Everything about hotel staff and the teams that help hotels.
Outstanding service industry employees seem to be born for it. They have an innate sense of empathy and something that requires only the smallest amount of training. However, leadership still plays a huge part in creating a culture of service. Service leaders have two major roles – training and example. Many brands known for fantastic service train their team members thoroughly, often to the point of standard phrasing when speaking to guests, such as “my pleasure” in response to a thank you. This isn’t necessary for optimal service reputation, but it does stand out. It’s important not to go overboard with this as it can sound too rehearsed, but some measure of guidance is helpful. For instance, rather than requiring a drawn-out standard greeting (“Welcome to Our Hotel, home of Something Awesome! My name is John, how can I be of service to you today?), practice various greetings with your employees until they find something that works with their personality that can be altered depending on the situation at hand. “It highlights the importance of strong leadership in service” Other service requirements include making eye contact, saying hello to guests they pass in the halls, staying in communication if things …
I had an interaction with a staff member at a local business yesterday that involved me wanting to pay for something and her not knowing how to charge me. Instead of getting an answer, she shrugged her shoulders and looked to me for the answer. Not having any inside knowledge, I did not have the answer, so the purchase was not made. This is exactly why one of our core principles at Monscierge is that it be easy to do business with us. With that in mind, I went back to a pep talk from one of my first bosses. I had the privilege of working directly for owners in my first three jobs which gave me access to leaders who had a 100& stake in the business’ success. They understood how much of that responsibility rested in their staff and the tools they provided to us. This particular boss was a passionate speaker and fantastic motivator, and I often revisit his insights. It is from him that I learned these five things to say instead of “I don’t know.” Let me find out – this is to be used every time in place of “I don’t know” There is …
If you have ever spent time working in hospitality, chances are the thought has crossed your mind that everyone should spend time working in hospitality. These lessons cross so many industries and specialties that it is viewed as almost a rite of passage into working adulthood. I humbly present some of my personal favorites: Work hard, play hard – People who work in service know how to do things all the way. They work long hours, don’t waste time on the job, and know how to have fun. Full hand in, full hands out – This is the mantra of many a floor manager. These people know how to maximize their time and talent to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. Be kind – The customer may not always be right, but hospitality people know how to navigate the trickiest of situations, correct mistakes, and handle every personality type. This is the gold standard for customer service training and implementation. Treat every person with dignity – Hotels manage to peacefully combine people from all over the world and all walks of life under one roof. Treating each person with respect pays in happy guests, …
Labor Day, a day set aside in the US to celebrate workers – originally and specifically regarding the promotion of fair and safe working practices. During that period of the Industrial Revolution, long hours and unsafe conditions abounded, even for children. Today, Labor Day is widely known as a day off of work for the 9-5 crowd, but the long hours and extra traffic in hospitality and retail spaces make for one of the hardest-working days of the year. Over 35 million Americans are expected to travel this Labor Day, continuing the growth over the last few years and keeping hotel staff hopping. The hospitality industry is known for staffing some of the hardest working people in the world, whose breaks rarely align with the usual work week and holidays. So cheers to the hotel staff who will spend Labor Day weekend hard at work; you are appreciated. May your guests be pleasant, your labors fruitful, and your RevPAR high!
The human touch is without doubt what makes a hotel’s service unique. Today’s mobile apps and other technologies have many people claiming the loss of this element, and predicting that there is not space in the world for both human touch and technology, one or the other must go. While I can understand the viewpoint, I disagree. Hotel apps assist travelers in booking, checking in, navigating the property, accessing their rooms, ordering room service, making requests, checking out, and many other things. The argument is that a guest who is using all of these services would potentially never interact with hotel staff at all, therefore removing all service points during the stay and furthering the commoditization of the industry. Some hotels are even removing guest-facing staff entirely, replacing front desk employees even bellhops with robots. “We will always need humans behind a real hospitality experience.” This, however, is far from the norm, and even further from what most of us want to see in hospitality. The purpose of technology in hotels should be to enhance the human touch, not to replace it. For example, let’s look at the check in process. When a guest arrives, the front desk staff member …