Boosting Brand & TripAdvisor Scores in a Limited Service Hotel

La Quinta Inn & Suites Hollister’s 94 rooms are usually filled with a mix of business, leisure, group, family, and walk-in guests. Uniting these travelers is a love of great service at a great price. Now, there are some challenges to delivering great service in limited service environments– teams are smaller, budgets are tighter, and there may not be a world-renowned shiatsu masseuse ready to work the tension out of busy travelers. But LQ Hollister proves that service means much more than some awesome amenities– it means actively listening to guest issues and taking steps to resolve them.

General Manager and Kipsu pro, Licia Keller, helped us learn the secret sauce that keeps this limited service hotel delivering incredible guest experiences and receiving rockstar ratings. Licia wrote that the key to impressing guests is “responding quickly, efficiently, and professionally.”

"Guests tell us what is wrong and we have an opportunity to fix it BEFORE they tell the world.”
These three factors are key in the limited service environment with a tightly managed budget, and are all enhanced by Kipsu’s strategic use of template and automatic messages. It’s these messages that have helped the LQ Hollister team handle 3,000 conversations in their first 3 months on Kipsu. These messages have been crucial in the team responding to questions about pool hours; offering directions to the local dog park for restless pets; and delighting guests with restaurant recommendations. Front Office Supervisor Hannah Lawson writes about how important this feedback is, explaining that guests “tell us what is wrong and we have an opportunity to fix it BEFORE they tell the world.”

The numbers confirm the value that LQ Hollister is receiving from Kipsu. Since launching the service in September 2016, LQ Hollister has improved their brand survey scores by 4.3%, including a whopping 7.3% boost in ratings for Staff Friendliness/Helpfulness.

Those gains don’t stop with the brand survey– they translate directly onto TripAdvisor, too. In that same period, LQ Hollister boosted their average TripAdvisor score by 0.15.

"In that same period, LQ Hollister boosted their average TripAdvisor score by 0.15. "
That may not seem like moving a mountain, but those in the know recognize how difficult it can be to move the TripAdvisor needle from 4.68 to 4.83.

Contrary to the stereotype of limited service guests looking for nothing more than a place to sleep, LQ Hollister’s guests take advantage of the Kipsu platform and sing its praises online. In fact, guests have praised the texting service in a whole 17% of TripAdvisor reviews since introducing the Kipsu service. Beyond Kipsu collecting praise in one in every six TripAdvisor reviews, Licia knows from operating the program that the service truly delights guests. Ultimately, the real reason for their success with Kipsu can be summed up in three of her words: “Guests love it!”