Hotel Guest Folios Suck
These dinosaurs are ripe for some updating.
Best case, they’re accurate and semi-legible. Worst case, you spend 15 nerve-wracking minutes attempting to decipher what the hell each line item actually refers to, amidst the maze of pre-stay deposits, incidental charges that become credits at some arbitrary point, and vaguely worded descriptions that differ completely based on which hotel function actually submitted the charges.
Seems to me, these archaic documents are designed completely for the back-of-house folks, not as a key element of the customer experience.
Here’s a recent example. I actually attempted to figure out how to split the bill with the couple who stayed with us. Needless to say, we gave up and just picked a random number out of frustration.
Madness, I tell you. Descriptions that only mean something to the hotel accountant, no natural flow or organization to help the customer bucket his/her spending, and an ugly-as-hell design.
Why can’t something like this be the norm? (Note: I am no designer, and this is just for illustrative purposes; this is not what I’d call a “finished product”.)
