Key ingredients for success
Key Ingredient #1: Staffing and training
A hot topic these days, as many countries relying on tourism struggle to find and retain qualified staff. In this respect, France is an interesting case study: any given year the hotel and restaurant has anywhere between 150’000 to 200’000 positions left vacant. In 2021, when hotels and restaurant were finally able to reopen, the magazine L’Hôtellerie Restauration estimated 250’000 positions were unfilled.
Let’s have a look at the Key Ingredient #1 for success in luxury hotel management: staffing
A beautifully equipped hotel with a spa, the latest in-room technology, a fine dining restaurant, 24h room service are the must haves of any luxury hotel… rather easy to feature on the brochure or website. On the other hand, lack of staff, poorly or no trained personal, usually leads to unwelcoming and demotivated staff, probably not the best in terms of guest experience.
Staffing is the most important attribute of any luxury hotel or restaurant operation, it is also the most complex “mix” to achieve. Training and experience is only part of the equation. As written earlier, and I know most of my colleagues in the luxury hotel business agree with me: attitude prevails over skills.
A career in the luxury hotel business, which is highly demanding, is simply not suited for everyone. Let’s face it, accomplish a luxury service and exceed guests’ expectations is not an easy thing to achieve: it requires repetition, patience, learning through failure and a great amount of resilience. Every one of us has good and not so good days, but luxury hotel guests pay for a consistent high-quality service, regardless of the situation or the hour of the day. Individual attitude and predisposition therefore play an enormous role in achieving guest satisfaction.
Being open to others and their distinctive cultures, empathetic, with a built-in desire to please, not afraid to give a smile away even when under enormous pressure… basic attributes required for anyone wishing to succeed in the luxury hotel industry. And, let’s face it, AI will most certainly help many businesses to grow, but there are still many guests out there who will still want a real human interaction when spending hundreds of $ on a meal!
These points bring us to the subject of managing interviews of potential candidates: certain attributes have to be there, regardless of the number of years one has worked in 5-star hotel or palace, although it does have its importance too. Below is a non-exhaustive list, in order of importance,
- Honesty, integrity
- Impeccable grooming and personal presentation
- Well-developed communication skills
- Ability to work in multicultural teams
- Knowledge of different languages
- Highly developed memory skills, useful to remember repeat guests and greet them by their name
- Discretion, as guest contacts are numerous. Housekeeping staff, for example, should take great care when handling personal belongings in the guest’s room. The same could be said about restaurant waiters, who should keep a neutral distance when overhearing personal conversations
- Efficiency: possess a solution driven mind, is a required quality, when most of guest service is based on finding ways to resolve issues that inevitably arise during hotel stays
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Need advice and/or help with your staffing needs in your hotel or restaurant operation? recruitment strategies in the luxury hotel industry? Contact me today at biyahi@pm.me , or PM here
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Next week’s article : Key ingredient #2 : Facilities
