The guest wrote it in the pre-arrival form. He repeated it to the concierge during the pre-arrival call. He even mentioned it at the front desk when he arrived. And yet, the next morning at breakfast, nobody knows. A look at a paradox that anyone who has worked in a hotel knows by heart.
The guest said it. Several times.
Take a couple who book three nights to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. They left nothing to chance:
- when booking, a note in the “special requests” field: wedding anniversary on the 14th;
- in the pre-arrival form, the “special occasion” box ticked;
- during the pre-arrival call, he tells the concierge he really doesn’t want anything “over the top,” but that a small gesture would make his wife happy;
- at check-in, he mentions it again with a smile to the receptionist.
Four channels, four chances to pass on the same piece of information. Statistically, the hotel can’t miss it. In reality, it happens all the time: the information exists, but it stays trapped wherever it was first recorded.
Where the information actually gets lost
Anyone who has worked in front office will recognise these situations:
- the booking note stays in the PMS, which the restaurant and breakfast teams can’t access;
- the pre-arrival form isn’t connected to the PMS: in many hotels it’s still a simple online form or an email exchange. The answers land in an inbox and have to be copied by hand into the guest profile. As Hoteligy points out, a pre-check-in that doesn’t write automatically to the PMS is just one more form, creating manual work for the front desk;
- information given verbally at check-in is rarely recorded, because the lobby is busy and the queue is growing;
- the shift handover happens verbally or on paper, and the fact that the anniversary is tomorrow vanishes between the evening and morning shifts;
- the information is written down everywhere but with no deadline: everyone vaguely knows there’s an anniversary, but nobody knows it’s their job to act, or when.
So the problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s a lack of transmission: the right information, to the right department, at the right time, with someone accountable for it.
What the guest really expects
The classic reflex is a bottle of champagne in the room with a printed card. It’s better than nothing, but it rarely matches what the guest actually expressed. This couple didn’t necessarily want a bottle. They wanted to feel that someone had listened.
The gesture that leaves a mark is often the simplest one, at the right time and in the right place:
- a “happy anniversary” from the maître d’ at breakfast on the 14th;
- a candle on dessert in the evening, without having to ask the restaurant again;
- a short handwritten note left in the room at turndown.
Nothing spectacular. And it’s precisely because it’s so simple that forgetting it stands out so much.
The real cost of forgetting
In a luxury property, forgetting a gesture is never neutral. It’s even worse than if nothing had been asked: the guest took the time to share something personal, sometimes more than once, and finds out it made no difference.
The information matters as much to the hotel as it does to the guest. To him, it isn’t a form field: it’s his wedding anniversary, the very reason for his stay. Treating it as secondary data means missing the heart of what we call the guest experience.
On the other hand, a well-executed gesture costs little and gets talked about for a long time: in online reviews, in recommendations to friends, in a return visit the following year.
More software, less memory
This is the great paradox of today’s hospitality industry. Hotels have never been so well equipped: PMS, booking engine, guest messaging tool, restaurant software, concierge app, housekeeping tool, CRM… Each one automates part of the work and promises to make life easier for the teams.
In our own survey of hotels, we found that a property uses on average five different applications to run its services. Five tools, five databases, five places where a piece of information can be recorded… and forgotten.
The result: instead of simplifying the job, the pile-up of tools forces staff to juggle multiple screens to pass on information that should flow on its own. The concierge copies the PMS note into their own tool, the front desk emails it to the restaurant, someone writes it in the logbook, someone else posts it in a WhatsApp group. Every manual step is a chance for it to get lost.
What’s needed: information entered once, that flows on its own
The solution isn’t one more piece of software, but a different logic:
- A single guest profile that centralises everything the guest has said, whatever the channel: booking, form, phone call, check-in, or even a remark made in passing at breakfast.
- Single entry: the information is recorded only once, by the person who receives it.
- Automatic routing to the right department: breakfast on the 14th for the maître d’, dinner for the kitchen, turndown for housekeeping.
- A deadline and an owner: every gesture becomes a dated, assigned action that can be ticked off once done.
- A history: on the next stay, the hotel remembers what the guest enjoyed, without having to ask again.
All of this, of course, in compliance with GDPR: only the people concerned have access to the data, it’s kept only as long as necessary, and guests can view it on request.
The My Sharing System approach
This is exactly the observation that gave rise to My Sharing System. After more than fifteen years in luxury hospitality, we wanted a tool designed by and for operational teams: concierge, front desk, restaurant, guest relations, housekeeping and maintenance each work in their own space, but those spaces are synchronised with each other and with the PMS.
In practice, information gathered during the pre-arrival call feeds into the guest profile and the guest’s personal space, which guests can complete themselves: preferences, allergies, reservation requests, special occasions. The relevant departments see it without anyone having to copy it or forward it by email.
The goal is simple: staff should no longer have to juggle multiple applications, so they can spend their time on what makes the difference: delighting guests.
What about your property?
How many tools do your teams open to pass on a simple piece of guest information? How many gestures slip through the cracks each month without anyone noticing?
We’re currently opening our beta-tester programme, limited to five properties (independent hotels or restaurants). If this resonates with you, write to us at tougeron@mysharingsystem.com or book a slot on our website to talk about your situation. We’d be glad to hear from you.
