Great Team + Great service = Great Hotels Guests Love

Great Team + Great service = Great Hotels Guests Love

I wonder when all companies, especially the Hospitality Industry, will trust that the strength of the company is derived from the strength of the individuals that face the guests every day and every minute. I think that the hospitality industry needs to quickly realize that all of our strength and efforts need to be invested in the first individual that will make the major impact on our financial well-being.

It is the colleagues that work hand in hand with the guests who pay all the executive wages. Without these individuals you have no hope of strong survival in any market. I know you can say “I will scare the heck out of all of these individuals into servicing the guests”, or “I will be sure they follow all my instruction” and so on and so forth. Wake up and smell the peanut butter! That is definitely short term thinking and the attitude of “Quick! Make a buck and get out!”. Yes there are a lot of these companies that lease even the staff to service the guests, or at this time we should call them ‘customers’ instead of ‘guests’. This scenario is: ‘We just want to collect the money one time and they will never come back’. Wow! If this is your intention then don’t start, because the end result going to be devastating to you and your financial status.

Let’s treat our colleagues yes, colleagues not ‘staff’, not ‘employee’, not ‘associates’, or anything else. We need to trust that all of these individuals are equal, because they sure have the equal opportunity to help or hinder our efforts toward success. Believe it. Trust the only way to be successful in the Hospitality industry is to be just that – Hospitable. Treat your colleagues with respect and dignity. Help wash dishes, say ‘Hi’ and welcome to the housekeeping, have breakfast with the night audit. Surprise your team; instead of staff meeting, create a fun break for them and have it by the pool. Go to housekeeping on Saturday and bring 2 boxes of hot donuts and coffee and say ‘Hi’ and ‘thank you’. There are over a thousand ideas through which we all can raise our teams to be the best team ever. Just let them focus on one thing: “Take care of our guests”. That is the only task that should have been assigned to them. That and only that will strengthen your credibility in being a hospitality company and a great Hotel. Don’t look for what they did wrong, look for what they did right you will find it in front of your eyes.

Loyalty is what makes things happen. Loyalty to your family, to your hotel, to your management group, to your managers or your team mates. I was one of the fortunate individuals to meet Mr. Solomon’s the CEO of IHG. You would never see him without that welcoming smile and the warm hand shake when he came to the hotel. He would shake your hand and put his arm around you and say ‘Thank you’, ‘How are things going’, ‘Do you need anything’? Wow, that is the connection all companies’ top leaders should have. You’d think that the president of the United States just shaking your hand. What I remember the most about that night, is for a long time after he left, I kept thinking “I am going to make him proud of me. What a nice gentleman. Wow, he cares about my needs”. Whether all this is true or not, reality or fiction, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that he instilled the love and passion in me. This individual wants you to do greater things, so you can rise above the rest. He instilled the loyalty and passion in me and the rest of our team to continue doing great. He also instilled leading by example to the rest of the team. Wow, that was great. We all need this back. We need the loyalty and passion back in our teams in all hotels; we need this back for our survival. I have one of the ways that we can get it immediately! Here you go, free. “Start immediately realizing that your team doesn’t work for you, you actually work for them, from the dishwasher to the housekeeper, and we all work for them. Start immediately treats them “your colleagues” as your superiors. Ok, what you would do deferent? Think about that, because you do work for them they can Assist you in building great business or can hinder your efforts to be successful.

Just remember, no matter what your scores are or rating is, it did not happen overnight. As long as you continue on your path you will meet success every step of the way. We all need to remember the starfish story (a little girl returning them to the ocean one by one made a difference to each one though there were thousands stranded)…. One Guest at a Time…

I would be remiss if I don’t mention the “The Three Questions” by Leo Tolstoy. The most important task is the task you are at this time preforming, the most important individual to pay attention to is the individual you are dealing with at this time, and the most important mission is the one you are on at this present time. You have power only at this present time to make a different. We definitely can’t control yesterday - it is already over. So now is the most important time to start changing tomorrow. Good luck and God bless.