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In hospitality, the pursuit of perfection is constant, but this, of course isn't always attainable. Even the most finessed venues experience the occasional misstep - from a missed booking to a disappointing dish or a less-than-sparkling room.
…but what sets these top-performing venues apart? It's not a complete absence of complaints - that's nearly impossible - but rather, how they respond to complaints.
HGEM's Head of Operations, Lauren, shared a recent restaurant experience that lost her as a potential returning customer (i.e. what not to do when faced with a guest complaint).
"A few weekends ago, I went out for a roast dinner with friends. The food was fine, the service a bit disjointed - nothing terrible, but nothing particularly memorable either. At the end of the meal, the manager stopped by and asked how everything was. We gave some gentle but honest feedback.
His response? Nothing. Not even a nod of acknowledgement or a simple "Thank you for letting us know." That silence did more damage than the meal itself. Before that moment, I might have returned. After it, I knew I wouldn't."
As Lauren explains, in hospitality, it's often not the complaint itself that drives guests away for good - it's about how it is handled. In this situation, an appropriate acknowledgement of this feedback would have meant this group of guests may have left feeling very differently about their overall experience.
Here's the thing - the majority of guests don't enjoying complaining. In fact, most people (particularly Brits!) find it pretty uncomfortable and often stay quiet; so, when they do provide feedback, it's important that it's welcomed with empathy and sufficient resolution.
In fact, The Harvard Business Review suggests that 95% of customers will give you a second chance if you handle their complaint well, and up to 70% will become repeat customers if you resolve it in their favour.
The key takeaway? Alongside taking proactive steps to remedy the situation, a simple "Sorry" really does go a long way.
The leaders of your venues set the tone. If they are seen to be listening actively, apologising sincerely, and responding without defensiveness, their team is much more likely to follow suit. Approaching complaints with the right attitude isn't just a service skill, it's a leadership behaviour.
But you don't want to leave this behaviour to chance. This is something that needs to be instilled in the culture of your business. A sure way to guarantee this consistency across venues? Simply, process.
Complaint handling should be a continuous part of staff training and something that can be implemented in practical and engaging ways such as role-playing common guest complaints, soft skills training in active listening, and exploring the nuances of complaint handling. No two pieces of feedback are the same, so responses shouldn't be either; obvious 'cookie cutter' responses show a lack of care and are often unhelpful.
Frameworks such as L.A.S.T (Listen, Apologise, Solve, Thank) or H.E.A.R.D (Hear, Empathise, Apologise, Resolve, Diagnose) provide structured ways to handle guest complaints effectively. Active listening should always come first - when a staff member interrupts a guest or jumps to their own conclusions, it's likely that this is only going to further their initial frustrations.
An apology doesn't mean your staff are admitting fault per se, it means they're recognising that a guest's experience was not as they expected it to be. Ensure your customer-facing teams are equipped with this knowledge and are aware of helpful phrases such as "I'm sorry that happened, we really appreciate you letting us know" or "I can completely understand why you're frustrated, let me speak to my manager to see what we can do".
From GMs to bar staff, every person within your organisation should understand the importance of tone and language in handling guest feedback. Responding to a complaint in a defensive manner is seriously unhelpful. The focus here should always be the guest's experience and steps to resolution, rather than a staff member's personal feelings.
Guests expect quick, visible resolutions. In many situations, junior team members may need to escalate feedback to a manager or supervisor... but this doesn't mean that they shouldn't be well equipped in dealing with a complaint in the first instance. Remember, if they are the guest's first point of contact, their response will form an important part of how their feedback was received. Wherever possible, you want to ensure that guests don't leave a venue feeling disgruntled. The saying "A happy guest will tell two people, but an unhappy guest will tell ten" really rings true here.
To avoid a frustrated guest leaving and relaying their experience to peers or online reviews, including monetary remedies in your policy can be worthwhile. There is a caveat to this, however; whilst your venue managers could offer immediate rectification, such as refunding or discounting a bill, it can be more beneficial to offer a remedy that allows your brand to rebuild a guest's trust on their next visit, for example through a voucher or complimentary visit.
Once a complaint is resolved, the opportunity isn't over. Empower your managers to send follow-up messages to show a genuine interest in a guest's feedback. A guest who feels heard and valued is far more likely to return, perhaps even more loyal than before.
When team members apply their service skills and handle a complaint well, celebrate it. Encourage your managers to use team briefings and internal shoutouts to highlight service recovery wins. These stories build confidence and reinforce a culture where feedback is welcomed and valued.
It's important to take it back a step here and think about your organisation's culture as a whole. Whilst you could spend extensive time and training budgets in ensuring your teams are experts in handling complaints, if you haven't created an environment where guests have the opportunity to provide feedback, then this is the larger issue at play.
As well as implementing complaint handling procedures, creating space for guests to speak up is imperative. In practical terms, your customer-facing teams need to feel empowered to seek genuine feedback, rather than simply 'ticking a box'. For example, asking a guest more specific questions about their experience, such as "How is the beef?" makes it much easier for guests to deliver feedback on individual aspects of their visit. It also goes without saying that teams should be performing these purpose-driven check-ins throughout a guest's visit
HGEM's Guest Experience Management platform is designed to help hospitality operators understand and act on guest feedback where it matters most. Through The Hub, operators can spot patterns in feedback across locations, teams or even specific menu items. From this, processes can be adjusted to prevent further issues from arising. The end result? No guest concern is ignored and no team effort goes unrecognised.
Integrated feedback surveys also give guests a private space to share concerns, reducing the likelihood of them turning to public review platforms. Managers can respond directly within the system, track response rates, and resolve issues effectively.
Should managers want to rebuild a guest's loyalty to your brand, they can even provide vouchers from within The Hub, via the integrated Toggle tool. For in-venue complaints, Mystery Guest Audits provide a clear view of how well teams handle issues in the moment, helping hospitality organisations to monitor, train, and reinforce best practices in guest service recovery.
Handled with empathy, speed and consistency, guest complaints can be one of your strongest tools for team development and loyalty-building. They reveal expectations, highlight training needs, and help to eliminate complacency in your venues.
At HGEM, we empower hospitality businesses to harness feedback and build better guest experiences. With structured systems, real-time insights, and service recovery tracking, our clients turn complaints into opportunities.
As a hospitality leader, you need reliable data to implement measurable growth, and we can help.
Explore our Guest Experience Management Solutions to find out more about our comprehensive platforms, or you can get in touch with our team here.
"We have a strong, collaborative relationship with HGEM, whom have been an integral partner to Wagamama for almost 20 years. Their tools and support have become a core part of our business, enabling us to drive the best insights from both our guest surveys and mystery audit programmes, ensuring we can deliver the best guest experience possible."
