Twitter and your hotel

I’ve written before about the value of Twitter to ensure a great guest experience in your hotel and today, I read another splendid example. But before I go on to the story, let me say that a recent survey showed that 12% of those asked had used Twitter to have hotel problems fixed.
Brian lives in Vancouver and had a friend coming into town. He decided to check in at the same hotel for the duration of his friend’s visit. When he looked into the mini-fridge in his room, he found the elderly remnants of a takeout meal.

He was heading out to have dinner with his friend and knew that calling the front desk would be time consuming so he took a photograph with his iPhone and sent it to the hotel’s Twitter account.

As he sat to the dinner table – just a few minutes later – he received a message via Twitter from the hotel. They apologized and offered him free breakfast for two the following morning.

That in itself is a great story, especially the speed in which the hotel reacted but there’s more. When he returned to his hotel room the fridge had, of course, been thoroughly cleaned. There was also a bottle of wine (and glasses and corkscrew) and a hand-written note from the manager.

Brian is a frequent traveler and says that he has found that Twitter is the best and fastest way to solve hotel problems. He also claims that he will always use that hotel chain from now on.