge. Since I was speaking at an event that morning, I couldn't wait for engineering to come and fix the problem. My only option with 10 minutes left was a fast, unsatisfactory wash from the sink. Before I left the room, I called the hotel operator explained the problem and suggested that an engineer come to the room and the manager be apprised of the problem.
When I returned eleven hours later, the on duty manager knew nothing about the problem and kept trying to explain to me how to turn on a shower. He checked the engineer's log and informed me that the shower had been fixed. But, when I went to the room, nothing was changed. The manager then came to the room, leaned over the tub and... was unable to turn on the shower with a flick of his hand. It required this much taller and larger person to put his two hands and full weight into the effort and multiple tugs until he was ultimately able to turn on the water. He then showed me how not to turn the handle to a position that was not quite "off" so that it wouldn't freeze in place again.
The next morning, I found the hotel bill slipped under the door showing a full charge for both nights. That struck me as unreasonable.
SOLUTION:
A large part of my frustration was created by the hotel staff's apparent lack of empathy for my situation. No one apologized for the problem and, in fact, their comments implied that I lacked basic intelligence or skills. As I've often said, the first thing a seller should do is apologize. This doesn't necessarily mean admitting liability but does mean acknowledging the customer's problem. "I'm sorry you're having a problem with the shower" can really diffuse anger.
The second thing a seller should do is stand in the customer's shoes. Is it reasonable to have a basic in-room service that can only be used if you're six feet tall and two hundred pounds? Of course not. You wouldn't put the thermostat seven feet from the floor.
Most importantly, understand what the customer values about your product. The management considered the problem a minor inconvenience and initially made no offer to discount the cost of the room. When I asked for a discount, I was offered a reduction of about 12%. I explained that a hotel room provided two things, a bed and a bathroom, and asked the manager to imagine what it would be like to find an equivalent problem with the bed (not there, broken, etc.). This resulted in a much larger discount, but had turned the experience into a contract negotiation.
Again, it's the affirmative reconciliatory act that wins over the customer. Cruise lines, for example, give customers discounts for future trips inn apology for things that have gone wrong on the current trip. I'm sure that, like most gift certificates, it costs them far less than face value because many people never use them. Remember, offering to help is always more highly valued than agreeing to help when asked.