Every hotel wants to know what its guests think. But most hotels find out at the worst possible moment: days after the guest has left, on a review site or in a survey that nobody reads carefully. By then it is too late to fix the cold meal, the late room service delivery or the long wait at the pool bar.
In this article we look at how to collect guest feedback during the stay, what each channel is good for, how to design the questions and, most importantly, how to turn the feedback you collect into real action.
Why During the Stay, Not After Checkout?#
Post-stay surveys still have value. They are a good way to measure the overall impression and whether a guest would come back. But they have two important weaknesses.
The first is timing. When the guest fills in the survey, the experience is already over. If something went wrong, the chance to fix it has passed. An unhappy guest who is never asked often stays silent at the hotel and shares their opinion somewhere else later.
The second is memory. At the end of a week-long holiday, a guest will not remember how warm their dinner was on the third evening. What remains is a general feeling: "it was good" or "service was a bit slow". That feeling does not tell a manager what to fix, where or when.
Feedback collected during the stay is fresh and specific. The guest is still at the hotel, so when a problem shows up, the team can act on the same day.
Feedback Channels: What Is Each One Good For?#
There is no single perfect channel. Most hotels use several; what matters is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Paper cards and in-room forms#
Simple and familiar. But response rates tend to be low, the data has to be typed in by hand and cards are often read days later. It is not always clear which outlet or which shift a comment refers to.
Front desk and guest relations#
Face-to-face conversation is the most personal channel and still essential for serious issues. But not every guest wants to walk to reception to complain. And verbal feedback that is never recorded cannot be measured or reported.
Post-stay email surveys#
Useful for measuring overall satisfaction but, as described above, they arrive late and lose detail.
In-stay digital feedback#
Asking for a short rating right after a service, through a digital channel the guest is already using. The guest rates the experience on their phone in a few taps, without downloading an app. The data is recorded instantly and can be linked to the right department.
Timing: Ask Right After the Service#
The best moment to ask for feedback is just after the service. A short question shortly after an order is delivered, or once a restaurant reservation is over, gets answered while the experience is still fresh.
A few practical rules:
- Keep it short. A few ratings and an optional comment field are enough. Long forms get abandoned.
- Don't ask about everything. Avoid tiring guests with a request after every interaction; pick the service moments that matter.
- Ask in the guest's language. In hotels with international guests, showing the questions in the guest's own language has a direct effect on participation.
A Single Score or Multiple Criteria?#
"Rate us from 1 to 5" is quick but tells you very little. A room service order got three stars — what went wrong? Was the food cold, was it late, or did the presentation disappoint?
With multi-criteria ratings, the guest scores the same experience on several dimensions. For a food order, for example:
- Speed
- Taste
- Temperature
- Presentation
This structure points straight to the source of the problem. If taste scores are good but temperature scores are low, the issue is not in the kitchen but in delivery. That distinction stops you from handing the wrong fix to the wrong team.
Linking Feedback to the Right Place#
A comment is only as useful as your knowledge of where it came from. "Service was slow" on its own means little. But if you know it came from an order placed at the pool bar last night at a certain hour, you understand the problem much faster.
Try to link feedback to:
- Location: restaurant, bar, pool, beach, room service
- Room: which room it came from (to contact the guest or spot recurring issues)
- Department and time: which team, which shift, which time window
Once this link exists, feedback stops being a "general satisfaction score" and becomes an operational tool.
Closing the Loop: Get Back to the Guest#
The most overlooked part of collecting feedback is getting back to the guest. Contacting a guest who gave a low score on the same day can often turn a negative experience into a positive one. When guests feel heard, the way they see the hotel changes.
To make this work:
- Name a person who reviews low scores and negative comments regularly, ideally during the day.
- Define in advance who reaches out to the guest in which situation.
- Record what was done, so you can see whether the same issue keeps coming back.
Turning Feedback into Actions and Reports#
If collected comments just sit in a folder, the effort is wasted. The value of feedback comes from reading it regularly and making decisions.
Look for patterns, not single comments#
One negative comment may be an unlucky evening. Low temperature scores repeating from the same outlet in the same time window are a process problem. A weekly or monthly view brings these patterns to the surface.
Share results with the team#
Department managers should see the ratings and comments for their own area. Sharing positive feedback matters for team motivation just as much as sharing the negative.
Measure the effect of changes#
When you change a process (for example a delivery route or the order of preparation), track how the scores for the related criterion change. That way feedback also tells you whether your improvement worked.
In-Stay Feedback with Sunflow#
In Sunflow, guests who order through the web portal they open with a QR code can rate their order on several criteria, such as speed, taste, temperature and presentation. They can also rate their à la carte restaurant experience and leave a review of the hotel and the overall experience. In the admin panel, each review shows which room or location it came from, and the results feed into daily, weekly and monthly reports.
Service-specific reviews (such as spa and housekeeping), end-of-stay reviews and request and complaint tracking with photos are currently in development and coming soon.
You can find the details on our guest feedback system page.
