Under the Hospitality Hood
Thoughts & Musings
The question “how do we define hospitality?” should not be rhetorical. Whether we are Cocktail Servers or CEO’s, Accountants or Asset Managers, each of us has signed up for the hospitality industry and therefore the definition of hospitality must mean something significant to us. While there is a baseline definition of hospitality across our industry, sometimes we can lose sight of an honest definition of the term, and most importantly what this means to our guests.
Everyone knows about mentoring; lots of people talk about it, and a relatively small number of people actually do it. Despite this, the benefits of mentoring are sometimes so obvious that we cannot see them right in front of us. Similarly, everyone knows why training is important, and much lip service is given to it as well. However, it is vital to understand the subtle differences between the two.
It’s difficult to believe, but the time for budget and marketing plan development for 2017 is upon us. Yes, it’s true, now is the time when many of us are working on our plans for the coming year. As we go through this exercise, the challenge for all of us is to remain focused on the desired outcome. Do we all agree on what that outcome should be? Surprisingly, perhaps not.
As hospitality professionals, we spend a lot of time talking about the importance of such things as “value for price paid,” “rational pricing,” and “rate integrity.” However, because these are so common in our work, there is an inherent risk that we may inadvertently lose sight of what these phrases truly mean or worse, there is risk that we may lose sight of how to execute strategies that reflect these important principles.
For as long as there have been hotel companies, there have been advisory boards made up of clients selected by those hotel companies. However, while creating advisory boards is a widely accepted practice, as with so many things strategic, there can be a huge disconnect between a perfectly good advisory board and achieving maximum benefit from that perfectly good advisory board.
In recent memory, perhaps the most overused and ‘under’-understood term in the world of hospitality is “disruption.” It is nearly impossible to read about our industry today without some reference to the impact of “disruption” or “disruptors” on our lives. But as we read and talk about this buzzword for our industry, a bit of perspective is important.
Because there is such a natural fascination with “the hotel business,” an opportunity exists for us to do a better job of maximizing our relationship with our customers and our neighbors by playing off of this fascination. We have an opportunity, some would say an outright obligation, to do far more to give back to our communities.
Why do hotels insist on jumping on the fragrance bandwagon? In the never-ending quest for separation from the pack, numerous hotel brands and independent properties alike have enacted what is referred to as “Scent Branding;” that is, the creation of a proprietary scent to be circulated throughout one’s hotel properties. But should we really be imposing something as personal as a scent at the expense of guest satisfaction?
Particularly in this age of technology, with new software and hardware arriving on a regular basis to make our hospitality lives easier, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the basics of what we do. One important area that requires constant and close attention is the Sales organization of our hotels. We must ask ourselves: How comfortable am I with the strategy that my Sales team is implementing? How knowledgeable am I about who my Sales team is soliciting for business?
