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).

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 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

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

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?

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

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.)