I spent a fair amount of time last month on TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Yelp, and other websites offering hotel reviews. A majority of those reviews were written by hotel guests whose experiences were either very good or a very bad. It seems that when guests have an ordinary or typical experience, they’re not as motivated to write a review.

Social media provides a wealth of feedback for companies that are committed to continuous improvement of the guest’s experience. Some managers react to negative feedback from hotel guests by researching the reservation, perhaps confirming details associated with the complaint, and then following up with an appropriate remedy (e.g., phone call, letter, issue a partial refund, etc.).

These remedies, absent root cause analysis and long-term solutions, are simply band-aids that allow problems to perpetuate. Unless managers also respond to this feedback by identifying the root cause(s) of the problem and then addressing it in a way that resolves or mitigates the issue for future guests, the problems—and their attendant complaints—will inevitably return.

Below are three issues that contributed to negative hotel reviews on one or more of the above websites, followed by solutions offered by seasoned hoteliers with whom I’ve worked:

1.) Elevator was out of service resulting in delays and inconvenience.

I spoke with a general manager who operates a select service hotel with 104 guest rooms located on one of three levels. Of course, with a hotel with multiple levels, guests expect an elevator. Unfortunately, they lost the use of their elevator for several weeks due to a crucial part being on back order.

Guests were inconvenienced by having to go up and down stairs—especially when these trips involved luggage. Several days into it, as guest complaints increased and the extent of the repair delay became evident, he made a decision. He and his team implemented a unique strategy for selling third floor rooms.

When customers accessed the brand’s website or 800 number, they were redirected to the hotel where they received a personal explanation of the elevator issue in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises when they arrived at the hotel. While the hotel was offering a rate of $189 per night for most of its inventory, they began offering third floor rooms for $99-$119 per night, based on occupancy.

The third floor rooms were selling out first! Occupancy and guest satisfaction (due to the proactive communication of the staff and the value created by a discount of $70-$90 per room per night) actually increased during the period of time that the elevator was out of service!

2.) Breakfast buffet was poorly stocked and serviced.

I spoke with another general manager of a select service hotel who had been receiving disappointing breakfast scores from her guests and learned that the critical feedback had to do with several factors:

• limited visibility and accessibility of the dining room attendant
• tendency to run out of coffee, muffins, and other popular breakfast items
• too much time to replenish depleted items

After reviewing the feedback, examining the breakfast process, and identifying potential remedies with her team, she made the decision to relocate the food storage and preparation from the Housekeeping area (which was more than 100 feet away) to an area that was closer to the breakfast room.

How did they do it? That’s the best part! Rather than seeing the limitations of the existing square footage as a barrier, they rethought the current use and purpose of the space. They decided to consolidate the seldom used lobby men’s and women’s restrooms into one unisex restroom.

Next, they converted the remaining space into a food storage and preparation area just 3 feet from the breakfast room!

This addressed each of the primary customer complaints: Now the attendant is visible/accessible, the buffet seldom runs out of coffee, muffins, and other popular breakfast items, and depleted items are replenished in a timely manner!

3.) Felt ignored by the wait staff in the lounge.

Just last week I spoke with the assistant general manager of a full service hotel in New York City who is preparing to implement an idea to encourage servers to make a genuine connection with lounge guests.

He is planning to have the Micros point of sale software require guests’ names and drink preferences prior to opening a ticket. The objective is to prompt servers to capture guests’ names early in order to use it throughout the service experience—not just when the check is settled.

And capturing a record of guests’ preferred drinks enables servers to anticipate the drink orders of repeat guests. Not only does this have a positive effect on guest service, it also allows management to better anticipate inventory requirements.

For instance, if a majority of guests prefer vodka and the bar stocks a dozen brands of tequila, then management will be able to utilize the data regarding guest preferences to make better use of their limited inventory and selection.

Each of these examples illustrates how managers can, by responding (not just reacting) to critical feedback, address the problems experienced by past guests while improving the service experience for future guests.

How about you? What problems are you aware of in your own business that require a long-term fix but remain unresolved for one reason or another? What steps can you take today to resolve or mitigate these issues for future customers?

Time and again research confirms that customer encounters in which a problem is resolved quickly and efficiently receive higher satisfaction scores than situations in which there was no problem reported.

Obviously, each customer is different with respect to his temperament and tolerance for mistakes. But dropping the ball here or there can turn out to be a good thing if the problem is properly resolved.

Using a hotel example, imagine you’ve just been asked to answer a satisfaction survey about a recent hotel experience. As you reflect on how satisfied you were with different elements of your stay, you consider all the touch points in which you experienced the facility and interacted with the hotel staff:

• The friendliness of the hotel employees
• The timeliness of check-in
• The ambiance of the hotel (interior design and décor)
• The amenities offered in the guest room
• The value for price paid

According to analysis by J.D. Power and Associates, hotel guests who experienced one or more problems during their stay rate their overall experience lower than those that did not report having any problems (74.9 vs. 61.2 percent). This may seem obvious. Poor television reception, a noisy A/C unit, or a missed wakeup call are certain to have a negative impact on how you feel about your stay when you respond to the survey.

But not everyone who has a problem is destined to give a low rating. The determining factor is not whether you had the problem, but how the hotel’s staff made you feel about how the problem was addressed and resolved.

For example, if the hotel scores a “perfect 10” for problem resolution, overall satisfaction for the entire stay is higher than for guests who never experienced a problem to begin with. Do a poor job fixing the problem, however, and overall satisfaction drops below 60 percent!

So, while it pays to resolve guest complaints quickly and efficiently, according to research only 15 percent of guests felt that their hotel’s staff had resolved the problem perfectly, compared to nearly half who expressed outright displeasure at the staff’s problem resolution skills.

How well-prepared are your employees to effectively address and resolve the inevitable problems that your customers will encounter?

Last December I worked with a hotel leadership team in Dayton, OH. One of the discussions lead to identifying the obstacles that stood in the way of creating promoters of its hotel.

Consumer research firm Bain and Company defines promoters as those customers who are the least price-sensitive, have the highest repurchase rates, and are responsible for between 80 and 90 percent of positive word-of-mouth.

One of the executives, Ryan, mentioned that the frequency of problems experienced by hotel guests was an obstacle. In examining this further, it became clear that a contributing factor was the condition of the hotel’s guest rooms due to needed renovations that had been postponed due to the economy.

And they’re not alone. I’ve spoken with numerous hoteliers who are in the same position. They must now get by with a product that, in a more robust economy, likely would have been renovated by now. Because the product is worn, it contributes to the increase in reported problems experienced by hotel guests.

So what’s a hotel to do? Here’s an idea that I received from Horst Schulze, Founding President and Former COO, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., LLC. Mr. Schulze calls it the C.A.R.E. (Clean And Repair Everything) program:

Before the C.A.R.E. program, Ritz-Carlton hotels would take an entire floor of a hotel out of service once a year in order to deep-clean guest rooms. By doing so, its guest rooms would not deteriorate as quickly. At 75 percent occupancy, a typical Ritz-Carlton hotel room would last for five years.

Under the C.A.R.E. program, four rooms were taken out of service and deep cleaned every day. This meant the room was like new every three months. In a typical Ritz-Carlton hotel, a ten year-old room was newer and cleaner looking than a two year-old room in other hotels.

What effect did the C.A.R.E. program have on the frequency of problems experienced by its guests? The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., LLC is a two-time recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. During the last year Ritz-Carlton received the award, there was only one reported defect per 10,000 room nights sold!

What has your experience been? What are you doing to anticipate and reduce the problems experienced by your own customers?