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- Herausgeber: Clink Street Publishing
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Peter Venison's best-selling book 100 Tips for Hoteliers offered advice on how to manage. In this follow-up publication, Venison looks at the hotel business from the guest's point of view and suggests that his is the only way to analyse success or failure in the hospitality industry. He explains that guest satisfaction is not the opposite of guest dissatisfaction: it is so much more. Venison draws on his extensive world travel to over 100 countries, to cite myriad examples of how not to please your guests. Every hotel manager, hotel student, and hospitality lecturer, could benefit from reading this little book, and every hotel guest could benefit from them having done so.
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Seitenzahl: 165
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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100 Ways to Annoy Your Guests
What every hotelier needs to avoid
Peter J Venison CVO
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To my four children, Sue, Simon, Sarah-Kate and Jonathan, of whom I am all immensely proud.
Contents
Preface
For most of my working life I was involved in the management of hotels or the management of managers managing hotels. Much of this work involved the practicalities of keeping operations working smoothly and profitably. From an operational point of view, this involved the management of people, the supply and control of goods and materials, the control of the costs, the accounting and cash management, the return on investment, the promotion and advertising of the enterprise, the design and construction of the facilities and so on. I was concerned about getting the best possible performance out of the personnel and I wanted to be running a company for whom people liked to work. Naturally, I was concerned about the product we were offering and realised that, without satisfying our guests, there would be no business.
However, in retrospect, I spent far more time on managing the enterprise than experiencing its end result, i.e. the service and value that we offered. Since my retirement I have moved my focus from managing hotels to experiencing them. This experience has often been amazing, but, more often than not, has been disappointing. I have become a hotel guest rather than a hotel manager and this booklet is 2written from that standpoint, even though its prime audience will be hotel managers and students and teachers in the hospitality industry. I have not attempted to explore how to get things done in any depth; I have simply tried to highlight why they need doing.
To manage a hotel does not require a brilliant mind nor an amazing academic brain. It is not a science, nor does it require outstanding artistic ability. It does require a good deal of common sense and an ability to organise, to lead, to look and see. It is not for the lazy, although its comfortable surroundings can lead to this. It requires constant vigilance; otherwise the high standards set will slip away. Your customers might notice this before you do.
There are so many points of contact between members of hotel staff and the customer; so many places where things can go well or badly. But, to correct the annoyances and irritations heaped upon the hotel guest, we first need to recognise them. This book attempts to do just that; it does not go into the detail of how they are eliminated, but, taken individually, with the exception of a few that have been built into the hardware, each and every one of them can be easily eradicated with a little thought and effort. The first step for any hotel manager in this regard is to recognise that these simple deficiencies do exist and, hopefully, this little book will be a helpful aid in their eradication.
A hundred things that will definitely annoy your guests
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“It was almost impossible to find the place. I had driven two hundred miles and I was tired. There were no signs to tell me where the entrance was and my satnav took me into the supermarket car park. I was very irate when I finally found it.”
– MR DONALD LOSTIT, MANCHESTER, UK
“There were potholes all the way up the driveway. Can you believe that? A five-star hotel with a driveway like the I.95.”
– JIMMY CARTER, QUEENS, NY
“There was no place to park, but I noticed that the Manager had a special place right next to the front door. That doesn’t seem right, does it?”
– CLIVE NEAT, PERTH, AUSTRALIA
“I must have stayed in this hotel twenty times. I am more regular than the personnel at the front desk. That’s probably why they always ask me if I’ve stayed before. You would think someone would teach them to google. I really don’t know why I stay here because it certainly doesn’t feel like home.”
– MR STEVE LONGROAD, AUSTIN, TEXAS
“It’s time you changed your key card system. Every time I get to my room the thing gives me the red light, so I have to go all the way back to the lobby to get another one. Sometimes it doesn’t work twice in a row. It is very annoying and if you don’t fix it, I am going to give the red light to you.”
– ‘FRUSTRATED’, TEL AVIV
Chapter One
The Arrival
The arrival experience at a hotel, although seemingly routine, can cause stress levels to rise. Have I come to the right place? I hope they still have my reservation. Where will I park? Even frequent travellers are on alert during the arrival process. First impressions are extremely important. Arriving guests have a very high level of expectancy. For frequent users it is like coming to a second home – but only if they are given a welcome homecoming. For many guests, going to a hotel can be a special occasion, one they have been looking forward to or saved up for. They will have high hopes; the arrival experience is not the place to dash those. The more you upset the guest on arrival, the harder you will have to work at recovery. Here are some ways you can annoy and disappoint your guests before they have even reached their room.
1. Make it hard to find
Just getting to a hotel can be a frustrating experience. By definition most hotel guests are from out of town and, therefore, in unfamiliar territory. You, the Manager, of course, know exactly where your hotel is located, but your 10guests, particularly first-time guests, do not. Put yourself in their driving seat. Is the entrance to your hotel clearly marked? Is there adequate warning to drivers that they will need to make a turn soon? Is the entry sign large enough to be read from the road at normal driving speed and is it well-lit enough to be clear at night?
If the guest is finding you by satnav, have you tested the instructions yourself to make sure that they are correct? You will really annoy your guest if the satnav is asking them to turn into a farmyard or supermarket car park.
In city addresses, with the likelihood of heavy traffic outside your door, is your signage large enough and illuminated enough for an out of town driver to see from a distance, so that he can prepare (and warn others) that he is going to slow down? There is nothing more annoying in a strange town than driving past your hotel due to inadequate signage and having to drive around an unfamiliar block.
If your guests are arriving by plane and being met at the airport, make sure that the greetings sign is clear and professionally produced. Hotels often subcontract the airport/railway station greeting and transfer to a third-party operator. Sometimes these companies’ greetings signs are touting their name rather than that of your hotel. This can be confusing to an arriving passenger, peering into a sea of signs and faces. Remember, your arriving guest will probably have just been through the frustrating (and, to some, frightening) process of immigration, luggage retrieval, and so on. If possible, get your greeter to hold a sign with your hotel name clearly displayed. Hotels that have not subcontracted this task and are using their own people, properly uniformed as such, will clearly be following best practice. 11
Finally, there is the actual vehicle with which you transfer your guests from airport to hotel. Management must be sure that suitable vehicles are being utilised and that they are being parked at the airport or station in a spot that has easy access for your guests. Make sure that they will not have to push or pull their luggage over kerbs or ramps and minimise the amount of traffic dodging they may be required to do. Train your drivers to assist them with the bags. Remember, this collection and delivery process is the first real contact your guest will have with your product. A dirty, uncomfortable, cramped vehicle with poor luggage space, and an uncommunicative driver will be a very poor start in your relationship with your new guest. This is your first chance to impress; it is also your first potential pitfall because a hectic foreign airport or railway station can be a traumatic place for many people. When you, the Manager, arrive back in town from a trip, don’t opt for special chauffeured treatment; try the system that your guests do.
2. Outer appearance
How tidy is the approach to your hotel and what does it look like from the outside? Remember that the first impression a guest will have will be what he sees from the outside, whether he is arriving by car, bus or bike. When your hotel was designed the architect probably gave considerable thought to the arrival ‘impression’. Is the integrity of his plan still intact? Go outside and look, both in the day and in the dark. Does the arrival experience incorporate views of the staff quarters, or the loading bay, or the garbage? If so, it would be the equivalent of inviting someone into your home, not through the front door, but through the back alley. When a guest arrives and steps out of her car, can she 12see into your administrative offices, with their flip charts, overflowing wastepaper bins, electric wires at the back of computers and so on? So often, an arrival experience is spoiled by unnecessary and completely avoidable views of the back of house. And be aware that this untidy state of affairs is more pronounced at night when the lights of empty offices shine bright.
When the architect designed the hotel his renderings and plans would probably have shown the unfurnished product. Now that it is operational take a new look at how it appears with furnishings. From outside, looking up, do the drapes look a mess? Are you looking at the underside of furniture? Are there all sorts of masts or aerials spoiling the clean line roof profile? Is the planned floodlighting of the building still functioning? If you have flags flying, are they still in good condition?
I can tell you how upset I was a few years ago when visiting the beautiful town of Plettenburg Bay, South Africa, to see in the distance the striking building of the Beacon Isle hotel. This hotel, back in the early 1970s had been designed as a striking piece of modern architecture with crisp clean lines and curves. It was remarkable for its simplicity. It stood out as a symbol of modernism against one of the most beautiful land and seascapes in the world. To my horror, since I was last there several years before, Management had allowed the clean roof line to be ruined with several unplanned structures and masts, which completely ruined the pristine intention of the architect. A lot of time, thought and expertise is often put into the planning and design of a hotel; management should respect that.
Arriving at a hotel can be made into an adventure or experience. It should also be a ‘discovery’, which will be 13memorable. I remember the arrival at the Earth Lodge, a safari hotel in Sabi Sands, Africa. Having followed little wooden direction signs down a dirt road for about ten miles, I started to wonder where on earth I was going. Finally, the signs stopped next to a grassy mound in the bush, where the message carved on the sign asked one to call a number for ‘reception’. There was no building in sight, so the idea that you were at the reception seemed ridiculous. I dialled the number and, after maybe a minute, a Land Cruiser appeared, driven by a ranger. He jumped out, welcomed us to the Lodge and asked us to follow him, leaving our vehicle, our luggage and the Land Cruiser behind. We walked down a gentle slope behind the mound, until we were in a hollow about six feet deep. In front of us, suddenly, were two carved but unobtrusive wooden doors, which sprung open as we approached to reveal a beautiful vista. Lo and behold we were in the open-air lobby of a wonderful game lodge, looking at a waterhole surrounded by game – none of which had been visible from the arrival mound due to the clever way the architect had used the contours of the land. And what a lovely surprise it was!
Clearly there are not many hotels that can be made to disappear and then reappear to give arriving guests a pleasant surprise, but a sense of discovery upon arrival can often be achieved by such devices at bends in the driveway, planting, pieces of sculpture or other artwork. Take a look at your arrival route. Maybe, with some thought, it could be improved. Even if the scope in this way is limited, the installation of something unique at the porte cochere, such as a piece of sculpture or a fountain, at least lifts an otherwise purely functional space into an interesting and welcoming one. 14
Directional signage within your grounds is also important for a guest who is driving. Remember, the driver has probably driven a long distance and may be tired, or is driving an unfamiliar rental vehicle. He will not be in the mood for following imprecise and confusing direction signs. For example, quite frequently a sign for parking will be pointing in a different direction from a sign for ‘registration’. Go and check the signage in your grounds; imaging that it is your first visit. Does it all make sense?
When guests arrive in a vehicle at your front door, give them time. Don’t rush them out of their vehicle. Remember, they may have driven a long way. They may not be perfectly organised in regard to which bags they want brought out of the car and which could be left. They may be clutching maps or books or bags full of trash from the journey. Give them a moment to collect their themselves and their thoughts. Being hustled and hassled by a porter at the door can be irritating. Asking a guest, arriving in a taxi, clutching a suitcase and a hanging bag, “Are you checking in, sir?” is redundant.
Above all, remember that if your hotel looks like a mess from the outside this could be the view that you have got used to and accepted. It is, however, a view that will be sending negative signals to your guests, who may be seeing it for the first time. If you really want to annoy your guests before they have stepped through the door, park your car outside the front door in a spot marked ‘Reserved for General Manager’. And if that doesn’t do it, make sure that they have to go hunting for trolleys or help with the bags.15
