Lately, hotels seem to be falling short on people parts - continued
'While all of the staff I encountered was polite and efficient, their service style was overall reactive and not proactive'.
At the time of this writing, I'm on a plane ride back from attending four lodging industry conferences in 10 days, which caused me to be staying at four different large, branded hotels in Minneapolis, Dallas and San Antonio, all of which were close to the convention centers.
While all of the staff I encountered was polite and efficient, their service style was overall reactive and not proactive. Notably absent were some core essentials of hotel hospitality excellence that used to be part of "Hotel 101" orientation.
Much has been written about the challenges of finding qualified staff, but in each encounter there seemed to be plenty of help and again they were polite and well-spoken. Given the entire recent obsession with "contactless" guest service and providing the latest and greatest "guest tech," I suppose I should not be surprised.
Here are some of the things I noticed, along with related training tips.
Back at the Marriott where we were still staying, we awoke the next morning to see some of the local sights before heading to our next conference presentation later that day. While waiting to take the elevator down, we noticed a luggage cart in the middle of the hallway. Three hours later when we returned it was still there. It was a busy Saturday morning, and we were pretty certain a LOT of staff walked right by that cart without returning it.
Training opportunity: remind all staff that keeping up an orderly, neat appearance of the hotel is the job of every staff member. One should never say or think "It's not my job, I'm only just the..."
Continued from previous week;
After a couple of days at the Marriott it was time to switch over to the Grand Hyatt attached directly to the huge convention center where our next speaking event was at. Expecting possible challenges finding our meeting room in such a large venue, I dressed in my jogging gear and headed over early. Fortunately, the guest room was ready early, so I was able to check in. While standing at the desk, I noticed a "this way to meeting" sign with the logo of the association we were presenting for with an arrow pointing towards the bar and restaurant, which seemed odd.
So I asked the front desk "Do you know where meeting room 213 at the convention center is?" She pointed in the opposite direction of the sign and politely replied "Oh, the convention center is the building across from us. Just walk over that way and you will see the lobby and there will be someone at the information desk."
So I did. Except that it was a very long walk, there was no one at that information desk and no signs for room 213. There were lots of signs for meeting rooms with higher series-200 numbers, so I wasted a lot of time before I realized I was in the wrong section of the convention center. I was glad I was in running gear as I ended up jogging around the whole place, only to learn that the convention center also ran directly behind this Hyatt. Had I followed the arrow on the sign it would have been a far shorter walk.
Training opportunity: When hosting a hotel-wide meeting or conference event, train your front desk team on the specifics of where the group's main events are being held and the shortest paths, especially at large hotels or those connected to conference centers.
To reiterate, all of the staff I engaged in these situations were extremely polite and articulate. In every case there was plenty of staff on duty as well. I should also mention that I had accessed and used all of the fancy apps the hotel brands had put out, and I had also downloaded and used the "conference attendee apps" for the conferences I was presenting at.
Yet in the end, the people parts fell far short of expectation several times these past 10 days. Some leaders might blame this on the labor market, but to me, each of these shortcomings point to a failure of leaders to focus on the timeless essentials of hospitality excellence.
Doug Kennedy is President of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. a leading provider of hotel sales, guest service, reservations, and front desk training programs and telephone mystery shopping services for the lodging and hospitality industry. Doug continues to be a fixture on the industry’s conference circuit for hotel companies, brands and associations, as he been for over two decades. Since 1996, Doug’s monthly training articles have been published worldwide, making him one of the most widely read hospitality industry authorities. Visit KTN at www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or email him directly doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com Doug is the author of “So You REALLY Like Working With People? - Five Principles for Hospitality Excellence.
|
|
|
|
