The 10 minutes that matter most

First impressions can make or break a hotel, says Stuart Harrison.

Booked in for a three-night break, we checked out of a West Country hotel after the first night - so uncomfortable was the 4ft 6in bed in what was sold as a double room. And the TV was 6ft up the wall, so if the bed didn't give you a bad back, the TV would.

In the bathroom, you didn't dare turn on the light in case you drained the National Grid with the noisy extractor fan, so long did it stay on. There was only one towel, and half a box of tissues had to be stuffed in a gap in the door to the balcony.

I realised I was experiencing the circumstances outlined in a training module of Marriott's comprehensive hotel training programme, which teaches the importance of the first 10 minutes of a guest's stay.

Essentially, a guest's experience must be addressed from the moment they first contact your hotel through to settling in to their room.

First they have to find you: have you provided clear directions? Have you explored the possibility of brown tourist signs? And when the guests arrive at the entrance, are there smart, well-lit signs or are they unlit and uncared for?

A guest expects to be able to park outside for unloading. As they walk to reception, they don't want to have to struggle with the door. Once in, they expect to see the reception desk or, if not, clear directions.

A hotel lives or dies at reception. Here, the customer decides whether he is ready to spend or ready to leave. Accuracy of reservation details, eye contact, attentiveness, efficiency, friendliness - all are essential. I have even advised one hotel to change its reservations software because the receptionists' screens were inhibiting eye contact.

The arrival and the journey that precedes it are great levellers. The grey-haired lady on a tour bus and the company director fresh off the M25 all need courtesy, accuracy and swiftness at reception.

The look of the reception area is equally important. Is it tidy and contained or messy and disorganised? Then there is the walk to the room. Is it a rabbit warren, poorly signed and cold? Does the lift pre-date the Wright brothers? Are the corridors smart or scruffy?

Once guests are in the room, everything should work. If there are any niggles or, worse, evidence of uncleanliness, the customer will already be against you.

Some 84% of guests say that activities relating to the first 10 minutes of their stay are the most critical. During my sleepless night, I compiled a list of things that should be banned from hotel bedrooms:

• Heavyweight key fobs.
• Plastic coat hangers.
• Curtains that don't meet.
• Stud partition walls.
• Carpet in the bathroom.
• Sachets that break your nails.
• UHT milk.
• Leaflets in old plastic covers.

Oh, and TVs on the ceiling, endless turbo-driven extractor fans and 4ft 6in "double" beds.

Stuart Harrison runs the Profitable Hotel Company and is a Visiting Fellow of Oxford Brookes University