The importance of hospitality and tourist services is underrated

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Now that many of us in the northern hemisphere are back to our normal duties after a summer break, it is time to acknowledge and recognize the day-to-day job of many people working in hospitality services. They made possible the punctuality in our flights, the spotless accommodation, the savory food, our own safety within many tourist destinations. However, many often they do not receive the acknowledgment and respect they deserve.

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I had the chance of working in several hospitality and tourist companies and I could witness the unparallel commitment of the people working in this industry. Further to the long working hours, the seasonality of many of these businesses, the need to tackle many unpredictable events always with a smile… they increasingly have to deal with a lack of empathy and respect from users and customers. This summer I had 3 different eye-opening experiences that made me reflect about this topic.

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Firstly, I had the opportunity to attend the Olympic Games in Paris. Olympics are the ultimate hospitality experience. Hosting so many athletes and visitors in a city during such short period of time involves a big synchronized effort of catering companies (large ones like Sodexo, Aramark or Compass but also many local ones), public services (cleaning, transportation, landscaping, security and police, medical services,…) and above all many volunteers and sport enthusiasts as I could witness in Paris. Most hoteliers made a big effort reinforcing their staff, mobilizing resources, updating their premises… and transportation (airports, train and underground network) worked very efficiently despite some initial attempts of sabotage.

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However, listening and reading sensationalist press and social media, some of the most commented stories I could heard of were that the river Seine water was not clean enough or some Olympic teams could not have porridge in their breakfast. It was less common reading articles about how smartly the city used the existing sport infrastructure to host the Games or the brand-new underground network built (that will remain for the benefit of their citizens). This made me reflect about the essence of the constructive criticism: it must be relevant, and it should contribute alternative solutions to solve problems. This is especially important in the case of leaders and political parties: not much can be expected from a leader or party that declares themselves insubordinate or claim that they belong to an homogeneous block without proposing any constructive solution.

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Another remarkable experience when it comes to hospitality was the Way of Saint James. Probably it is the quintessential hospitality experience in western Europe. It is an ancient pilgrimage way to the city of Santiago whose origins date from the X century (at that time tourist or hospitality was not a trend and only pilgrims once in their life could have this comparable experience). The places where the pilgrims stayed were called ‘hospitals’, a clear reference to the current hospitality word.

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The overall experience was very positive. However, starting my route at the city of Porto gave me another perspective of some undesirable side effects of modern tourism. Noisy and vociferous crowds of tourists drinking, looking for their social media photo spot and buying cheap souvenirs overshadowed the remarkable beauty and cultural heritage of the city. Sadly, I could witness some abuse and lack of respect towards the staff that make a living in the hospitality industry there. ?Probably this behaviour does not take place in the places where many tourists come from.

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One final eye-opening experience was my visit to Nashville during the 4th of July festivities in the United States. When I attend a large event, concert or festivity celebration I always try to have empathy with the people working for us and that make it possible: it is a remarkable festivity for most of us who do not work in hospitality, it is work ?for many of them. ?There are so many details to be considered, many of them only perceivable for an expert eye. The fireworks and the concert were amazing. Nashville has been tagged as the Music City, a magnet for many musicians and music lovers, a cradle for the traditional north American Country Music. That experience is only possible thanks to bartenders, baristas, waiters, cooks, musicians, entertainers, policemen, hoteliers…

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Many people misunderstand the essence of being hospitable: it is a compromise, a two-party agreement where politeness, respect and thankfulness apply to both, not only to the person who is serving us. The rationale behind is very clear: we all must serve someone in our lives, jobs… and this applies specially to leaders: servant leadership, compromise, listening skills and humility are essential leadership values needed to capture the complexity of our world.

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Other more common aspect is the excess of criticism on the services we received. We tend to amplify and criticize the slightest failure, often forgetting the complexity of the services we received and the many achievements that delivering a service involve. Social media does not necessarily help (algorithms tend to prioritize negative messages over positive ones) and the tyranny of NPS (net promoter score) unilateral indices make things even worst. Many companies are starting to score customers as well: they have realised that there are customers that do not deserve the service they receive. This at least can facilitate a levelled playing field when it comes to assessing a service, what degree of criticism is acceptable and who is entitled to criticise.

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Beware of your criticism: our own attitude towards other people, especially the people who serve us, tell a lot about ourselves. ?During my career I had the chance to provide services to every kind of companies, many of them very well-known blue chip and Fortune 500 ones: how they treat the support staff (almost invisible for many eyes) that provide the essential services needed for their company to run smoothly is normally the best predictor of how healthy their corporate culture is.

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Remember the old saying: do the right thing even if no one is looking.