The After-Stay Standard

By 16:00 the day before, read tomorrow’s departures and note for each guest: nights stayed, any complaint logged, the moment delivered (The Memorable Moment Standard) and anything still owed to them.

List every open promise from the stay in the after-stay log: a recipe, the name of a product, a photo, a booking, a copy of the bill for a company, with who owes it and by what date.

Choose who speaks to each guest: the colleague who looked after them most during the stay, or guest relations. A guest with a complaint still open is seen by the duty manager.

Check the contact consent in the profile. A thank-you about this stay goes to every guest who gave an email; news, offers and a note on a date next year go only where consent is marked yes.

Check yourself against The Presence Standard before the first conversation, with each guest’s name, stay and open promises in mind.

Ask the evening before departure or at breakfast on the last morning, in person where you can. Never at the moment of paying: by then nothing can be fixed and the guest is watching the time.

Ask one open question about the stay, and listen to the whole answer with your eyes on the guest, not on a screen or a notepad.

“Before you leave us tomorrow, Mr Al-Harbi, how has the stay been for you?”

Ask one follow-up question about the part the guest mentions first, good or bad. Then thank them. Never ask for a score, a survey or a review.

“You mentioned the breakfast. What would you change about it?”

If you cannot see the guest in person, call between 18:00 and 20:00 or send one question through the hotel’s messaging service, signed with your name, and say you will read the answer yourself.

Write the answer in the guest’s own words in the after-stay log within 30 minutes, with who asked, when and how. Never write only “happy” or “fine”.

Anything that went wrong goes to the duty manager within 10 minutes, and is fixed or answered before the guest leaves the building, as The Recovery Standard sets out.

Pass any praise of a named colleague to that person and their manager the same day, in the guest’s words.

If the guest asks for something after the stay, say what you will send and by when, and write it in the log as a promise with your name.

“I’ll send you the chef’s recipe for the lentil soup by Thursday, Mrs Laurent.”

Before check-out, tell the front office in one line what the guest said, so the desk does not ask again as if for the first time. The goodbye at the desk and the car follows The Farewell Standard.

Send a personal message within 48 hours of departure, by email or by the channel the guest used during the stay, from the colleague who looked after them most.

Write each message fresh: four to six lines, with one detail of the stay that only this guest would recognise. No template sentences, no photos of the hotel, no offers and no request for a review.

“Dear Mrs Tanaka, I hope the journey home was easy, and that the castle route was worth the early start.”

If something went wrong during the stay, say once, in one sentence, what has been done about it since. The duty manager or the guest relations manager signs that message.

Deliver every open promise with the message or before the date given: the recipe, the photo, the copy of the bill. If one cannot be kept on time, say so in the message, with the new date.

Sign with your first name, surname and role, and give a direct email or telephone number that a person answers. Never send from a no-reply address.

Before sending, check the guest’s title and the spelling of the name against the profile. Write in the guest’s language where a team member writes it correctly; otherwise in English.

Answer every reply within 24 hours: the person who signed the message, or guest relations when that person is off. Name the colleague who will follow up if it is not you.

A reply that raises a problem goes to the duty manager the same day and is answered in private, as The Recovery Standard sets out. Any gesture is decided by the general manager.

Send a booking request to reservations within 2 hours, with the guest’s name, the dates and what they liked this time, and tell the guest who will confirm it and by when.

If the guest writes a public review, it is answered as The Review Response Standard sets out. Nothing from the private messages is repeated in public.

Within 72 hours of departure, check in the after-stay log that each departed guest had the question, the message and every promise, and mark each one closed with the date.

Update the profile with what the guest said before leaving and in any reply, as The Returning Guest Standard sets out: what to keep for the next stay and what to change.

Where the profile holds an occasion date and consent is marked yes, set a reminder 10 days before it for a short personal note on the date, signed by the occasion owner.

Each Monday, guest relations counts last week’s departures, questions asked, messages sent within 48 hours and promises kept, and reads the four numbers at the heads of department meeting.