A small hotel in the Lake District wants to understand why some guests return every year and others never come back. It will send a short survey to guests after checkout. Here is how it builds that survey in Mailpro, and the choices that make the results useful rather than flattering.
1. Write down the decision the survey supports
“We want feedback” is not a goal. “We want to decide whether to invest in the restaurant or the rooms next winter” is. Every question should help with that decision; anything else gets cut. The hotel ends up with eight questions, which takes about three minutes to answer.
2. Choose question types
- Rating scales for room, breakfast, dinner, staff and value for money.
- A likelihood-to-return question on a 0 to 10 scale.
- Multiple choice for the reason for the visit: walking holiday, family event, business, short break.
- One open question: “What one thing would have made your stay better?”
3. Write neutral questions
“How much did you enjoy our award-winning breakfast?” pushes people towards a positive answer. “How would you rate breakfast?” doesn’t. Avoid asking two things at once, like “How were the room and the bathroom?”, and use British English, since guests notice.
4. Add branching logic
If a guest rates dinner at 2 or lower, show a follow-up asking what went wrong. If they rate it highly, skip it. Survey branching logic keeps the survey short for most people while digging deeper where it matters.
5. Decide on anonymity, and be honest about it
The hotel wants to reply personally to unhappy guests, so the survey isn’t anonymous. The introduction says so: “Your answers are linked to your booking so we can follow up if something went wrong.” Under UK GDPR that is personal data, covered by the hotel’s privacy notice. If the hotel wanted anonymous answers, it would use an anonymous link and ask for no identifying details.
6. Brand it and test it
Add the hotel’s logo and colours, then complete the survey on a phone. Most guests will answer on a mobile, often on the train home. Check that each branch works and that the thank-you page appears.
7. Send it at the right moment
An automated email the day after checkout, around mid-morning UK time, works well. Keep the invitation free of offers: under PECR, a survey email that also promotes a discount becomes a marketing message and needs consent or the soft opt-in. One gentle reminder after a few days is plenty. The FAQ on improving survey participation has more ideas.
8. Read and act on the results
Use survey statistics to compare scores across reasons for visiting. The hotel finds that walkers rate everything highly but mention drying rooms, while short-break guests are lukewarm about dinner. That gives two concrete projects and a clearer investment decision.
9. Close the loop
Tell guests what changed because of their feedback, for example in the next newsletter to those who subscribed. People are more willing to answer the next survey when they can see the last one mattered.
Responses are stored on Mailpro’s private Swiss infrastructure, outside US jurisdiction. For more survey types and features, see online surveys in the UK.