I Arrived in Hong Kong to work in my first five-star hotel in Asia in 1988, and was totally blown away, not only by the quality of the staff and services offered. Nonetheless, I thought that the quality of service could only improve as the industry developed and competition for supremacy in service quality standards intensified.
However, in spite of the huge, ever-growing demand for well-trained, experienced professionals to fuel the light speed development of hotels worldwide, I could not have been more wrong.
A lasting solution to the dwindling standards of service is needed; unless we do something now, we risk losing forever the valuable “old” standards. Hospitality is at the core of our industry, and that is what we should keep in mind when we open our doors to weary international travelers who trust their welfare to us during their stay, A clean, safe, friendly, professionally-run home-away-from-home environment – those are the minimum requirements for any international hotel, and what sets one business apart.
I would like to share an experience that I encountered when visiting a five-star hotel; I don’t mean to criticize – goodness knows, we all have problems – but I do think that it is time we addressed this important issue. It’s a funny story about a serious problem.
After calling the hotel ahead of time to organize my stay, I walked into the lobby after 10pm; I was tired and just wanted to shower and rest. On arriving at the desk, I offered my name and was surprised with the response – “Welcome home, Mr Saxon, we have been expecting you! What a pleasure it is to see you returning – your usual room is ready and your favourite fruits are awaiting your arrival. We have taken the liberty of placing some imported beer in the mini bar for you,” said the guy at the front desk, whose name tag proclaimed him as “Raymond”.
Now, this was the first time I would be staying in this hotel, so I thought this was rather peculiar – but then, I thought that maybe as I was a hotelier myself, they were taking special care of me.
“Let me escort you upstairs right away,” said Raymond, and as he marched on ahead, he signalled the bellboy to carry my large and rather heavy suitcase. I tried to convince them that I was able to carry my own case, but Raymond said, “Carry your own bag?! Absolutely not, we insist on transporting your luggage to your suite for you!”
The rather petite bellboy came running over; he wasn’t much bigger than my suitcase and I hoped that he wouldn’t get a double hernia trying to help me.
Something else occurred to me at this point and I enquired, “Excuse me, did you say ‘suite’?”
“It would be criminal to place a gentleman like your self anywhere other than in one of our finest suites,” he replied. At this point, I was very impressed with what was happening and a glimmer of hope was beginning to illuminate my slightly bleak outlook for the short-term industry service standards – this was to be very short-lived, however.
As we entered the elevator, Raymond whispered rather bashfully, “Your usual masseuse will be here in half an hour, Mr Saxon. We had problems locating Ms Fifi this time, as she changed establishments and failed to inform us,”
At that moment, I knew for sure that there was something seriously amiss.
“I think that you have me confused with somebody else – I never organised a massage from Fifi, or anyone else for that matter, and I have never stayed in your hotel before. And to be honest, I only booked a standard room,” I said.
I was becoming slightly irritated that he was not listening to me at all. As we exited the elevator on the top floor and sat down at the executive lounge express check-in, I thought I would give revealing my true identity another go.
“I believe that I am being confused with one of your regular and more important guests. This lounge is exquisite, but any second now, you’re going to realise I don’t actually belong here! I specifically booked a room on the lower floor, as I am scared of heights, you see,” I said.
The executive lounge manager looked at his reservation screen and said, “Your PA booked the top floor, sir, with a double bed, for your entire two-week stay”. I was only staying for three days, and as my factual input we being ignored yet again. I silently leaned back on the soft leather sofa and wondered what was going to happen next.
I was whisked away to a very large two-bedroom suite with a king-sized bed. There was Champagne in an ice bucket with two gleaming crystal flutes, a large tower of imported fresh fruits and a very large plasma television.
“Will there be anything else you require, Mr Saxon?” offered the very polite chap on his way out.
“Yes, just one thing – I noticed that there is a welcome letter by the huge pile of fruits,” I said.
“Yes sir, we always make our VIP guests as welcome as possible – guest recognition is our forte,” he replied
“Yes, one thing though …” I rejoined, “Who is Mr Jones?”
“Excuse me, sir?”
“Mr Jones – the name on the card is Mr Jones.”
The poor chap glanced at the card and swallowed deeply, saying, “Let me check on that, sir, and I will get back to you in a second.”
Being a hotelier myself, I sat down in an armchair, careful not to mess up the room setting, and watched the news.
Five minutes later, the duty manager arrived in the room to apologise on bended knees for checking me into the wrong room; my name had somehow been listed in the booking system as the managing director of a huge public listed trading company.
“Let me escort you to your room, Mr Saxon,” said the manager. As we were leaving, my luggage arrived. The bell staff placed it on the suite floor at my feet and then left.
“Will you require some assistance with your luggage, sir?”
I was astounded, and could not help saying, “You mean that you are not going to insist that you carry it for me?”
The manager went outside and squealed down the corridor to get the bell staff to come back. I was escorted to my “standard” room; however, I was very nicely upgraded to the executive floor, to a room which nonetheless had no fruit, not to mention a lack of Champagne on ice, and just a normal “old-fashioned” box television set.
“I guess that Fifi will not be coming then?” I enquired with a grin.
During the couple of days I stayed there, when entering the executive floor, the security asked me every question possible, CIA-style, to confirm my identity; on a different occasion, I walked past a staff member busy texting on their mobile phone, who didn’t even glance up once.
Overall, the hotel was fine and I enjoyed my stay, but I must say that I noticed a disconcerting slow trend in the industry. The days when you used to see the general manager hanging around the lobby for a couple of hours a day, talking to guests and enquiring about their comfort, is slowly disappearing as the industry becomes more focused on the bottom line. It is my belief that as we eventually come full circle, we will remember why we all entered the industry in the first place, and that without our valued customers, there would be no bottom line at all.
LOL! I love this story – especially the bit about Fifi.
We once stayed at the Lebua in Bangkok and almost wondered if some mistake had been made there too, but no mistake. We got the fruit, chocolates and a huge suite (almost twice the size of the one we’d paid for) all compliments of the house. Wow, what a place! Even without all the freebies, I’d love to go back there. (Gotta save my pocket money.)
Dear Kay,
I heard that the Lebua at State Tower was a great place, but have not managed to visit yet.
Some people have all the luck!
Hope to see you again soon.
Warm regards,
Mike
Michael
We were living in Lebanon and were on holidays in Jordan, it had been a tiring trip. We had had to taxi it from Beirut through Syria to Amman where we picked up a rental vehicle.
Petra had been fantastic, Wadi Rum … well there are no words to describe that place and we hit Aqaba, tired and grubby from a night in the desert.
In Aqaba we learned that Lebanese President Rafiq Harriri had been assasinated and this caused us considerable angst, would we have a job, what did the future hold, how were our friends, would we be able to get home the way we came in, through Syria (who were blamed for the assassination) and so on. The drama spoiled a pretty amazing holiday.
Worried considerably, we headed to Amman where we had booked a room at the Grand Hyatt Amman. I should point out that we booked it online and as it was off season we got it for $US50 per night, a good bargain, as it turned out an excellent bargain.
When we arrived the front office receptionist apologised that they did not have the no smoking room we had requested but would we accept a suite in place? Would we ever!!
When we checked into our suite we were blown away, this was bigger than the house we had lived in when we lived in Australia, there were televisions everywhere a couple of bathrooms and bedrooms.
The doorbell rang. Thinking the management had realised their mistake we opened it with some trepidation. There was a steward with a trolley that had the bowl of fruit and a complimentary bottle of wine. Querying this, we were told that anyone staying in a suite got this as standard.
We had a great time, we relaxed for the first time in a few days, had room service dinner (absolutely amazing) and really capped off our holiday.
The next day our taxi for Beirut did not arrive but that did not phase the staff they found a local company who would do the job for us and we eventually got back.
The point of this story is twofold, firstly, when we got back to Beirut we emailed the GM of the Grand Hyatt Amman and congratulated him, he responded by saying he had used that at a management meeting to thank his staff.
Secondly, and you need to know that my wife and I teach in international Universities, we have used that story in classes in Lebanon, Morocco and Kuwait when talking about the empowerment of staff. These Universities have very affluent students and we are sure the hotel has benefited from us using it with every student over the last four or five years.
Good service is the name of the game, deliver that and you will have satisfied customers, and remember that on average, people who go home having had a great holiday tell over 30 friends of their experience. If they have had a bad time they will tell nearly 50!!!
In the hospitality industry, satisfied customers and word of mouth are the most significant means of increasing business, and training is the best way of delivering satisfied customers.
I note you don’t name the hotel, but I bet you do to your friends and family.
A good piece thanks for sharing that I might even borrow it for my classes in the coming year (properly acknowledged to you of course).
Cheers
Robin
Dear Robin,
What a pleasure it is to have people like you visiting us here at Chef’s Tales.
Your story is also very interesting and I feel that as a community blog its great for us all to share stories that hopefully will help others.
Sincere thanks to you for sharing your story and please pass by with as many more as you want!
Sincere and warm regards,
Mike
I very much enjoyed this article. My husband and I were between homes in January and had to stay in numerous hotels in the interim. We found the variation in quality of stay and service quite shocking as we journeyed from hotel to hotel.
Generally, we found that the large US chain hotels were consistently and evenly horrible. We definitely felt like cogs in the corporate machine each time the person behind the desk handed us our plastic room key and uttered the disingenuous and robotic “enjoy your stay.” The smaller boutique hotels and inns far outperformed the large chains on hospitality, cleanliness and service. Of all of the places we stayed, one definitely outperformed all others, primarily because the people who owned the inn and their staff held themselves to high standards, took pride in their work, and went the extra mile to make their guests feel cared for and comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, they did not demean themselves or their staff in any way. They simply loved their work and the property and it showed.
Every hotel staff member should be trained to greet guests as courteously as Raymond greeted “Mr. Jones”. All guests may not be able to afford the luxury suite but their is no reason why staff should adjust their behavior for the affluent only. The degree to which a hotel can train it’s staff to maintain a superior level of courtesy and service for each and every guest, to me, is the mark of a good hotel.
I’m curious to get your insight. How much does training filter into the customer satisfaction equation?
Dear El,
Everything you have written here is echoed by me on a daily basis.
Many of the larger chained hotels today have started to completely concentrate on money rather that their customers.
What they don’t unfortunately realize is that without customers they won’t have any money
The smaller hotels and single owned units have to try much harder to get business as they are not cross sold internally by many other sister hotels and they normally do not have an international booking system or overseas sales offices.
I think this is the main reason why they have to try harder to ensure that they always survive.
Thanks for a great post and for dropping by…well done!
Warm regards,
Mike.
I had a good laugh reading this. Hilarious…
Always nice to hear “Welcome back Mr. Lee, we have your usual (Junior/Executive/Parkview/Seaview/Lakeview/Cityview) suite waiting for you”.
I had a fantastic stay at the Kämp Hotel in Helsinki. One of Europe’s finest (after Grande Bretagne in Athens, and Imperial in Vienna).