Category: Year 2014

The design of guests positive experiences through the year just ended, showed to be the most effective tool for differentiating hotels by providing numerous competitive advantages in the market.

That’s why along 2014 the hotels must continue working to make the stay of their guests becomes an indelible mark left in their minds and hearts. However, in my opinion to achieve this, Hotels need to focus on four key perspectives to contribute to the success of design experience, these are:

1- Establish a culture of Guest Centric service type, based on a systematic guest interaction:

We the hoteliers must be on the same stage where the guests are so that we may minimizeblind, dumb and deaf areas in the Hotel. Thus, we must consider creating an adequate number of contact staff for turning every corner of the Hotel in a station of observation, listening and discussion with guests. This way we will increase the flow of information about them, being able to offer a more effective and efficient adjustment of the services to attend properly to their needs and make our distinguished guests feel understood.

2- Encourage the use of technological advances in the Hotel services.

The development of the media in the hotel services provides the ways and means of contact, interaction and search for information about the guest which leads to optimize resources and procedures to make the hotel-guest interaction faster, precise and innovative, generating positive emotions such as joy and surprise, (I want to emphasize that I am not supporter of replacing the human factor by technology in this interaction)

On the other hand, we should not forget the great impact of information technology on the management, distribution, and storage of the guest data that ensures holistic and sustainable character of this experience in the Hotel.

3- Strengthen the Internal marketing as the only way to solidify relations Hotel-Human Resources.

It has been shown that the differential factor par excellence of a Hotel resides in the human resources, so that hotels should continue making efforts to create propitious working atmosphere that stimulates the motivation of their teams.

Understand the real needs of their employees in order to achieve their satisfaction, will maximize the performance of each worker, which will induce to increase the degree of the guests satisfaction and therefore the longevity of their bonds with the Hotel. This will be reflected in a more empathetic noise at the Hotel, necessary to establish strong and lasting relationships with the guests.

4- The selection process of the hotel staff should consider the human and emotional skills.

Understanding is a key element in the design of experiences for guests, because the degree of satisfaction that the guest can experience will depend on this level of knowledge. The ability to understand human beings is related to intelligence, mostly emotional and cultural. Two human skills to which we must pay special attention during the selection process of the Hotel staff. We must not forget that the degree of emotional and cultural intelligence of Hotel employees, will determine our level of rivalry in the hotel market

In summary, the hotels have lots of efforts to do through this New Year, striving to continue offering guests a place where they can live the personal stories that have always longed for. Once this is achieved, the Hotel will settle not only in the minds and hearts of guests but also on the market.

Contemporary environment is characterized by a process of Economy globalization that has changed the ways of business competition. Globalization has put within the reach of any company the same competitive resources. The Hotel companies have seen their products and services turned into commodities, this way losing its distinctive ability…

This entails that Hotels are constantly searching for tools that offer competitive advantage difficult to imitate and be able to position itself in the market. As I mentioned in other articles, the Experiential Hospitality has proven to be a distinctive tool par excellence, since converting the stay of guests on positive holistic experiences makes the Hotels remain in their minds and hearts as indelible marks.

Successful Experiential Hospitality lies in considering that the distinctive determinant factor of Hotel  services is no more about “what it is offered ” but “how it is offered ” and  the impact it has  on the guests´ s emotional world ; all these determinants are closely related to one of the most important intangible assets of a Hotel: its Human Resources.

It has been shown that the performance of the Hotel staff during the execution of the services requested by guests increase their level of satisfaction and therefore, the degree of loyalty to the Hotel.

The degree of the Hotel staff performance excellence will depend largely on the ability to relate, communicate, share information, motivate, listen, and empathize with the guests  that is what we call today the soft skills of a person. They are very difficult to acquire for those who do not have them by nature, making them highly sought after by organizations.

Everyone working in this fascinating industry knows that the highest percentage of errors, and therefore   guest ´s  dissatisfaction rating, are not related to the technical aspects of our work but with those bound to our relational and human performance. 

Hospitality  is the industry of interactions par excellence, and precisely soft skills allow us to interact with guests in an effective manner, ensuring greater listening, observation, approaching and empathy skills. We will be able to get to know them more deeply offering services that meet their whishes, making them feel cherished and thus included, reaching desired emotional states.

The level and intensity of development of soft skills is unique and unrepeatable in each of us, but there are traits, characteristic and common in different types of culture and idiosyncrasies. This may explain why there are tourist destinations that stand out and therefore differ in terms of hotel performance excellence, offering unparalleled competitive advantage.

 

In summary I can say that soft skills are what make of hospitality a real difference in the hotel industry because they ensure the return of the guests in search of what it was for them a magical realism.

As an old marketing axiom says a company with happy employees represents a company with happy customers. If the Hotel is a good place to work, will then be a good place to stay and to be able to rely on the success of a well deserved holiday.

The Hospitality is an industry that, fortunately for those who work in it, is constantly booming. However, this growth makes the market sector, which offers all its products and associated services, has become one of the most competitive.

The above leads us to consider that the hoteliers should be focused on finding strategies that will enable them to differentiate themselves in the marketplace to attract the attention from their core customer, the guest. Many and varied have been the marketing strategies in promotional and advertising campaigns, mostly based on the quality of the hotel product and services.

Nevertheless, I want to refer to an essential factor for the achievement of the guest satisfaction who consumes the hotel products and all associated services, meaning, the result of the performance of the Hotel Human Resources, the Hotel staff.

Today it is known that a differentiating tool par excellence is the degree of experience that guests can reach during their stay at the Hotel. The scope of this level of experience will depend on the emotional impact that the products and services offered have provoked on the guests during their stay. The size of this trace is determined by the emotional bond created between the guest and the services provider, i.e. the Hotel employee.

Experiential Hospitality defines Hotel employee, first and foremost as an emotional being responsible for assisting other emotional being, thus paying special attention to the emotional condition of the Hotel staff. It is known that the environment and relationships influence the human emotional state and emotional states are contagious among us, meaning that if we have a happy staff, we will have happy guests.

That’s why I want to share with you some questions, such as: 

Why not use the degree of happiness of the Hotel staff as a marketing tool to promote and differentiate the Hotel on the market? 

Why not use the positive employee’s comments about the Hotel where they work, as a competitive advantage?

Why publish just the qualifications and positions of websites or companies whose data is based only on evaluations about products and services without taking into account those engaged to assess the labor atmospheres and climate as well?

Why not use the Hotel employees’ range of loyalty reflected in the amount of worked years for the same company, with unconditional commitment, consistency of service expressed by quality and even better, the soundness of their service culture? 

I remember once, I was attending a guest who needed to have his jacket ironed, and warned me that I ought to be very careful with it, since it was a very expensive garment, he immediately asked me for how many years I had been working in the company. Upon hearing my response he said:

“Now I feel more confident”

 

As an old marketing axiom says a company with happy employees represents a company with happy customers. If the Hotel is a good place to work, will then be a good place to stay and to be able to rely on the success of a well deserved holiday.