Is Hospitality Changing?

Whenever I overhear how someone feels that this pandemic will forever change hospitality, I scratch my head and wonder if it's true. Humans are hard-wired to both give and receive hospitality without any hope of remuneration or any other expectation. As I look around our industry, I see a few organizations looking within to make the rites and rituals of hospitality not solely for their guests, but more importantly for their teams. Leaders are building cultures that celebrate their employees first. We know this to be the truth: if you take care of your team, your guests will notice and keep coming back.

I recently read about Ed Mady, The Dorchester’s general manager in Beverly Hills and Hotel Bel-Air. He's gone to great lengths to celebrate his teams first. Ensuring that they feel he and the brand "had their backs.” One way he's done this is by making the employee entrance "as glamorous as the guest entrance.” To be celebrated walking into your work daily, what a fantastic way to start your day.

In addition to celebrating their teams as part of their culture, we're seeing many hotels invest in their teams’ continuing education and safety. Some hotels are saying, "let's not just celebrate our teams, let's educate them, keep them safe, and tie this education and performance into a more robust career path" within hospitality. Our ongoing "CanaryCares" continues to evolve to meet the needs of hotel owners, operators, and managers to meet these needs, especially during these times.

There is an underlying sentiment that travel and hospitality, in its most real sense, will return. I know that wanderlust and yearning for connection with others will never die within us. While many hotels struggle to keep their doors open, many others invest in their teams' experience and education to welcome the future in the most hospitable way possible.

This article originally appeared in our blog.