Homewood Suites Concord understands the importance of building strong connections with their guests. Being the newest property in the high-demand area just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, Homewood Suites wants to establish a strong foundation with their service. “Being the only upscale extended stay property [in the area], we just seem to enjoy really high occupancy levels, it seems like all year long,” says Gen Steele, Guest Services Representative at Homewood Suites. 

Keeping up with Kipsu

So how do they keep up top-tier service when they are consistently busy? With tools like Kipsu, they are able to help both staff and guests communicate effectively and give the standout service their guests deserve. Kipsu’s guest messaging software helps the front desk communicate with their guests through texting, making it easy for guests to reach out for assistance. Especially for extended-stay guests, Kipsu makes it easier for ongoing, continuous conversations between guests and the front desk staff. Whether they are in their hotel room or out at a conference, guests can text the front desk with any questions and staff can respond swiftly. “If it’s one of our extended stay guests and they’are already at work and have decided ‘man, I forgot to ask for housekeeping,’ all they have to do is shoot us a quick text via Kipsu and their room is clean when they get back,” says Steele, “and that is the thing that makes Kipsu so amazing.”

"If it’s one of our extended stay guests and they’are already at work and have decided ‘man, I forgot to ask for housekeeping,’ all they have to do is shoot us a quick text via Kipsu and their room is clean when they get back"
- Gen Steele, Guest Services Representative at Homewood Suites

Bringing out the best in staff

Not only does it make communication easy for guests, it helps shy staff reach out to guests and connect with them in a more approachable manner. Gen shares that it not only makes it easier for her, but her team as well. “We’ve had some front desk agents who are great at what they do, but maybe they’re a little bit more on the shyer side. They can interact with a text message and I see this a lot with our younger front desk agents.” Living in a digital world, texting is a standard way of communication, which makes even the shyest staff have a vehicle to be completely engaged with guests. “That’s just a personality (trait) and we don’t want to change that,” says Gen, “because every single person brings such an incredible thing to our team at our front desk.”

In fact, one shy staff member’s survey scores went up because of Kipsu. Gen shares, “with the Kipsu platform, his guest experience scores were going up along with his name mentions in surveys. Because he was able to use the Kipsu platform, his name popped up a lot more times in reviews, so again, that strengthens the team, it drives brand loyalty, and that’s what we want.”

When finding ways for your guest satisfaction to stay on top, to keep communication accessible for everyone on your property, Kipsu provides that solution to Homewood Suites along with many other properties. “I will say it again,” says Gen, “I am Kipsu’s biggest cheerleader.”

Homewood Suites isn’t the only one seeing the success of hotel texting, Hilton Sydney also saw how Kipsu helped build meaningful relationships at their property. Experiences like this are exactly why Hilton and Kipsu created our partnership to be implemented in all of their properties by the end of 2024.  

Are you ready to build similar relationships with your guests? Request a conversation with us to learn more!

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