The Hospitality Mentor: Hologram Employees, Sleep Tourism & Secret Shops

We’re back with another edition of The Hospitality Mentor newsletter, highlighting hospitality trends and happenings like offering your guests amenities for a good night’s sleep, the debut of hologram hotel employees, and how secret shops and hands-on training can help improve your service scores.

?? This issue is brought to you by Biscayne Coffee, delicious coffee roasted in Miami with the mission of saving Biscayne Bay. Use promo code MENTOR for 10% off your order at checkout. Don’t forget – we always donate 10% of your purchase to Biscayne Bay Foundation to help preserve the bay. ??

?? What's Hot in Hospitality

After all that eating and indulging in culinary tourism last month, now we’re talking about sleeping it off. Hotels are embracing Sleep Tourism as one of the top travel trends of 2023 with new amenities to enhance guests’ sleep –?from aromatherapy lists to in-room melatonin, evening tea menus, and beyond. After a few nights of trouble falling asleep at home recently, I actually found myself dreaming of booking a hotel room for a good night’s sleep.

Quality sleep is pivotal to a guest’s stay –?it’s what leaves them feeling refreshed in the morning to tackle a long day of sightseeing with family or meetings with clients on a business trip. There are so many sleep solutions out there: ThisWorks makes deep sleep pillow spray. Nightfood - Sleep-Friendly Nighttime Snacks offers sleep-friendly snacks for hotel grab-and-go shops. Eight Sleep 's temperature-controlled mattress pods can be placed in premium suites as an upsell, like Hyde Midtown Miami did with its Hyde Suite a few years ago. Torn Ranch has even put together a Sleep and Recover Kit you can offer guests that includes calming sleep gummies, a hydrating electrolyte mix, energy focus mints, and a rejuvenating eye gel.

Here in South Florida, Carillon Miami Wellness Resort has made sleep tourism a selling point by offering curated Sleep Escapes, where guests can book a Sleep Circuit at the spa to enjoy the best night of sleep you’ve ever had. The session starts off with VibroAcoustic, ElectroMagnetic & Infrared therapy in a dimly lit room with soothing sounds and vibrations, followed by a Salt Float Therapy Bath and relaxation in their warm and cozy Spa Wave bed, and wraps up with 20 minutes in a meditation pod.

Do you have any amenities to offer your guests when they’re having trouble sleeping (often due to noisy neighbors – poorly soundproofed hotels, we’re looking at you)? Start simple: White noise machines, eye masks, noise-canceling headphones, and calming teas would be an easy menu of offerings to provide to your guests. You’re one Amazon order away from stepping up your service.

Thanks to Nicole Perez , Sean Folkson , Shawn Berger and Omar Boubess for sharing some of these sleep solutions in my LinkedIn post where this conversation started!

?? What I'm Sipping

While working on building out an Experience Tasting Room for one of my clients, which I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I’ve been able to sip some of the rarest spirits in the world, and this month, I tasted the collection from The Dalmore whisky.

The Dalmore has been distilling whisky for more than 180 years, with its iconic Royal Stag emblem adorning each bottle actually dating back to the 13th century rule of Scottish King Alexander III. The Dalmore’s renowned Single Malt Scotch Whisky is aged in hand-selected casks sourced from exclusive wineries and bodegas. Using rare casks from sherry maker González Byass that have previously held 30-year-old Matusalem oloroso sherry, The Dalmore distillery is able to impart its whisky with its signature chocolate and orange character along with other rich and nutty flavors.

We’ll be offering the full Dalmore Collection of distinctive whiskies at the soon-to-be-announced Experience Room, with bottles valued at up to $25,000 for the most rare bottles in the collection. This whisky maker has also partnered with a women-owned chocolate company Vosges Haut-Chocolat to offer luxury chocolate truffle pairings that we’ll have at the Experience Room, along with Dalmore-branded glasses made of Baccarat crystal for the perfect sip.

?? What I'm Working On

Secret shopping is one of the services I offer clients, and it’s an essential way of ensuring your departments are living up to their standards. I’ve been working with Nobu Hotels to take these shops one step further by building off of my findings through coaching sessions with each of the hotel’s departments. Rather than get lost in the weeds trying to address small, one-off service lapses, it’s important to choose which priorities to focus on. We’ve been holding all-hands-on-deck training sessions with managers and team members, giving them the tools they need to succeed based on the focus areas we’ve determined from past shops and the shops I’ve conducted.

As part of the Leading Hotels of the World program, Nobu’s service standards are designed around emotional scores and how guests feel when they leave. Do they feel appreciated? Delighted? Pampered? Or frustrated and ignored? Through our sessions, the hotel’s teams are walking away prepared to achieve these top emotional scores by engaging with their guests at the highest level and delivering service worthy of an award-winning resort.?

Want to chat about how to improve your service scores? I’m only an email away at [email protected].

?? What I'm Inspired By

How would you feel if you were welcomed to a hotel by a hologram at the Front Desk? I’d feel like I was transported to the future. Skift reported that CIC Hospitality will be opening 30 boutique Aiden by Best Western properties across Scandinavia with front desks manned by hologram agents.

The first hologram employee in a Holobox (developed by startup Holoconnects) debuted in an Aiden Hotel in Denmark in February. A pre-recorded hologram greets guests and can provide general information about the hotel, but if a guest needs help from a live person, a remote worker can appear as a hologram within the box to assist or answer further questions. The goal is to cover the basic tasks so on-site employees elsewhere throughout the hotel can focus on providing a more personal touch.

Plenty of other industries have embraced remote work, which has presented a hiring challenge for the hospitality industry as we compete for talent looking for more of a work-life balance. With technological innovations like this, hotels may be able to start thinking differently about the positions that can and cannot be accomplished from home, and I’m intrigued to see where this might take us.

?? Listen: The Podcast

If you haven’t followed every episode of The Hospitality Mentor Podcast or are new to the community, I’ve started rounding up some of my favorite interviews with past guests into themed compilation episodes. Tune into my recent Chef Week episode, featuring highlights from top chefs as they share their personal stories and secrets to success: Chef David Burke , Chef Jorge E. Ramos , Chef Sean Bernal , Chef Frederic Delaire , and Chef Gordon Maybury You’ll hear about David's experience going to culinary school and working abroad, what Jorge learned about being a chef in luxury hotels, Sean's role working in a private luxury beach club in Key Largo, Frederic’s time working in the top restaurant in the Eiffel tower, and Gordon’s advice to all hospitality professionals.

If you’re looking to hear from hoteliers who climbed the career ladder to the top, tune into our GM Week episode, featuring a compilation of stories from Mary Rogers , Mohan Koka , Gabriel Constantin , David Arraya and Amy Johnson as these world-class hotel General Managers share their best advice, wisdom, and lessons learned. You’ll hear Gabriel’s insights on building team culture and hiring and retaining talent, how Mary navigated her career to get to the top, the differences in experiences Amy has had in multiple GM roles, how Mohan has learned from criticism and used it to elevate his career, and the importance of sustainability at David’s resort.

?? Watch: On YouTube

Now you can keep up with the latest hospitality trends in 60 seconds! We’re introducing a new video series called The Hospitality Minute, highlighting trends shaping the hospitality sector and delivering essential insights into the industry's ever-changing landscape.

In this first episode, we’re talking about the exploding trend of hospitality-branded residence condos and how it’s transforming luxury living. Top hotel and restaurant brands from St. Regis Hotels & Resorts and the EDITION to Major Food Group and Cipriani are all venturing into the real estate market and offering unparalleled amenities and services that bring their luxury brands to life for their residents.

Watch this first episode of The Hospitality Minute and let me know what you think!

If you’ve read this far, send me a short reply and let me know what you enjoyed most from this newsletter. See you again in May!?

If you found this edition helpful, feel free to forward it on or leave a comment to help spread the word about The Hospitality Mentor . It only takes a few seconds and makes a huge difference.

Cheers,

Steve Turk, Founder and Host

The Hospitality Mentor