Tag Archives: performance

Development, Leadership

The Power of Teamwork in the Hotel Industry

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When it comes to providing exceptional service to guests, the hotel industry relies on the power of teamwork. From the moment a guest books their stay to the moment they check out, the staff at a hotel plays a crucial role in ensuring that their experience is memorable. And while individual employees may have their own areas of expertise, it’s the collaborative efforts of a team that truly make a hotel run like a well-oiled machine.

But why is teamwork so important in the hotel industry? Here are a few reasons:

  • Improved guest experience: When employees work together as a team, they are able to provide a better guest experience. I’ve seen firsthand how a team of front desk employees who communicate effectively and work together to resolve guest issues results in happy guests who are more likely to return to the hotel.

  • Increased productivity: When employees work together as a team, they are able to accomplish more than they would individually.

  • Better problem-solving: Teams are able to come up with more creative solutions to problems than individuals. When employees from different departments worked together to solve a difficult guest complaint, they came up with an innovative solution that not only satisfied the guest but also improved our hotel’s overall service.

  • Enhanced employee morale: When employees feel like they are part of a team and their contributions are valued, they are more motivated and satisfied with their job. When employees feel that they are part of a team and are recognized for their hard work, they are more motivated to continue to provide excellent service to our guests.

  • Cost savings: Teams can work together to identify areas where cost savings can be made.

So, how can hotel management foster a culture of teamwork within their organization? Here are a few tips:

  • Clearly define roles and responsibilities: Make sure each team member knows their role and what is expected of them. This helps to avoid confusion and ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals.

  • Encourage open communication: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, concerns, and feedback. This helps to build trust and fosters a sense of collaboration.

  • Lead by example: Hotel management should model the behavior they expect from their team members and foster a positive work environment that promotes teamwork and collaboration.

  • Recognize and reward teamwork: Recognize and reward team members for their contributions to the team’s success. This helps to build a sense of pride and ownership among team members, which can lead to increased motivation and productivity.

  • Provide opportunities for training and development: Invest in your team members by providing them with opportunities for training and development. This helps to build a skilled and motivated team that is better equipped to work together effectively.

  • Celebrate successes: Take the time to celebrate the team’s successes, big or small. This helps to build a sense of camaraderie and promotes a positive work environment.

  • Encourage feedback and suggestions: Encourage team members to give feedback and suggestions on how to improve teamwork. And act on that feedback, this can help identify and solve issues that might be hindering teamwork.

In conclusion, teamwork is essential for the smooth operation and success of any hotel. By fostering open communication, a positive work environment, and opportunities for team-building, hotel management can create a culture of collaboration that benefits both the hotel and its guests.

Leadership

Build A Team of A Players!

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Steve Jobs stated in ‘The Lost Interview’ that to be truly successful and accomplish something great together you need to build a team of A players and should not settle for B or C players. chalkboard_quotes_jobs This is true for any industry, but especially for hospitality. Receiving average service from an associate who is not passionate and doesn’t seem to care, and experiencing service from someone who sincerely cares about you and about providing excellent service, makes all the difference for you, and how successful the hotel can be. Continue reading Build A Team of A Players! →
Development, How To, Leadership

How Do You Get People To Like You

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Working in the hotel industry just like any other service industry it’s all about people, it’s about one person respecting another person.

It’s about people trusting each other, because if there is no trust between people, efficiency and productivity will go down to zero.

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So how do you get people to like you, or better yet, how do you get people to want to work with you and for you? And I am not talking about a popularity contest, I am talking about respecting another person, respecting his or her values and beliefs. Continue reading How Do You Get People To Like You →

Development

How to Make the Most Out of Your Review

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Getting a review can help you develop and grow or be a complete waste of time for you and your boss.

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Image courtesy by Jeroen van Oostrom at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I remember getting my first reviews and I was eager to receive ‘exceed expectations’ for every single one of them without understanding the true importance of it. I must have received over ten excellent reviews since the beginning of my career until about four years ago when my boss at that time gave me a ‘met expectations’ only on my review, and went on to tell me that he believes in me and wants to help me to get better. He tried to explain to me the true value of a good review and that it’s not just a process for him. Continue reading How to Make the Most Out of Your Review →

Development, Leadership

The hidden powers of delegating

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Developing from being a good manager who is excellent in executing tasks like scheduling, payroll, and managing his team members by setting expectations and holding them accountable, to a leader who delegates tasks to his team member and focuses more on developing and growing his people, is necessary if you want your organization and yourself to succeed.

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The obvious power of delegating is that by ‘delegating’ tasks and responsibilities to your team you can focus on the vision and long-term goals of the organization. Continue reading The hidden powers of delegating →

Leadership

On edge

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Did you ever ask yourself why we make the most mistakes when the occupancy is low and operations are quiet, or why our service scores are falling down during the slow weeks of the year?

It’s December and we are fully committed with no rooms left to sell, every guest is paying rack rate, and the guest expectations are the highest of the year. Yet everything seems to be falling into place, operations are mostly smooth (exceptions proof the rule as always), and our guest satisfaction index goes up.

How is it possible that we do better when we have less time and resources at hand and are expected to do more compared to when we seem to have all the time in the world and people standing around only waiting to serve a guest? Continue reading On edge →

Development

Training is a waste of time and money!

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If you believe in the importance of ongoing and continuous training in your department or division, chances are that more than once in your career your superiors will challenge you and tell you that ‘training is a waste of time and money’, and a luxury that the hotel simply cannot afford at that time.

‘Excuse me… how could you say that?’

Reality is that training can be very expensive and a burden on your operations, if not executed effectively and if you don’t have a process in place of following up on the set expectations of the training. As a trainer it is your responsibility to show your organization the return on investment that it will have, and that you can measure it and how.

Having to convince your financial controller, you’ll need to be able to measure the improvement because of your training and show statistically how it will gain money for the hotel by having more happy employees who will attract more happy guests, who will spend more and stay more often (service profit chain) and not just lose money.

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where to start? Well, first you should start by identifying where your company wants to get even better and where it needs to improve. Don’t design the training first and then try to push it through at any cost, but identify the necessary areas for improvement first and built the training on it. Continue reading Training is a waste of time and money! →

Development

Changing the culture

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Changing the culture is the basic requirement for any enhancements or achievements. If you are aiming to improve your associate or guest satisfaction, reinforce you standards of excellence or improve your star ratings, the first step is to establish a culture with a mindset wanting to be the best at every turn.

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How exactly do you change a culture? Continue reading Changing the culture →

Leadership

Support is everything!

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At one of the hotels I worked at we faced the challenge of being consistent in how we assigned room upgrades to our guests, and were not in line with the directions of our loyalty program. We had over 70 percent of return guests and were giving upgrades left and right, not just to the next room category, but to junior suites and up as well. This not only reduced the feeling of being special and recognized when receiving upgrades, it also caused our guests to feel entitled to the upgrade and to complain whenever we could not accommodate them. Even more we were not able to up-sell any of our guests that were actually willing to pay for a nicer room. We had a change of GM’s and our new leader made it very clear from the beginning that we would honor the guidelines of our loyalty program in assigning upgrades, and even assigning very frequent guests to the rooms booked, and that we as managers would be expected to be consistent with this. As expected it was a bumpy start and we had to deal with plenty of unhappy guests for a couple of months. Many of them asked to speak to the Hotel Manager and General Manager to express their unhappiness and to complain about the individual providing the service and denying the upgrade. To our surprise the GM stayed consistent with the message given by his managers and front line staff, and supported us 100 percent. After a couple of months the guest complaints disappeared, guests started appreciating upgrades again, were giving us higher scores on guest satisfaction surveys and started to book suites at a higher rather than always hoping for an upgrade. Continue reading Support is everything! →

Leadership

The smoke screen!

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The difference between an effective and ineffective manager in addressing poor performance and holding people accountable is the ability to look right through the smoke screen to the root cause of the problem and to see things for what they are.

I remember my first real review, and I say real because it was the first time one of my supervisors actually took the time and invested the efforts to tell me things I did not want to hear, tell me that I was not perfect and the areas that I needed to improve and how I could do that with his help. Believe me I was able to give my boss tons of good reasons (and truly believed in them) for why I did things that way and how this was not my fault and so on… sounds familiar to you?

Well, my boss did not let go, kept pushing and went after me until I gave in. It took me a couple of days to truly understand and accept his feedback, and looking back, I will be forever thankful that he invested the energy to help me change and improve. Continue reading The smoke screen! →

Leadership

Put the ball through the hoop!

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‘Taking the basketball and putting it through the hoop’ is an equivalent of getting things done, making stuff happen, and taking action. Working in a hotel like in any other people’s business you can rest assured that many things are not going the right way and that people make mistakes every day. Amazingly, however, most are eager to tell you what’s wrong, how it is affecting your business, and seem to know exactly what you should be doing about it to correct it, rather than helping to get it right themselves. Imagine a coworker approaching you about a problem, how it came it to it, and what she is doing about it to solve it.

Ìÿ÷ è êîðçèíà‘Putting the ball through the hoop’ is not a skill set, it’s an attitude, and a mindset to be part of the solution, not the problem. It’s wanting to change things to the better and making a difference. It’s about delegating tasks, and holding people accountable to it.

I have heard my former boss telling me this about a thousand times at our weekly meetings, when I would tell him about the challenges in our department and what I believe that he/we should be doing about it. ‘Take the ball and put it through the hoop’ would be his response at the end of every meeting, and he would be very enthusiastic and excited about telling me the true meaning of it over and over again. It’s about taking action, and not just talking about it. It’s about making a decision, and not being afraid about making mistakes along the way.

Continue reading Put the ball through the hoop! →