The Relationship Between Air Quality and Guest Experience

Air quality can have a significant impact on a hotel guest's experience. For avid hotel goers, the difference between a clean lobby with a fresh scent and a musty lobby with poor ventilation is a revealing first impression of hotel quality. Poor air quality can lead to a variety of negative effects on guests, including discomfort, respiratory issues, and even illness. Meanwhile, good air quality can help create a comfortable and healthy environment for guests, which can enhance their overall experience, leading to return stays, positive reviews, and more revenue for hotel operators. 

Specific ways that air quality can affect a guest’s experience in your hotel include: 

1. Comfort: Poor air quality can make guests have a less than comfortable experience. For example, if the air is too humid, or the room smells of smoke or foul odors, guests may have difficulty concentrating, lose sleep, and miss quality time during their stay. 
2. Respiratory Issues: Less than adequate air quality can exacerbate respiratory issues such as seasonal allergies, asthma, and bronchitis. This can lead to discomfort, difficulty breathing, and illness. Guests with pre-existing conditions or who are extra sensitive to air quality are more likely to experience these issues when staying in hotels. 
3. Odors: Unpleasant odors in a hotel are sure to impact a guest's experience. These odors can be caused by a variety of different factors including poor ventilation, dirty carpets, and smoking. Unpleasant odors can be a major turnoff for guests and can negatively impact their overall experience. 
4. Illness: Poor air quality can increase the risk of illness among guests staying at the hotel. This can be caused by airborne viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens that circulate in the air. If guests become sick during their stay, it can lead to negative reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations.
5. Perceived Cleanliness: Creating a safe and healthy environment for guests is essential to preserving a hotel’s reputation and garnering customers’ trust. With the pandemic still lingering in guests’ minds, it is important to know that poor air quality can lead guests to believe a hotel is unsafe or dirty.

Overall, it is important for hotels to maintain the best air quality possible to ensure a comfortable and healthy environment for their guests. This can be achieved through regular cleaning, proper ventilation, and the regular use of air filtration systems. Devices such as WYND’s Sentry allows hotel owners and management to reliably detect recreational smoke including cigarette and marijuana smoke.

Improving Air Quality to Increase Revenues 

Maintaining good air quality in hotels can have a positive impact on revenues for hotel owners in a number of ways. First, attracting and retaining guests is of utmost importance for generating recurring business. As business travel returns, maintaining a healthy, comfortable, and safe environment will help hotels earn business lost through the pandemic. These factors are more important to the guest experience than ever. Hotels with improved air quality are more likely to have higher occupancy rates and higher profits. 

Second, guests that have a positive experience are more likely to leave positive reviews, give word-of-mouth recommendations to others looking for a hotel to stay, and return for another stay in the future. Nothing eliminates customers as fast as negative reviews. Hotels with higher ratings and consistent guest reviews are sure to be more successful. It is also important to note that better air quality also results in reduced liability for hotel owners. Poor air quality can lead to health and safety issues, which can result in potential liability for owners. By maintaining good air quality, hotel owners can reduce the risk of lawsuits and legal fees. 

Finally, proper air filtration systems can improve the energy efficiency of hotels. By reducing the need for heating and cooling systems to work harder, costs can be reduced. More efficient air filtration systems and a reduction in costs will increase hotel profits. 

How Smoking in Hotels Impacts Revenues and Costs

A big headache for hotel owners is knowing when smoking is happening behind closed doors within their property. Overall, smoking in hotels can lead to increased costs, reduced availability of rooms, negative reviews, and legal liability. Smoking leads to several negative impacts on hotels. Primarily, smoking leads to increased cleaning and maintenance costs. Smoke from cigarettes lingers within carpets, furniture, and fabrics and requires specialized cleaning and deodorizing services to remove the smell. This specialized cleaning service results in higher cleaning and maintenance costs for the hotel which impacts revenues. 

Additionally, there is an increased fire risk when smoking happens within the hotel in undesignated areas. Smoking in hotel rooms can increase the risk of fires, which can result in property damage, injury, and even loss of life. This can result in significant legal liability and negative publicity for the hotel. These factors can all contribute to decreased revenues and profitability for hotels. 

Implementing an Indoor Air Quality Strategy for Hotels 

Many hotels have implemented non-smoking policies to avoid these negative impacts and promote a healthier and more comfortable environment for guests. However, once the hotel guest is behind closed doors, there are a few things hotel owners can do to ensure they are following non-smoking rules. The average smoking damage claim costs $500 per incident. WYND’s Sentry airID technology can detect smoke from cigarettes and marijuana with over 99% accuracy. Not only does Sentry detect smoking, but it also monitors noise as well with decibel detection. This allows owners to prevent damages and get ahead of guests and noise complaints before they begin to negatively affect other guests during their stay. 

Furthermore, by using Sentry’s intuitive incident reporting, hotel owners and managers can easily create evidence-based incident reports, detailing and accurately documenting both smoking and noise incidents. With these detailed reports, owners can increase the rate of credit card chargebacks for guests. 

Hotels should be using good air quality as a big-ticket item when it comes to customer satisfaction. Overall, the guest experience is the prime mover of hotel revenues and keeping rooms occupied. By focusing on giving guests the most comfortable and stress-free stay at their hotel by ensuring the best air quality, hotels can be sure that guests will be returning for another stay in the near future.