With so much attention on getting income up and costs down, have we lost sight of some of the basics? Over the past few weeks I've been interviewing a number of prominent hotel professionals in my series How to Give Your Hotel a Competitive Edge. One of the messages that kept coming up over and over was about getting the basics right. These are some of the points raised:
Travelocity Finds That Green Hotels Get Higher Overall Ratings in Customer Reviews
A few months ago, a colleague of mine, Rick Reilly, authored an article titled 'Process vs. Personality: Achieving Balance in your Guest Experience' that highlighted the value of establishing and training to a set of rote performance standards so that the 'art' of hospitality and service could flourish.
How you handle their spoken or unspoken questions will either strengthen the relationship or undermine it. There's plenty to worry about in the economy, and more than enough anxiety for everyone! Your warmth and honesty will be very welome.
In a September 2001 article we discussed the question: 'What is a Boutique Hotel?' In that article we mentioned the number of rooms as one factor that has an impact on the correct usage of 'boutique'; we even speculated that 100 rooms might be the upper limit. Things certainly have changed in five years. There seems to be no upper limit at this time.