Front Desk Fails

March 8, 2023

After returning from a recent 3,000 mile RV trip, I needed to get some of my frustrations out by telling you what I experienced.

The trip covered Texas, Southern New Mexico, Southern Arizona and Southern California. There were multiple parks in each of the states where I stayed and I stayed at parks that covered everything from a state park to a very upscale resort.

Here is what I found.

1.). When checking into a park, I did receive a greeting from the Front Desk, BUT it bordered on “Yeah, I see you and I will be with you in a minute.” The people behind the desk were busy with their daily duties and left me feeling that I was intruding.

What would be better? Well, one thing I have always empathized is to put a smile on your face before you answer the phone, you greet a guest, or you are walking around the park. It will amaze you how much of a difference it makes in how your greeting is received.

Stop what you are doing as soon as possible when someone comes into the office and make them the center of your attention. They are, after all, the reason you get a paycheck.

2.). While staying at the park, I made multiple trips to the front office to ask questions or get directions. Once again, the overall feeling was that I was intruding on their work day. I was especially disappointed that the upscale resort front desk definitely gave off a “Your only here for a couple of days, I need to take care of my Snowbirds” vibe.

What a difference it would have been had they just been interested in me as a guest and identifying what they could do to help me. I do have to say that the one bright spot in this stay was one of the maintenance people who came around every afternoon to see how things were going and if we needed anything. (Front Desk could take a few pointers from Maintenance.)

3.). Upon checking out, not one of the parks gave me any reason to return. This was a major fail! They had no idea if I would be back their way since they showed no interest in me when checking me in and weren’t really concerned about my recommending them to other travelers.

At no point did anyone at the Front Desk do their basic job, which is to Sell The Park. They did a good job in taking care of the clerical part of the job, but that doesn’t get you repeat business.

Please train your Front Desk to be your sales force and I will guarantee that you will see the results in your occupancy numbers.

Need help or some training ideas? Give us a call and we will brainstorm your training manual with you.