Putting true hospitality further in the rearview mirror.....almost losing sight of it!

I have written ad nauseam about how we are losing sight of what hospitality means, especially to the guest. I enjoyed my career because of the staff and guests, and believe that is the main reason behind what I believe has been my success as a GM. Of course the metrics were important, but they would not be there but for us!

As the hotel business has transformed itself into a real estate industry, so have the demands changed of the 'modern' hotel GM. GM's are no longer considered by owners as 'hosts' but rather as statistical overseers of financial operations.

I welcome any new ideas that can give GM's additional tools with which to manage and improve his property's performance, and much of what MEWS states is good. Yet I find in it 'time proved' metrics wrapped in a new, jazzy wrapping.

Read the MEWS 'New era of Hospitality Metrics for the General Manager and you will see, and hopefully agree with me, that there is nothing new in it. Sure, the package is new, but most of the content is very old, and some are just plain bad in my humble opinion.

Before I write further, and any of you ask how qualified I am to comment, I must just introduce myself briefly. I have, since graduating from the Lausanne Swiss hotel school, worked in our industry for seventy years. I have worked in and managed hotels in South Africa, Israel, Cyprus, Germany and Canada. I have developed a chain of hotels from scratch to seven properties, and have enjoyed every minute of my time, especially with my colleagues and guests.

Occupancy, along with ADR is still the source for all the metrics that follow, the source of all revenue potential. It is the beginning of all that you plan for all auxiliary revenues from the other sources. Once you have achieved the best occupancy and ADR, you can then put into operation your quest for maximum revenue from guests or transient visitors.

Introducing the idea of 'REVPAM' conjures up GM's and Heads of Department crawling around the hotel with measuring tapes in the quest to find more available meters in which to gain additional revenues. No, we always did that, at least in the properties I worked at, in other ways. Food and beverage has always been about seat occupancy per meal, average spend broken down into the meal components, along with beverage spend. Revenues per hour, per server, per housekeeper, per front desk agents.....the list goes on. Sadly, the position of F&B Director has become all about managing staff and service, while the metrics have been relegated. The financial reports hold all the clues to improve yet F&B meetings are scarce. The F&B Controllers have disappeared leaving that all important job to the Chef. And what about the 'costs' side of hotels? What about the stores and inventory? What about room costs, laundry, linen etc? And that is just the very tip......

In marketing and sales we measured spend per guest, discussed the ADR per each different segment and how to increase those metrics. We were acutely aware that today's product disappears tomorrow, and therefore the need to have sold it for today. Once you have your best occupancy and maximum attainable ADR, you can then focus on all additional revenues that you can make, but from ALL visitors, not just your guests. Each profit center warrants its' own metrics that can be discussed and improved through 'out of the box', creative ideas.

MEWS goes on to say that 'User disengagement is the practice of freeing people from technology or processes that don’t add value to their experience. In other words, your staff should spend most of their time with their heads up, enabling remarkable experiences, not bowed in front of a computer screen.', yet what has been advocated all along? That seems to be just lip service to guest relations. Advocating the use of streamlining and automation is certain areas is again distancing the guest from the hotel and staff interactions. If lines are managed, then a 'nice and welcoming' checkin is a good start to any experience, while a check out presents the last chance for a brief 'exit interview' and perhaps a last chance to correct a negative event.

Staff turnover has always been something that needs improving, especially as more and more properties are built. Of course a good HR department will go along way to promoting loyalty and lowering the enormous costs of turnover. Yet I believe that outside factors and our own industry standards impact this metric badly. Pre Covid all was seemingly tickety boo in hotels. Staff worked for low salaries that were barely livable but some work was hard to come by and so hotels (most of them) found staff easily.

Post Covid is a totally different picture. New hotels have saturated many markets, not only lowering occupancies but also opening too many positions. Staff have found better paying jobs outside of our industry, positions that allow them free evenings and weekends to be with their families. And we wonder why they do not flock back to our employment?

About ten years ago when I was asked to become involved with asset managing the PLaza NYC, I participated in a meeting at which I was the sole hotelier. The rest of the people at that meeting, reps for the owners, were all young financial 'wizards' , except for the GM and his Comptroller, that knew absolutely nothing about running hotels, only financials. The budget was not correct, increase revenues, decrease costs to give us the profit line we demand, they all said. I tried explaining that a hotel, while if managed well could do a little better and a managed a little less well could do worse. In the end, a hotel can do what a hotel can do.

Metrics can and do help enormously in the continual quest for better results, but it is still the humans behind the sign that make or break a hotel. GM's would do well to remember that!

So, while MEWS metrics and the like will always help in general, let us not become slaves to the metrics, but use them astutely to gain better performance and results.