Adding games to increase guest satisfaction

As you've no doubt heard, guests are leaving many hotels unsatisfied according J.D. Power and Associates' latest survey. Room enjoyment, F&B satisfaction, service experience, cost agreement—it's all down. Personally, I see one way out of this: bocce!

Bocce is an Italian game you may have played at a family reunion in someone's backyard where you roll balls close to a smaller white ball. The Hotel Montgomery, located in downtown San Jose, Calif., is nearly 100 years old and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. According to Max Schultz, director of sales, and Lorenz Maurer, general manager, its typical guest is a business person by weekday and a leisure (somewhat affluent) person by weekend. In 2004, the hotel underwent a sizable renovation, and part of that renovation was the installation of a traditional sand/crushed oyster shells/limestone bocce court that fit its Mediterranean motif.

The attractive part of this game for leisure guests at a hotel is it can be played while eating and drinking, which The Hotel Montgomery has taken full advantage of with its courts. "Alcohol and appetizers are allowed in the Bocce play area and are easily serviced via the outdoor service bar and/or the nearby Paragon Bar & Restaurant inside the hotel," Schultz said.

"If a guest decides to play bocce or takes part in a bocce event s/he will certainly remember the hotel for it. It creates a memory and special experience which s/he will remember come time to choose a hotel in San Jose again," Maurer said.

Maurer and Schultz both say that guests are "pleasantly surprised" by their enjoyment of bocce. I find this fascinating because bocce is one of my favorite pastimes. If I stayed at a hotel with no air conditioner, rocks for pillows and an outhouse instead of a bathroom, I would still list my stay as satisfactory if I could go play some bocce. I'm outside of the norm, but I also think the Hotel Montgomery is onto something. Bocce is a reasonably inexpensive investment that, I think, would increase guest enjoyment. My theory is give people something fun and unexpected, and they will unconsciously remember their stay as (perhaps) better than it was.

And this strategy isn't just limited to bocce. Westin Hotels & Resorts has partnered with Nintendo to outfit its hotels with the popular Wii video games. The Seaport Hotel in Boston has Guitar Hero tournaments. The Nick Hotel in Orlando has putt putt. The Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Phoenix has a huge croquet area. I think small-scale additions of popular videogames and accessible leisure sports (bocce, horse shoes, croquet) is a cheap way for a hotel to entertain guests, an inexpensive way for guests to entertain themselves, a way for a property stand out and a way to attract the coveted Generation Y and Generation X demographic who value fun, sociable situations (in which alcohol can be consumed).

Overall, I think bocce best exemplifies this concept. It is a fun, niche sport that most people have heard of and anyone from any socioeconomic background can play. A hotel with even one bocce court, inside or outside, could push more food and beverage, host tournaments (I'm in one this weekend that's $125 a team), start a league and, like the Hotel Montgomery, give guests a reason to remember your hotel—in a positive light.