Hotels are a vibrant industry – as temperamental, moody, fun, idiosyncratic, and eccentric – as the people who make the structure throb and come alive. And that presents a unique challenge to those who are responsible for ensuring that the brand personality seeps into each employee optimally for a cohesive representation of the brand. Ask the Training andHuman Resource fellas and they will tell you how much sleep they lose over beating, shaping, moulding, clubbing a delightfully eclectic mix into a unified cookie-cutter, strait-jacketed, assembly line incarnations of the Brand.
So, let’s take a closer look at these folks who hold the power of the Hotel’s universe in their very able hands.
8. JEEVES JAMBOREE
I was once on the change agent team of a hotel that was being re-launched as a new product. We were keen to have some of the seriously respected travel writers, editors and reviewers give us five stars on their FAMs and inspections with us. The first one was a feisty lady from the United Kingdom who has built her reputation on respect and credibility and is feared by hoteliers for always telling it like it is. While the hotel buzzed in excitement preparing for her imminent visit, we were done in by that ill-trained Housekeeping Attendant who left not just dust but the villainous duster in the suite that the Editor’s hawk eye did not fail to miss. The ratty rag and the errant hand behind it pulled our rating down to the negative; the Editor promising not to return in a hurry delivering the final blow to our efforts and our collective esteem.
The Housekeeping attendants, laundry valet, personal butlers, the Chambermaids are the critical cogs in the wheels which must be kept well-oiled to take the hotel cart onward and forward. There is no scope for any of these significant ambassadors to drop the ball of work excellence fuelled by brand standards and guest expectation.
Films like Pretty Woman (again!), Dunstan Checks In and Home Alone – to name a few – have painted funny caricatures of staff that have shown their brands in poor light by their sloppy dispensation of tasks, misfit mindset and greedily extended palms that the guest is pestered to grease with a forcible tip.
On the other hand, well-trained team members from these essential functions with their commendable service and sensibility, have been the saving graces when the hotel has faced extraneous competition. They, with not just their commitment to the job description as set within the brand practices but by going willfully and gladly beyond the brief and call of duty, can be credited for retaining the guest and his loyalty with the hotel. Go, pick out any guest feedback book and you will instantly know what I mean.
Hence, it is extremely important how you kit out your ambassadors physically; but much more significantly - mentally and attitudinally.
A guest’s stay is so much more than the location, the building, the view, the magnificent wine list and the Michelin-starred food. At the end of the day, it is how all this is packaged and gift wrapped in the finest silk of service and tied in neatly with the bow of stellar performance provided by the team members from Housekeeping, Front Office, Food & Beverage Department, Banquetting who are always in direct contact with the guests. No amount of advertising, direct or indirect marketing, promotions and brand endorsements will save your skin if the guest does not experience a high level of operational efficiency exhibited by such shining stars of hospitality. Once you ensure that, the guest himself will become a willing part of the word-of-mouth buzz and vibe that gets generated and that usually snowballs into large numbers and larger profits.
I was once on the change agent team of a hotel that was being re-launched as a new product. We were keen to have some of the seriously respected travel writers, editors and reviewers give us five stars on their FAMs and inspections with us. The first one was a feisty lady from the United Kingdom who has built her reputation on respect and credibility and is feared by hoteliers for always telling it like it is. While the hotel buzzed in excitement preparing for her imminent visit, we were done in by that ill-trained Housekeeping Attendant who left not just dust but the villainous duster in the suite that the Editor’s hawk eye did not fail to miss. The ratty rag and the errant hand behind it pulled our rating down to the negative; the Editor promising not to return in a hurry delivering the final blow to our efforts and our collective esteem.
The Housekeeping attendants, laundry valet, personal butlers, the Chambermaids are the critical cogs in the wheels which must be kept well-oiled to take the hotel cart onward and forward. There is no scope for any of these significant ambassadors to drop the ball of work excellence fuelled by brand standards and guest expectation.
Films like Pretty Woman (again!), Dunstan Checks In and Home Alone – to name a few – have painted funny caricatures of staff that have shown their brands in poor light by their sloppy dispensation of tasks, misfit mindset and greedily extended palms that the guest is pestered to grease with a forcible tip.
On the other hand, well-trained team members from these essential functions with their commendable service and sensibility, have been the saving graces when the hotel has faced extraneous competition. They, with not just their commitment to the job description as set within the brand practices but by going willfully and gladly beyond the brief and call of duty, can be credited for retaining the guest and his loyalty with the hotel. Go, pick out any guest feedback book and you will instantly know what I mean.
Hence, it is extremely important how you kit out your ambassadors physically; but much more significantly - mentally and attitudinally.
A guest’s stay is so much more than the location, the building, the view, the magnificent wine list and the Michelin-starred food. At the end of the day, it is how all this is packaged and gift wrapped in the finest silk of service and tied in neatly with the bow of stellar performance provided by the team members from Housekeeping, Front Office, Food & Beverage Department, Banquetting who are always in direct contact with the guests. No amount of advertising, direct or indirect marketing, promotions and brand endorsements will save your skin if the guest does not experience a high level of operational efficiency exhibited by such shining stars of hospitality. Once you ensure that, the guest himself will become a willing part of the word-of-mouth buzz and vibe that gets generated and that usually snowballs into large numbers and larger profits.
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