When guests come to your hotel you’re constantly delivering a barrage of clues that effect their emotions, which, in turn, influence their attitudes and ultimately their behaviors.

　　Beware: Your guests cannot NOT have an experience.

　　When guests come to your hotel you’re constantly delivering a barrage of clues that effect their emotions, which, in turn, influence their attitudes and ultimately their behaviors. What they see, smell, hear, taste, and touch create their “experience” and affect them emotionally — even though they aren't even aware it’s happening. Research has found that 95% of our mental processing takes place unconsciously. That’s right, only 5% of your guests’ decisions are based on conscious rational thought.

　　Which is why understanding and acting on not just what customers think but understanding how they think and how to affect that is today’s most definitive competitive edge. This mindshift is what enabled La Quinta Inn & Suites to grow occupancy, increase brand advocacy, and earn top ranking for outstanding customer experience.

　　La Quinta Takes A Deep Dive Into their Guest Experience

　　Facing a rise in guest complaints, La Quinta partnered with our firm to better understand and orchestrate the customer experience it offered guests. Through in-depth interviews with key La Quinta customer segments, hotel executives gained a thorough and integrated understanding of guests’ behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and unconscious emotions. They also were able to identify gaps between the actual experience La Quinta guests were having and the experience they truly desired. Research revealed that the three most powerful things guests want to feel about themselves while at one of its properties are assured, settled in, and optimistic. Igniting these three feelings became the foundation for the hotel’s re-launched brand image: “Here for you.” That simple statement represents a deep and comprehensive understanding of how guests want to feel as a result of staying at a La Quinta property, and is based on the conceptual filter the company uses to make critical operational decisions.

　　As clarity about how guests want to feel during the hotel stay emerged, La Quinta Executive Vice President and Chief Operation Officer Angelo Lombardi decided to make a substantial investment in ground enhancements, lighting, technology and other improvements. La Quinta now has thousands of new rooms that feature bright colors, beautiful décor and comfortable pillow-top mattresses. Its “Here For You” guest hospitality program also was significantly refined, with employees receiving training to understand the unconscious emotional needs of customers and how to deliver on them.

　　Understanding How Guests Want to Feel Drives Business Results

　　At the end of the day, results must be measured by the business impact — which has been overwhelmingly positive. “Beyond the marked increase in compliments and decrease in complaints, we’re also experiencing a much higher number of new guests staying with us due to referrals,” touts Lombardi. “That’s huge because referrals are the ultimate metric.”

　　La Quinta learned that understanding how customers want to feel brings clarity, purpose, and alignment. Using the unconscious emotions desired by customers as a blueprint gave management a great alignment mechanism for ensuring all its actions are headed in the same direction. Adopting this customer-centric mindset will help all La Quinta properties deliver a hotel experience that evokes those feelings and engages customers. Purposely designing and delivering the full spectrum of experiential clues in order to reinforce specific thoughts and emotions — how guests want to feel — is proven to help companies to optimize the value of the experiences they create.