Rachel Angell, performance improvement manager at The Dorchester Collection, told delegates that the hotel group had launched a series of initiatives to get to know its customers better.

Angell described how since reopening its Hotel Eden in Rome last month, the company had turned the property’s staff structure “on its head” and created a housekeeping concierge, who is solely responsible for studying guests’ tastes and can then feed back to other areas of hotel management.

“Tying yourself so closely to your structure and your ‘check box’ exercise can make you lose sight of the relevance of what you are doing for your customer,” Angell said.

She told delegates that The Dorchester Collection had invited guests in for feedback interviews to learn “what drives their loyalty”.

“For some hotels, asking for feedback is not the done thing, but actually sitting down with guests has been revelatory and opened our eyes on other areas.”

The Dorchester Collection has also used social media via app Local Measure to track what guests most talked about and wanted to do while visiting its properties.

“We are only going to be successful if we can understand the context of our guests’ experiences,” Angell added.