As a student of hospitality, I was constantly reminded that in a well run hotel, the manager must be present, available, and be visible. He or she should be out on the floor greeting guests and putting a face on hotel operations read more...
In parts 1 & 2 of the above captioned article, I wrote of the welcome letter a guest received upon checking in at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Florida, and, I went on to explain the benefits of using read more...
When someone thanks you, the courteous and polite reply is, ‘you’re welcome’. If you hold the door open for someone and they say ‘thank you’, respond, ‘you're welcome’. It feels great to hear it and great to say it. Take read more...
In part 1 , 2 and 3 of the above captioned article, I wrote of the welcome letter a guest received upon checking in at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Florida and I went on to explained the benefits read more...
Today’s hotels, be it five star or no frills, consider a smile from the doorman or bellboy a more than adequate sign of welcome. True, guests can get a warm blurry kind of feeling from something as simple as a read more...
The ‘Gift’ voucher required that I call Jithendra for a prior reservation. When contacted; Jithendra requested that I call Sureka (providing her tele number) for assistance, as he no longer handled hotel reservations. Not a very positive first impression and read more...
When the hotel has sold your room to ‘someone else’, as Linda and Michael Morgan found out in 2010. The hotel, in this case, was the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan and the "someone else" was a contingent of Saudi princes and read more...
Does the hotel need a deposit or a payment in advance? The actual terms are different with different hotels, but in the high season to ensure a room in many hotels you have to pay in advance. The rationale behind this is because hotels do not want read more...
Sarah Gaines wanted a refund for her short-lived hotel stay at the Windsor Hotel in Manhattan. She claimed the property was infested with bedbugs. The two rooms that she was allocated by the hotel, when the family checked in, had read more...
The flight doesn't leave until evening, but the hotel check-out time is noon. What does a guest do with those aimless hours? Many hotels accommodate late check-outs based upon availability. The best course of action is to inform the hotel read more...
You’ve just settled in your hotel room when you realise that the air conditioner in the room is faulty and the room that looked so invitingly nice when you arrived, is beginning to feel stuffy. You then call the hotel’s read more...
The scenario: It is Friday evening. You and your wife have decided to have drinks and dinner with another couple. Having selected a chic restaurant serving Italian cuisine you have made reservations for 8.30 p.m. The four of you arrive read more...
I recall three articles that appeared in the newspapers way back in 2012 statistically comparing Sri Lanka’s soaring performance in tourism in that year. What caught my attention; in particular, the following, and, I quote, “Tourist ‘Arrivals’ during the first read more...
"At Meliá Hotels International we imagined a new type of vacation in which guests could enjoy all of our hotel services without having to worry about carrying around cash or ID, and that is now a reality thanks to an read more...
We may not be aware of them, but we use standards every day, in all aspects of our daily lives – in communications, education, healthcare, food, transport, construction, furniture, customer service and in many others. Some standards have been around read more...
Listen to your guests or customers – It seems like such an obvious thing. But do we? Look around you… it’s something that hardly happens or so it seems. How often have we encountered people expressing their frustration for some read more...
One morning on the way home after my regular walk at the park, I stopped as I regularly do, at the nearest branch of a supermarket chain. The store had just opened its doors for the day and unsurprisingly there read more...
Nowadays there are several methods of checking into a hotel after having made an advance room booking. The most familiar practice upon entering the hotel is to stop at the reception desk as if you have been summoned to appear read more...
Tiffany & Company (known colloquially as Tiffany or Tiffany's), founded in New York City in 1837, is a multinational luxury jewelry and specialty retailer operating in 22 countries. Tiffany’s is renowned for its luxury goods, is known for its diamond jewelry and markets itself as an ‘arbiter of taste and read more...
They say that an image is worth a thousand words, but if you were selling a book, your front cover is worth eighty thousand words as it represents your best bet at attracting the buyers attention to your book. When read more...
Over the past decade, the experience of booking a trip has changed considerably. For many travelers, that experience has shifted away from travel agents and moved online. With so many websites dedicated to helping travelers find the best prices and read more...
The vacancy ad read as follows
“We are looking for a Hotel Front Desk Agent to serve as our guests’ first point of contact and manage all aspects of their accommodation. Hotel Front Desk Agent responsibilities include registering and checking out read more...
The graveyard shift is no longer a graveyard in the hospitality industry. Check-ins and a host of other activities presumed dead after 11 pm are still alive and kicking well beyond midnight in today’s time -strapped world. For all intents read more...
“Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and immovable.” - Charles Baudelaire
Going back in time to the late 1800’s, the hotel lobby served as the place to see read more...
‘Checking out? Your room number?’ Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Amazing how often, hotel staff at various hotels of differing star ratings, keep asking these identical two questions when you approach the front desk cashier to settle your hotel bill. It’s read more...
In days long gone by, the price of admission required a hotel to be clean, comfortable, safe, and welcoming. To elaborate, when people travel for any reason, their basic needs are the same: a clean room and comfortable bed in read more...
Guests won’t find any “Do not disturb” (DND) signs hanging on doors at Disney's hotels including those at Disneyland, the Aulani in Hawaii and the four hotels that overlook the monorail at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Eventually, all read more...
When someone makes you feel comfortable and at home, that person, providing a warm, friendly environment is being hospitable. Anything ‘hospitable’ is welcoming and open.
A Greek proverb suggested that in being hospitable, the main feeling should be goodwill. The basis for the read more...
Thailand is often referred to as the “Land of Smiles”, and fully deserves this honour…no matter what. Enter any retail shop, bank, travel agency or any service industry in that country and even if you do not come away with read more...
Not for some time. Yes, emerging technologies such as Echo - Amazon’s brand of smart speakers which connects to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant named Alexa is making its presence in hotel guestrooms. However, the jury is still out on read more...
Here’s a very pertinent question we received from the resident manager of a hotel in the cultural triangle. Quote “…We hope to reopen our hotel to guests and wish to know what we have to tell them when they arrive read more...
As of now it certainly has – but fear not, it can be resurrected. Let me explain.
You can tell the whole world about how safe your hotel or restaurant is. How you have taken every precaution possible to keep your read more...
I have long advocated for hoteliers to view the front desk as a revenue-generating position, not an operational expense. In previous posts I have provided training tips for upselling at registration, converting ‘properly direct’ voice enquiries, converting those who booked read more...
Rudy a hotelier friend of mine recently reminisced, how after staying for four days, he received a Courtesy call from the hotel’s guest relations officer on the day he was to checkout. The caller wanted to know whether he had read more...
It’s time to reinvent the self-check-in process, and that doesn’t mean only cutting back front-desk employees. For decades, hotel brands have been attempting to launch various versions of self-check-in.
In the 1990s, I remember much talk but little adoption beyond beta read more...
When asked about what factors impact sales, many retailers will allude to the economy, weak consumer spending, competition, and recent ‘shop from home’ innovations. While those factors certainly play a role, I often find, that the real reason is where read more...
While it seems more on-trend to have voice-search capabilities at your hotel, don’t forget entirely about the importance of human-to-human interaction between front-desk staff and guests.
Seems like every day when I read hotel industry news publications there is always a read more...
As you know the front office is the command post for your operation, and it’s also the point where all the receipts come through. Making sure you have solid internal controls at the desk is not only good business, it’s read more...
Many years back, when the self-check-in kiosk made its first appearance, it sparked a debate – ‘technology or the human touch’? In those early days, Hamlet’s soliloquy ‘to be or not to be’ turned into a ‘to automate or not read more...
Recently while on the road conducting training for the Camelback Resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to experience a genuine, authentic welcome. Before that story, let me first share a few details about my expectations, read more...
Have you ever walked in to work at a hotel or hospitality company and immediately recognized that someone somewhere has determined that today is going to be “one of THOSE days”? It’s almost like someone posted a sign at the read more...
Although the webcasts that TNS/Track so generously sponsor usually focus on sales training tips directly for the frontline reservations staff, this month I took a little different approach and focused on train-the-trainer ideas for managers. The format was sort of read more...
Challenge: Reservations agents may not relate to the life experiences of prospective guests
In order for agents to sell to the unique needs and wants of prospective guests, they first need to develop empathy and an understanding of what guests are read more...
There’s nothing quite like hotel room service. Be it an indulgence or a necessity, few things seem better suited to serve a jet-lagged traveler, (who gets into the hotel past midnight), than a breakfast tray delivered to the room…long after read more...
Are you read to help your reservations team maximize the contribution of the voice booking channel in 2022? If so, it is not going to be easy. As we look ahead to the coming year nothing is certain. Well, actually read more...
An article I wrote earlier on my recent experience of having been kept ‘on-hold’ for a total 39 minutes during 3 call attempts to speak to someone at an airline when seeking information made me wonder whether this was just read more...
I recall the time…and it was in those earlier days during my career in hospitality, where as the Front Office Manager at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Colombo, I had to briefly present to my Rooms Division Manager, a summary read more...
Years ago when Promus Hotels Corporation’s Hampton Inn brand was the first major chain to implement the “100% Satisfaction Guarantee,” executives there reported they were able to do so because very few people tried to abuse the system. On the read more...
As my frequent readers know, I have long advocated for hoteliers to view the front desk as a revenue- generating position, not an operational expense. In previous posts I have provided training tips for upselling at registration, converting "property-direct" voice read more...
Consider These Techniques To Thrive in Moments When the Front Desk Gets Crowded.
Regardless of how well-staffed a hotel front desk is, there are moments on just about any shift when guest traffic bottlenecks, and usually at the most inopportune times.
For read more...
Over my career in lodging industry sales and service training, I have designed numerous reservations training programs with names like 7-Steps For Reservations Sales Enhancement, Cooking UP New Reservations Sales, and Hotel Reservations SAILS Training. Then, after recognizing that so much had changed on the read more...
Ten years ago, over 90 percent of hotels had a front desk where 100 percent of the guests had to check in at these hard to miss physical and sometimes intimidating counters. The receptionists stood on one side of the read more...
Airlines sell tickets on flights between cities based on a schedule. Customers buy those tickets, and in exchange for the money they pay, they expect to be able to get on that plane flying to wherever it is they wanted to read more...
As part of the prework I do before conducting on-site training workshops for front desk teams, I always look at the existing, in-house training standards and content. Nearly all programs cover the concepts of showing empathy, and especially at Forbes read more...
It’s time to reinvent the self-check-in process, and that doesn’t mean only cutting back front-desk employees. For decades, hotel brands have been attempting to launch various versions of self-check-in.
In the 1990s, I remember much talk but little adoption beyond beta read more...
Visual Cues, Proper Training Can Help Staff Avoid the Obvious Question
Being in the profession of presenting on-site hospitality and sales training for hotels and resorts, my job requires a lot of very short hotel stays.
For example, just last year I read more...
One day a few months back, the main phone line rang at our headquarters office. Can you imagine the surprise when our receptionist heard a man’s voice saying this: “Hello, this is Doug Kennedy calling for Doug Kennedy.” At first, read more...
We’ve all seen security personnel at hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, hospitals, shopping malls, sports complexes, movie theatres, etc. Of course, one of their roles is to ensure the safety of everyone – staff, customers, guests, visitors, and third parties who may read more...
And some advice on what to do about it.
The labor market shortage has been a frequent topic of discussion in the industry as demand for hotels has surged back from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On a visit to Hawaii, read more...
You arrive at the hotel after been kept waiting all along the way to get there; waited to be picked up to go to the airport, waited at the airport to board the flight, waited to get off the flight, read more...
Train hotel associates to say sorry with meaning.
As a frequent traveler who has spent approximately 1 out of every 3 nights on the road for decades, I have certainly encountered my share of bad experiences as a guest, passenger and read more...
Being a professional pianist married to a husband who is an hotelier, I’ve had the opportunity to visit and stay in many star class hotels including branded chain hotels in almost every part of Sri Lanka. Very often, I’ve wondered read more...
As hotels transitioned from small, independent properties to large hotel chains with global presence, new tools had to be created to manage them. The same happened across the travel space with businesses like the airlines. Quite simple and straight-forward in read more...
Opportunities for conversations have diminished with evolution of tech.
As technology has crept into the cycle of guest service experiences in recent years, today’s guests have far fewer conversations with hotel staff. In the past, the hotel staff had a multitude read more...
With the pandemic behind us, hotel room rates have been increasing to keep pace with revenge travel. Travelers are paying prices that far exceed 2019 rates or any ever seen previously.
Will this trend continue or slowly go away as ‘revenge read more...
Despite the predictions of its demise, the voice reservations channel is alive and well for all sectors of the lodging industry. For decades now, pundits have predicted the death of voice as a booking channel. First it was the emergence read more...
Consider Your Strategy When Planning Pricing Tiers, Sales Pitch
In recent years, more and more hotels are utilizing pre-arrival drip campaigns offering guests the opportunity to purchase an upgrade prior to their arrival, which is certainly a smart move.
However, these days read more...
It’s great to start the year with a nice story of a positive hotel customer service experience! This was not a five star hotel, but was more importantly a business that did not focus on stars but focused on people.
The hotel was in read more...
Canada’s first robotic cafe, RC Coffee, opened in Toronto in October 2020. The flagship location of the coffee chain revived the long-dormant retail concept of the automat: a restaurant where food and drinks are served by technology, rather than human staff. The new read more...
“Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do or do not do in return, but because of who you are”
The mantra of just about every company today is that they are “Customer-driven”.. But certain read more...
Empower front-line workers to enhance experience
As a conference speaker and hotel trainer, whenever I see the title of an article, book or blog post that has anything to do with guest service, hospitality or customer service in general, I’m always read more...
The perceptible demise of customer service in hospitality and retail is a concerning trend that is quietly but surely gaining momentum. Marred very often by disinterested employees who are more preoccupied on their phones or screens, than with the customer, read more...
Much like the phrase, "When it rains, it pours," the antagonist Claudius in Shakespeare's Hamlet expresses in military terms how bad things usually come in groups rather than on their own.
"When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in read more...
Safety and security of hotels, be it prevention of accidents, theft or for fire safety, is not only the business of the security department. Yes, it is their core responsibility, but it is also every employees business, and everyone in read more...
It's not just the older guests who want to call to book a hotel room
Everyone knows that online hotel bookings have grown significantly in recent years. Voice reservations have declined, but there are still significant opportunities for all hotels regardless read more...
Acknowledgements from hotel employees mean much more than technology solutions
As a hotel conference speaker and opinion writer, I always try to stay up on the very latest innovations and tech solutions, and so I start each day by reading at read more...
There are many ways for a business to “stand out from the crowd.” One approach is to give your customers more of what they ask for as a customer service improvement. If others are fast, you go faster. If others read more...
Hotels love frequent travelers because as repeat customers they have a significant impact on the success of their business. A repeat guest is someone who makes multiple visits over a certain period of time. The goal is to move people read more...
It is said that a full-service hotel with 300 guest rooms, averages around 5,000 staff - guest interactions daily. With future advances in AI technology, this may become less. Nevertheless, there will still be, on the one hand a great read more...
Those of you who have seen the TV series “Bad Dinosaurs” would have followed the hilarious shenanigans of a Tyrannosaurus family, as they deal with the trials of life in the prehistoric wilderness, while surrounded by incompetent dinosaurs.
A series of read more...
Service delivery is an important aspect in the hospitality industry. The delivery chain consists of two processes; one is the back-end, the other the front. The front-end is only visible to customers and it is usually this activity, which comes read more...
Does your company run like clockwork? Are your accountants pleased with how everything moves smoothly? Is your managers’ content with how customers are managed by your system?
If so, watch out! Your present methods, regulations, policies and procedures may be convenient read more...
Attention to detail is a hallmark of hospitality
One thing I love about reading online these days is how you can just touch a word to find the definition.
While reading classical historical fiction recently, I came upon what was for me read more...
Consistency they say is king. One of the most effective ways to create consistency is to implement a framework that can be applied to your team and across all types of customer service points.
Let’s examine how it works when answering read more...
Working on the front lines of any establishment can be tricky. You’ve got to handle all sorts of customers, while maintaining a friendly, professional and efficient demeanour. Should something go wrong, you’re first in the firing line. So it’s not read more...
The closing moments of every guest’s trip, for example, taking a ‘break’ from work – begins as a dream; a dream of a wonderful vacation, a dream of a blissful romantic escapade or an exhilaratingly relaxing getaway.
With dreams come expectations. read more...
This article about the six levels of customer service was first published in Bloomberg Businessweek. Last month I met a client in Indonesia. We went to lunch at a nearby mall where music poured into the public area from every read more...
The Disneyland Hotel recently tarnished Mickey’s reputation with an influential customer from Seattle. Mark stayed at a hotel inside the park with his family for three days. He attended a legal seminar while his family enjoyed Disney rides, ate Disney read more...
When you give a high level of customer service quality, your customers will appreciate you more. But when you give lousy service, your customers can be a pain in the neck.
The flip side is also true about customer service quality. read more...
The challenges facing the business of hospitality are on striking the proper balance of combining tech innovation with realism, when delivering personalised experiences.
Self-service kiosks have become increasingly popular in different industries and its entry into the hospitality industry comes as read more...
For decades now, some hoteliers and many hotel tech providers have been pushing hotel guests to embrace self check-in procedures. I first heard of this concept as a budding young entrepreneur floating my business plan for a hotel industry training read more...
Undoubtedly, there are several other hotel brands in the same city where your property is located - all aiming to win the same customers you are trying to reach. Competition in the hospitality industry is both fierce and continually changing. read more...
The action steps you design and take are intended to create more value. But in our complex and diverse world, different people value different things. Some people say, “Just do it fast.” The next person says, “Don’t rush me.” One read more...
Following the recent shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, experts reflect on hotels’ role as a backdrop for criminal activity — and how hoteliers can prepare for unlikely scenarios.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was on his way to an investors’ day read more...
As a lodging industry training provider, we receive an extraordinarily high number of inquiries for guest service training specific to the topic areas of 'handling guest complaints' and 'service recovery.'
While it is always great to see interest in these topics, read more...
The shouting that goes on in professional kitchens is with good reason and it’s an eye opener to see and hear the controlled, choreographed mix of anxiety and excitement that goes on in a busy hotel or restaurant kitchen.
In comparison, read more...
A Balanced Look at Customized Guest Experiences.
Picture this: you arrive at a luxurious boutique hotel after a long journey. The receptionist doesn't just greet you with a smile; they address you warmly by name. As you settle into your room, read more...
A fixed check-in time, long queues at the front desk, and constantly waiting for a room to be ready - these are three familiar major pain points that the majority of hotel guests have to grapple with!
Hotel check-in times might read more...
A little goes a long way when interacting with guests, staff or vendors.
Despite how technology continues to replace the need for routine human conversations during a guest’s “cycle of service,” we as hoteliers still have plenty of opportunities to have read more...
Interesting title, isn’t it? Catches one’s attention doesn’t it? Almost like clickbait. Well, I chose it because it represents a callous and demeaning truth in Sri Lanka. What am I talking about? Simply, the way that many aspects of our read more...
As technology has crept into the cycle of guest service, today’s guests have far fewer conversations with hotel staff. In the past, the hotel staff had a multitude of opportunities to wow guests with personalized, memorable, hospitality encounters. Let’s take a read more...
“The sweetest and most important sound to a person in any language is his or her name.” - Dale Carnegie
One of the first things I learned as an hotelier was the importance of using the guest’s name. No surprise then that read more...
Globally, cable providers are notoriously hated by customers, and it is no different in Sri Lanka. Like some hotels, the larger cable companies become, the worse off consumers are. Unlike in hotels though, there is too little competition among TV read more...
As a frequent business traveler, I encounter my share of gaps in service that I need to bring to the attention of the staff of hotels, airlines, and rental car providers. On top of that, my ears are always open read more...
Mothers have it hardest, although being a Father can also be stressful. Just as ‘Mother's Day’ celebrates maternal bonds across generations with gestures of gratitude, acknowledging sacrifices and unconditional love, amidst commercialism, Fathers’ too get a day dedicated just for read more...
In an ever-changing era of a hyper connected world, powered by electronic technologies and an explosion of new touchpoints and digital encounters, are businesses ready to serve customers throughout the guest journey, while having their best interests at heart? That’s read more...
As I make the rounds conducting hospitality industry training, I sense that more and more hoteliers truly understand the difference between “guest service excellence” and “hospitality.” My regular readers may recall that this is a topic previously addressed here in read more...
If you manage any type of hospitality business currently you have likely experienced many challenges that you have never seen before. From supply issues to labor shortages, it is harder and harder to keep a restaurant, bar, hotel or entertainment read more...
It's about quality of service - customers want to know that things won’t become harder than they need to be.
Customers today simply don’t tolerate bad service. In a market where every brand is competing on price, organisations that also compete read more...
Waiters and waitresses, also commonly known as servers, are members of the hospitality service industry who attend to guests by taking orders, serving food and beverages, and processing payments. They clean and prepare (set up) tables before, during, and after read more...
Earning airline miles requires dedication: Sure, you can earn them by flying regularly – but not everyone can afford to do that. I certainly cannot. I do fly occasionally with my wife but when holidaying overseas. But if one wants to read more...
We all love a hotel stay, right? Soft sheets, cloud-like mattresses, fluffy towels, someone else cleaning your bathroom and making your bed - It’s a total escape from daily household drudgery.
But behind the scenes, there are huge teams of people read more...
Each month I get to travel the world and present 6 – 8 training workshops, many of which are for frontline staff: It is a career I have been blessed to have for nearly 30 years.
We talk about a lot read more...
Is this the correct way to leave your room?
How you should leave your hotel room when you check out?’ For most of us there’s a pretty simple answer to that – ‘however you want.’ Though, as many people have found out read more...
The front desk colleagues at your hotel are creating first impressions that set the tone for the entire guest’s stay every shift, every day, whereas in the past, first impressions were made by a voice reservations agent or during a read more...
Customers judge an experience largely by how they felt at the most intense moment — good or bad — and at the end. But are CX leaders designing experiences for this cognitive bias?
A billing issue gets resolved. The refund is read more...
After entering our hotel room my wife shared a few observations with me on how our arrival was handled at the front desk and how it should have been done – given that it was a 5-star resort hotel in read more...
As a conference speaker and hotel trainer, I’m always interested whenever I see the title of an article, book, or blog post that has anything to do with guest service, hospitality, or customer service in general.
Over the years, I’ve noticed read more...
A toxic blend of self-importance and social blindness is creating a new class of traveler — from the check-in bully to the buffet hog.
What’s the worst thing you’ve seen someone do at a hotel? For Lynne Goldberg, it’s the check-in read more...
